Breakers unveiled

Richard Dunn

The three-week tennis barnstorming tour that is World TeamTennis

will return to Newport Beach in July and feature Lindsay Davenport on

a part-time basis, as reported on multiple occasions by the Daily

Pilot before Thursday.

WTT chief executive officer Ilana Kloss, at a press conference at

the Hyatt Newporter with Davenport and WTT co-founder and director

Billie Jean King, announced the new franchise -- the team is called

the Breakers -- to an eclectic audience of about 75 inside a hotel

restaurant.

The team will play seven home matches at Palisades Tennis Club,

adjacent to the Hyatt Newporter, and seven road matches during the

regular season July 7-27, with the Western and Eastern conference

champions advancing to the WTT Finals on Aug. 23. The Newport Beach

Breakers are the 10th team in the league.

“This is for the long term. We’re not here for the short term. We

hope to be here well beyond my death,” said King, who will operator

as owner of the franchise, which was sold back to the league in 1994

by Fred Lieberman, who owned the Newport Beach Dukes from 1990

through ’94.

In that span, the Dukes were highly successful on the court --

they played at the same facility, when it was known as the John Wayne

Tennis Club -- but Lieberman and King didn’t always see eye to eye on

business issues and the WTT franchise folded after five years.

The Dukes reached the WTT championship match in 1992 and ‘93,

losing to Atlanta and Wichita, respectively. In ‘93, the Dukes

finished the regular season 14-0, becoming the first WTT franchise in

22 years to go unbeaten. The Dukes were Western Division champions

three straight years, including their final year, 1994, when their former coach, former UCI men’s tennis coach Greg Patton, guided his

new team, the Idaho Sneakers, to an upset victory in the WTT

semifinals.

The Dukes played mostly to sparse crowds at the old Wayne Club,

but sold out each time a marquee player was in town, like Jimmy

Connors or Martina Navratilova.

Andre Agassi, John McEnroe , Andy Roddick, James Blake and Mark

Philippoussis played in the league last summer, and Agassi, of the

Sacramento Capitals, is the WTT spokesperson and cover boy.

Kloss said the league “needed the right situation” to return to

Newport Beach, including working with a different club owner (Ken

Stuart).

“And, also, we wanted to wait until Lindsay had won 38 titles,”

Kloss quipped.

Davenport, a Palisades Club member, played for the New York Buzz

last year in WTT. New York traded its rights to Davenport to Newport

Beach for the Breakers’ first-round selection (fourth overall) in the

April 2 draft.

Davenport, however, the three-time Grand Slam singles champion and

1996 Olympic gold medalist, is scheduled to play only two home

matches for the Breakers.

“We don’t believe anything was done wrong (with the previous

franchise ownership in Newport Beach),” Kloss said. “We felt that in

order for a team to be successful, it needs sponsorships, but the key

thing is having a Lindsay Davenport to be the front person for the

team ... the goal is to have a marquee player on every team.”

Davenport’s longtime former coach, Robert Van’t Hof of Newport

Beach, is expected to be named coach of the Breakers later this month

by club general manager Lisa Fortman. Van’t Hof is head pro emeritus

at Palisades and directs youth programs there. Davenport is now

coached by Rick Leach, her future brother-in-law. She has plans to

marry former USC All-American Jon Leach this year.

“I’m very excited to be playing on the team, because I lived here

(in Newport Beach) for eight or nine years,” said Davenport, a Laguna

Beach resident.

Davenport originally started playing WTT in 1993 for the Capitals,

who were coached by Van’t Hof, who had began coaching the young

Davenport and “dragged” her to Sacramento that summer, she said.

“It’s always a wonderful time as a player,” Davenport said of

playing WTT, in which she has played six seasons. “Every point means

something. It’s a totally different atmosphere.”

King, who grew up in Long Beach, and Larry King originated World

TeamTennis and its gender-equity team concept in the early 1970s. The

format used for a WTT match features team comprised of two men, two

women and a coach. Each match consists of five sets, with one set

each of men’s and women’s singles, men’s and women’s doubles and

mixed doubles.

Season ticket packages, which start at $230, are available through

the Breakers office. For more information on the new Newport Beach

franchise or for ticket information, call (949) 916-6682.