Mattek-sands and Kenin win for Team Peace at Charleston
CHARLESTON: After six days of play at the Credit One Bank Invitational, which brought 16 WTA stars to Charleston for a non-wta exhibition team tournament, Bethanie Mattek-sands and Sofia Kenin delivered the clinching victory.
The American pair secured Team Peace an insurmountable lead in overall points with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Team Kindness’ Amanda Anisimova and Victoria Azarenka in the third of five matches on Sunday afternoon.
With each match win worth three points for each team on the afternoon, Team Peace needed just two wins to seal the tournament, having entered the day with a 20-13 lead in the standings.
“I was trusting them to do their thing. Everyone came here ready to win. I think everyone missed being competitive,” Mattek-sands said after her final doubles match.
“Even though this was a team event and it’s not something we’re used to, I think we had a lot of fun.”
Sunday’s slate of matches was meant to consist of doubles matches exclusively, but the day began in earnest with Shelby Rogers beating Mattek-sands in singles action, 7-5, 7-5, in a match that was held over from Saturday night due to heavy rain.
As doubles play began, Team Peace was quick off the mark, with Eugenie Bouchard and Jennifer Brady sweeping aside Team Kindness captain Madison Keys and Alison Riske in straight sets, 6-3, 6-2.
Brady, who scored singles victories over Victoria Azarenka and Sloane Stephens over the course of the week, and also partnered Emma Navarro to beat Riske and Rogers in doubles.
KYRGIOS HITS OUT AT ZVEREV: Australian Nick Kyrgios has hit out at Alexander Zverev after a video appeared to show the German dancing at a crowded club on Sunday despite the world No. 7 pledging last week he would be self-isolating.
The video was posted on Instagram by German designer Philipp Plein and later deleted. There was no indication when the video was taken.
Zverev’s team have yet to respond to request for comment. Zverev, 23, took part in Novak Djokovic’s Adria Tour exhibition event in Serbia and Croatia where Djokovic, Grigor Dimitrov, Borna Coric and Viktor Troicki all tested positive for the novel coronavirus last week.