Anna Pouts in Justin's Presence

Over the past few weeks, I've been spending more than a few evenings in downtown Washington to take in a couple of matches of Washington's entry into World Team Tennis, the Washington Kastles. As I wrote a few weeks back, it's a fun experience, and now that the regular season has come to an end, I have to say I'm going to miss it.

That's why I made sure to budget some time last night to take in the last match of the regular season against the St. Louis Aces. Taking time to see the Aces meant having a chance to watch Anna Kournikova, something I didn't want to miss. Better yet, this would be the one opportunity to see Kournikova on the same court as Justin Gimelstob, the member of the Kastles who ran off the rails a couple of weeks back while attacking Kournikova while trying to drum up some publicity for the league.

So what happened? While everyone was watching, not much. But once the match was delayed by a violent Washington thunderstorm and the festivities were moved elsewhere after most of the crowd opted to go home, then the real fireworks began.

Earlier in the day at a lightly attended press conference, Kournikova twice refused to answer any questions about Gimelstob. Later, the media people who work for the Kastles assured us that Gimelstob and Kournikova wouldn't be facing off in the mixed doubles portion of the evening.

The closest the two ever came to even looking the other's way was during player introductions. With Kournikova and her St. Louis teammates already on the court, Gimelstob was the last member of the Kastles to be introduced. If Kournikova had any reaction, I didn't see it.

Things were clicking along at a nice pace when the skies opened up and we were hit with a typically violent Summer thunderstorm. After about a 45 minute delay while we all huddled under a massive tent, the match was moved to Hains Point, where an indoor tennis bubble had been set up in case of this eventuality.

Which is when most of the folks, thinking Anna and Justin weren't going to play anyway, decided to go home. But in the heat of the moment, the folks at WTT decided to add a little drama, and with Washington trailing 0-1 in the mixed doubles portion of the evening, the Kastles removed Scott Oudesma in favor of Gimelstob.

Here's what one observer told my friend Tim Lemke at the Washington Times:

"We were seated just a few feet from her -- she used the expression 'f word' and 'horse's rear' a number of times, served to him underhand, and didn't even try to play the match - a shame for her partner who probably would have liked the win in his column."

So, how accurate could that report be? Probably 100 percent spot on, considering that the bubble at Hains Point is not exactly a giant venue. While the rain was coming down and we were all still in the tents, Kastles owner Mark Ein urged us all to come to Hains in part because the temporary stands were so close to the players that you were virtually on top of them.

It would have been fun to see. It's too bad -- for both the fans and the league -- that more people didn't. As to why the WTT didn't think to pull their switch early on with the clear threat of rain in the forecast, I guess we'll never know.