WTT Orange County Breakers

Newport Beach Breakers Fall to Sacramento Capitals

July 13, 2010 - World TeamTennis (WTT)
Orange County Breakers News Release


The Newport Beach Breakers' seven-match winning streak against the Sacramento Capitals dating back to 2008 ended at the most inopportune time Monday night as the Breakers' lost not only the match, 25-18, but the chance to move into sole possession of first place in the Western Conference of the World TeamTennis (WTT) Pro League presented by GEICO.

Newport Beach (3-3) failed to win a single set on Monday, giving the Wayne Bryan-coached Capitals the magic number 25 games, the maximum number a team can earn in a match at The Tennis Club Newport Beach.

Men's singles player Lester Cook, who had won four consecutive singles matches coming into Monday including three in the last three nights, fell in the final match to Dusan Vemic, 5-4 (5-3 in the tiebreaker).

It must have felt somewhat like a home match for the Capitals, who like the Breakers are now 3-3 on the season. The team has all kinds of Southern California connections, including their coach. Camarillo's Bryan is in his ninth season as Sacramento's coach and called the Breakers the league's best team. "We think Newport Beach is the best team in the league," said Bryan, who led the Capitals to the 2007 WTT championship and was the league's Coach of the Year from 2004-2006. "They are the best-coached team. We knew we'd have our hands full after they beat us twice to open the season."

Long Beach native Vania King and former UCLA All-American Riza Zalameda teamed to beat Marie-Eve Pelletier and Julie Ditty 5-3 in women doubles in the fourth match to give Sacramento a 20-14 lead.

For the Breakers it was their fourth match in five nights as they travel to Sacramento to face the Capitals (3-3) for the fourth time this season tonight (Tuesday).

Both Bryan and Breakers fourth-year Breakers' coach Trevor Kronemann cited the match's third game as the key. "We were down love-two and love-40 in the men's doubles," Bryan said. "And came back and won it. That was huge for us."

From there, the Capitals went up 4-2 and never looked back. "I think that was one of the turning points right out of the chute," Kronemann said. "I think we were a little bit tired, a little beat up tonight. We got in from Springfield this morning around 2:30 a.m. Hats off to Sacramento. They want to stay in the hunt and stay in the race and they did that tonight."

The middle match of the night - mixed doubles - proved to be the most exciting of the night as the Breakers' Marie-Eve Pelletier and Cook took on King and Vemic. Trailing 10-7 entering the match, the Breakers cut the deficit to 12-10 on a long point finally won by Cook-Pelletier after Pelletier hit a net cord that crawled over the net on a 3-all deciding game point to give the Breakers a 3-2 lead in the set.

"We think we could have won each set tonight but we didn't win any," said Pelletier, who along with Ditty beat King and Zalameda 5-1 last Tuesday night. "That's how close it was. I just think we were a little tired from all the travel. We just have to be a little more aggressive. We will get our revenge on Tuesday night."

Both Vemic and King used their big-matches experience to come back and win the set in a close tiebreaker 5-4. Vemic, from Croatia who turned pro in 1995, was a doubles semifinalist at the 2010 Australian Open with Ivo Karlović and has also been to the French Open semis and the U.S. Open quarterfinals in doubles. King is coming off a big Wimbledon doubles victory earlier this month.



World TeamTennis Stories from July 13, 2010


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