By Nick Georgandis

A clash of the elite, a Texas shootout and an absolute shocker were on tap Wednesday night in WTT action, as one conference race heated up while the other cooled off with the end of the regular season just one week away.

In a battle between the two teams with the best records entering Wednesday night, the Washington Kastles reasserted themselves as the premier team in WTT with a 21-15 victory over the Springfield Lasers.

Newly-unretired Martina Hingis led the way with a 5-2 victory over Alisa Kleybanova in women's singles and combined with Leander Paes to defeat Kleybanova and Jean-Julien Rojer in mixed doubles, 5-2. The loss dropped Springfield to 5-3 and back into the muddled mix in the Western Conference, where three teams are within one-half game of the lead, and the squad in last is only two games out of first.

Washington, meanwhile, took a commanding two-match lead on second-place New York after the Sportimes were utterly shocked by the Philadelphia Freedom, 21-16. It was just the second win of the season for Philadelphia, which entered the match with a 1-6 record. The loss was a major blow to the conference title hopes for New York, which fell to 4-4.

In the late match Wednesday night, the first-year Texas Wild continued to impress, defeating the Sacramento Capitals 22-19 on the road.
Brothers Bob and Mike Bryan provided the winning margin in an otherwise tense match. The brothers teamed up to win the men's doubles point 5-3, and Bob combined with Eugenie Bouchard to take the clinching 5-3 win in mixed doubles in a match that lasted more than two hours.

The victory moved Texas to 5-4, a half-game behind Orange County and Springfield for the Western Conference lead. Sacramento is now 3-5 and is in serious danger of missing the post-season after coming within two points of the title a year ago.

Thursday's Schedule
Sacramento at Springfield, 7:05 p.m.
Orange County at New York, 7:30 p.m.