Charleston, USA, 19 September 2012 | Tennis Australia

Anastasia Rodionova has formed part of the winning Washington Kastles team which claimed a thrilling victory in the recent World Team Tennis (WTT) Finals.

The Kastles’ 20-19 victory over the Sacramento Capitals in Charleston, South Carolina completed a perfect 16-0 season for the Washington team in 2012, carrying on from their undefeated 2011 season and giving them their third WTT crown in the past four years.

Rodionova combined with teammate Venus Williams to win their women’s doubles rubber 5-1 against the Captials’ Asia Muhammad and Yasmin Schnack.

Williams then returned to court to beat Coco Vandeweghe in a tiebreak in the decisive women’s singles rubber, with scores locked at 15-15 going into the final set.

WTT was co-founded in 1974 by Billie-Jean King, with the co-ed teams comprising a mixture of top professional players and those competing at ITF or collegiate level.

Matches feature men’s and women’s singles sets, men’s and women’s doubles sets, and a mixed doubles set, with coaches deciding at the beginning of the match the order in which the sets will be played.

Game scores from each first-to-five game set are tallied to determine the winning team.

Making up the Kastles team is Rodionova, Williams, Arina Rodionova, Leander Paes, Bobby Reynolds, Raquel Kops-Jones and coach Murphy Jensen.