Breakers win pretty

NEWPORT BEACH — Anna Kournikova was predictably the show Wednesday night at the Newport Beach Breakers’ home match against the St. Louis Aces.

Heads turned no matter what the Russian-born starlet, who won two Grand Slam doubles titles in her career, was doing.

But, as the match went on at Breakers Stadium at Newport Beach Country Club, it became clear which team was better. When Kournikova took the court for mixed doubles, the last set of the night, her Aces’ chances were about as slender as Kournikova herself.

The Breakers won four sets and cruised to a 23-14 win before a near-capacity crowd. Following Monday’s victory over Sacramento, it’s the first time that Newport Beach (4-5) has strung together two straight wins all season.

With five matches remaining, the Breakers are just a half-match behind Springfield (5-5) for World Team Tennis’ second Western Conference playoff spot. The top two teams in each conference, plus one wild-card team, advance to the playoffs.

However, Coach Trevor Kronemann said the Breakers can’t finish tied with Springfield, since the Lasers won more total games, 37-35, in the teams’ two head-to-head meetings.

“We have to get one match in front of them,” Kronemann said. “When Angelika [Bachmann] hurt her knee, we had to give them three games. Somehow, we’ll have to sneak in front of them … We can still go 9-5. That’ll get it done [to make the playoffs]. I don’t think 8-6 will get it done … We know what we have to do. In the second half of the season, we’re 2-0, so we’re moving forward.”

It was a solid effort for the Breakers against last-place St. Louis (1-8). Ramon Delgado started it off in men’s singles, improving to 7-2 on the year with a 5-3 victory over Uladzimir Ignatik. Ignatik, an 18-year-old from Belarus, has been one of top juniors in world, winning the French Open juniors last year and making it to the Wimbledon finals.

The Breakers’ Lilia Osterloh and Michaela Pastikova then kept it going in women’s doubles, with a 5-1 victory over Kournikova and Jasmin Woehr.

After Delgado and Newport Beach native Kaes Van’t Hof picked up their fourth straight men’s doubles win, 5-2 over Ignatik and Travis Rettenmaier, the Breakers were cruising with a 15-6 advantage.

Van’t Hof, who won the NCAA men’s doubles championship this year with USC partner Robert Farah, is used to doubles excellence. But he and Delgado lost their first five men’s doubles sets of the year before their current run.

“I’ve been playing with the same partner [Farah] for two years,” Van’t Hof said. “I’m used to him. [But] Ramon makes a ton of returns, and we’ve figured out how to hold each other’s serves better. We’re just overall playing better. When we make returns, it puts pressure on the other team, and we end up getting free points off our serves.”

Osterloh, making her third and final substitute appearance for the Breakers, lost the fourth set to St. Louis’ Jelena Pandzic, 5-3. But Van’t Hof and Osterloh finished it off in mixed doubles, where they toppled Kournikova and Rettenmaier, 5-3.

Van’t Hof had a chance to pound a shot right at Kournikova at one point, but went for a lob instead.

“You don’t want to be on Kournikova’s bad side,” Van’t Hof said laughing after the match, as her longtime boyfriend Enrique Iglesias’ song, “Hero,” played in the background. “With Enrique in the background? I’m not here to make enemies.”

Newport Beach is on the road for its next two matches, at the New York Sportimes on Friday and at Boston on Saturday. The Breakers return home for a match against Boston, featuring tennis legend Martina Navratilova, on Monday night.

On Tuesday night, the Breakers welcome the Sportimes, featuring John McEnroe, in their home finale.

“We’re starting to get on a little bit of a roll here,” Kronemann said. “Lilia has played well. As I’ve said all along for 19 years, the ladies win it or lose it for you every night. That sounds like a lot of pressure, but it’s just the facts. The gals have picked it up, and our men’s doubles picked it up.”

MATT SZABO may be reached at (714) 966-4614 or by e-mail at [email protected].