Breakers win; semis are next

NEWPORT BEACH ? Thursday night’s World Team Tennis wild-card showdown was the kind of match Newport Beach Breakers Coach Dick Leach had in mind for his team going into the season.

Better late than never.

Pete Sampras’ first playoff appearance for the Breakers was fruitful, if not debilitating, and Anastassia Rodionova was the workhorse of the night. It all led to a 23-18 Breakers victory in overtime over the Springfield Lasers at Palisades Tennis Club.

The victory propels the Breakers, who received an automatic bid into the playoffs before the season by virtue of being the host team for the postseason, into Saturday’s semifinals.

The Breakers (7-8) will take on the Sacramento Capitals (10-4) Saturday at 3 p.m.

Sacramento swept both regular-season meetings with the Breakers by identical 20-17 scores.

The New York Sportimes (10-4) face the Philadelphia Freedoms (8-6) in the other semifinal Saturday at 7 p.m. The winner of each semifinal moves to the championship match Sunday at 1 p.m.

You can’t blame the Lasers (8-7) if they were a little weary. Their regular-season finale on Wednesday night started three hours late because technical problems with their plane left them stranded in Detroit until Lasers’ owner John Cooper had a private plane pick them up. The Lasers didn’t finish their home match with Boston until after midnight. Then today they had to fly to Newport Beach.

Springfield was the home team by virtue of having the better record and got to choose the order of the sets.

After Victoria Azarenka, named the Female Rookie of the Year before the match, and partner Andreea Vanc defeated Rodionova and Tina Krizan, 5-4, in women’s doubles to open the night, most everything else went the Breakers’ way.

Sampras took on the Lasers’ Nick Monroe in the second set of the night and showed flashes of what made him a 14-time Grand Slam champion.

Looking relaxed while mouthing the words to Pearl Jam songs between points, Sampras won the first game on a 124-mph ace.

His serve got as fast as 127 mph and had the fleet-footed Monroe lunging and reaching. Sampras still had a little trouble returning serves. A Monroe ace tied the set, 4-4, to force a tiebreaker, which Sampras dominated.

Monroe sent a Sampras serve into the net as Sampras won the tiebreaker, 5-1, to capture the set, 5-4.

Sampras also helped get the Breakers out to a 2-0 lead in men’s doubles with partner Ramon Delgado before Rick Leach subbed in for him.

Sampras sat on the bench with an ice pack on the back of his left knee while Delgado and Leach went on to a 5-1 set win, giving the Breakers a 14-10 lead after three sets.

Sampras said he tweaked his hamstring. After the match, he was listed as questionable for Saturday’s semifinal.

Rodionova took it from there. She teamed with Leach in mixed doubles to defeat Alex Vlaski and Vanc, 5-2. A Rodionova ace and a Leach volley helped the set off.

Rodionova blew a 3-1 lead over Vanc in women’s singles, but won the second overtime game to end the match.