TEAMTENNIS : Dukes Edge Vail, 25-23, Face Atlanta for Title

The Newport Beach Dukes overcame losses in three of five sets to defeat the Vail Eagles, 25-23, in the World TeamTennis West Division final Thursday night at Vail, Colo.

“It was like playing the Martians on Mars,” Dukes Coach Greg Patton said. “I’m in ecstasy. This match was a roller coaster ride where the foundation was shaking the whole time. But somehow, we made it through it.”

The victory puts the Dukes into Saturday’s championship match against the Atlanta Thunder, 30-22 winners over the Tampa Bay Action on Thursday in the East Division final. Atlanta, the defending league champions who are led by Martina Navratilova, is 28-3 over the past two seasons and will have the home-court advantage.

Ronnie Bathman and Rikard Bergh were the keys to the match for the Dukes, teaming for a 6-2 victory over Scott Davis, a Newport Beach resident, and David Pate in the match’s third set as the Dukes took a 16-11 lead at intermission.

“The Swedes were the franchise,” Patton said. “They played so well. They were speaking so much Swedish, I knew something was up. They usually speak English, but when they speak Swedish, it means they’re nervous.

“We had to say to them, ‘Would you keep speaking English to us?’ They didn’t even know they were speaking Swedish. So I knew they were on a mission. They were on a mission, like the Blues Brothers from Stockholm.”

Bergh then lost to Pate, 6-5 (5-3), in men’s singles, but exceeded Patton’s goal of winning four games.

In the mixed doubles, Amy Frazier and Bathman trailed Sandy Collins and Scott Davis, 4-1, when Bergh replaced Bathman. With both teams remaining on serve, Vail went on to a 6-3 victory.

That made the score 24-23 and forced the match into overtime. (Under TeamTennis rules, if the trailing team wins the final set, the match continues until it is tied or the leading team wins one game.)

Bergh then held serve to give the Dukes the victory.

Sandy Collins and Lori McNeil, who were second in women’s doubles winning percentage during the regular season, gave the Eagles the early lead with a 6-4 victory over Frazier and Lise Gregory. Frazier then put the Dukes ahead with a 6-3 triumph over McNeil.

“Amy got that look in her eyes that . . . I’d hate to ever make her mad when she has that look,” Patton said. “They lost the doubles and she was upset.

“(Then in the singles), she went out there and played brilliantly. She hit the ball soft. She’s been hitting bullets all year, but tonight, she tossed a poison water balloon there and she totally changed her game because of the altitude. Once she laid into the ball, the ball would be out, so she resolved to just keep the ball into play and keep her first serves in to keep Lori off the net.”