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WTT Orange County Breakers

Breakers Improve To 3-2 At Home

July 21, 2010 - World TeamTennis (WTT)
Orange County Breakers News Release


Three-time Grand Slam singles champion, former World No. 1 and 22-time WTA Tour singles champ Maria Sharapova was the headlining act as she returned to play for the Newport Beach Breakers in the World TeamTennis Pro League presented by GEICO for the only time this season at The Tennis Club Newport Beach. However, the Breakers' last act stole the show.

Marina del Rey resident Lester Cook and Huntington Beach's David Martin fended off three match points against and rescued a 19-18 supertiebreaker win over the Kansas City Explorers on Tuesday while rallying the team to win on the last point of the match.

Cook and Martin evened the match at 18-18 after regulation and put the Breakers (5-7) into their first supertiebreaker of the season. Kansas City (7-5) lost two match points on two unforced errors by Ricardo Mello to even the tiebreak at 6-6. That meant the winner of the next point would win the match, and the Breakers triumphed when Samuel Groth's volley went long. In WTT, tiebreakers can be decided by a point.

"We knew what had to be done. Lester and I were hoping all year that we'd have one come down to a supertiebreaker because it's so exciting and we get along so well," Martin said. "That was fun. Definitely, a great thing about World TeamTennis is that it can come down to the last point and you don't see that on the regular tour. It's nice to beat one of the best teams in the league. We owed them."

Added Breakers coach Trevor Kronemann: "We've been waiting all season for something to come out of men's doubles. We've been ahead in so many matches there. Luckily, we got away with one at the end."

Sharapova, in her sixth season with the Breakers and a member of the Breakers' last WTT championship team in 2004, played her first competitive match since she was at Wimbledon a month ago. With her trademark force in her serving and groundstrokes and grunting, she had the attention of the crowd, which included Los Angeles Lakers guard and two-time NBA champion Sasha Vujacic, sitting courtside.

"This is a great part of the year for me, and I love starting off the year coming and playing a match at World TeamTennis to get the summer rolling and the hardcourt season," said Sharapova, who lives in Manhattan Beach. "It's so close to my house. It's just a drive away. I get to come here, and, you know, have a great warmup before I start playing tournaments. The format is fun. You're part of a team.

"I've had a friendship with (WTT co-founder and Breakers co-owner) Billie Jean King for many years. This is something that she started and something that's so close to her heart. So to be part of this, and also something that I've been part of for many years, you know, to support Billie Jean King, it's always great."

The Explorers' husband-wife tandem of Samuel and Jarmila Groth proved to be too powerful for the Breakers to handle for much of the match. The couple opened the match with a 5-3 mixed doubles win. The Groths won all three mixed doubles sets they played against the Breakers this season.

The Breakers rebounded through Sharapova, ranked No. 15 in the world, and Marie-Eve Pelletier to even the match at 8-8 with their 5-3 women's doubles victory. Then, the Breakers took their first lead of the night at 13-10 as Cook won his third men's singles set in four meetings against Ricardo Mello by a 5-2 count.

Sharapova then took the court in singles and looked to extend the Breakers' lead, but Jarmila Groth was powerful and precise in a 5-0 set win. Groth took three of four singles sets against the Breakers this season.



World TeamTennis Stories from July 21, 2010


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