WTT Orange County Breakers

Newport Beach Breakers Fall For First Time This Season

Published on July 10, 2010 under World TeamTennis (WTT)
Orange County Breakers News Release


NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. - The visiting Kansas City Explorers led by Team Groth handed the Newport Beach Breakers their first defeat of the season, 25-15, in a World TeamTennis (WTT) Pro League match presented by GEICO on Friday night at The Tennis Club Newport Beach.

The married couple of Samuel and Jarmila Groth had a hand in all four wins for the Explorers, who played their fourth match in four nights and evened their record to 2-2. Newport Beach's Lester Cook was the only Breaker who could break through for a win as he won the night's final match, 5-4, against Ricardo Mello.

"My goal was to win 11 straight games," said Cook of the 20-10 deficit his team held heading into the final match. "We came out flat that was all. We played them tough at the end with those three 5-4 matches. We'll see them tomorrow and we'll play better. We just came out of the gates a little slow tonight."

Marina del Rey's Cook was the hero in Tuesday's 20-18 come-from-behind win over Sacramento that gave the Breakers an early 2-0 start to the season.

"We came out flat and they just got all the breaks," said Trevor Kronemann, the Breakers fourth-year coach. "Sam Groth just played incredible for them tonight. He had all the energy and all the emotion. Hats off to them. They were too good. The good news is we get them three more times starting tomorrow night."

The Explorers opened the match with a 5-2 victory in mixed doubles thanks to the huge serving of Samuel Groth, who didn't lose a point on his rocket 135 mph serve taking eight straight during his two service games as he and his wife Jarmila beat David Martin and Marie-Eve Pelletier.

Shortly before celebrating their one-year anniversary in February, the Groths played the Australian Open together where they won a round in the mixed doubles competition. In fact, Groth, from Melbourne, was cited at the Aussie Open for his serve recording the fastest one of the tournament at 143 mph.

Jarmila, who has been to the third round in singles at both the French and U.S. Opens, was born in Slovakia and played under her maiden name of Gajdosova until she got married. She beat Julie Ditty 5-4 on Friday night in singles and also teamed with Kveta Peschke to down Ditty and Pelletier, 5-0, to give the Explorers an early 10-2 lead.

The highlight of the night for Breakers fans who came out on Junior Night was definitely the Cook match. Cook, who lost to Michael Chang 5-4 in the team's opener, played with high-energy and intensity in opening up a 4-1 lead before the lefty Mello charged back into the set. Mello is a former Top 50 player who has won 14 Challenger-level tournaments in singles (11) and doubles (three).

"Lester's playing great," Kronemann said. "We have four nights in a row coming up and eight matches over nine days. It's a big trip for us. We have to come out of it 2-2 or 3-1 just to stay in the hunt."

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World TeamTennis Stories from July 10, 2010


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