Davenport & Co. just a matter of timing

The e-mail came at a funny time of the week ... but a media

advisory arrived Friday afternoon which seems to further cement the

notions of Daily Pilot tennis columnist Richard Dunn that a Newport

Beach entry in the World Team Tennis scene is about to become

reality.

What’s so funny? I can’t find Rich, he has the day off.

Dunn, whose column of Jan. 21, suggested an unnamed franchise

would claim Palisades Tennis Club as home and would be competing in

the July 7-27 portion of the calendar, with Lindsay Davenport the

featured headliner, among other notions, and all of this would be

forthcoming with a revelation on Feb. 6, appears to be quite a bit

more than simple speculation.

The media advisory states tennis legend Billie Jean King, Grand

Slam champion Lindsay Davenport and World Team Tennis CEO Ilana Kloss

will discuss the WTTs return to Southern California.

They’ll make their revelations at the Hyatt Newport Hotel, within

sight of Ken Stuart’s Palisades Tennis Club, also known as the home

away from home for Lindsay and her former longtime coach, Robert

Van’t Hof.

The World Team Tennis format isn’t entirely new to Newport Beach,

we had the Newport Beach Dukes around here from 1990 to ’94 and it

was interesting, to say the least.

A better one-word description would probably be “tumultuous,”

thanks to a team owner who always had some sort of surprise going

around the “John Wayne Tennis Club,” which later would become

Palisades TC.

This time around it would seem there would be a much better

footing at the top with such entities as Billie Jean King and Ken

Stuart holding court, although the format is pretty much the same.

Tennis legends competing on a team basis, with two men’s singles,

two women’s singles and a mixed doubles.

High school and intercollegiate tennis, of course, operates under

the team theory, and for sheer entertainment, the only thing better

in tennis comes in singles at the top, and singles at the top becomes

rather selective.

The “home” edge in sports is never more obvious than in the WTT,

where the home crowd surely outnumbers the invaders by a 100-1 ratio.

You can see the Sooners’ edge, or Buckeyes’ edge, or Huskies’ edge,

without leaving the city limits.

Dunn suggests the two men on the Newport Beach entry could be

local heroes Rick Leach (Laguna Beach) and former Corona del Mar High

standout Taylor Dent. I’m pulling for Andre Agassi.

I know the league has a number of solid members with plenty to

boast of, but it’s hard to imagine a better setup than the Palisades

Tennis Club, Lindsay Davenport and the community of Newport Beach.

So what don’t we know?

For one, the team’s name, which even Rich hasn’t been able to

uncover.

How about the Newport Beach Breakers?

I don’t have more to offer on this, I can’t find Rich.

But you’ll know plenty more come Friday morning.