Breakers fall flat in final
The Orange County Breakers were unable to achieve what their nickname would suggest in Friday’s World Team Tennis title match.
The Breakers are league runner-up after falling behind early and losing to the San Diego Aviators, 25-14, at the West Side Tennis Club in Forest Hills, N.Y.
San Diego won each of the first four sets of mixed doubles, women’s singles, men’s doubles and women’s doubles by identical 5-2 scores en route to its first World Team Tennis title as the Aviators. The franchise, which relocated from New York to San Diego in 2014, did win league titles in 2005 as the New York Sportimes and 2008 as the New York Buzz.
The Breakers, a Newport Beach-based franchise that returned to Orange County this season after two years in Austin, Texas, were vying for their second title in franchise history and first since 2004.
The Breakers and Aviators split their four regular-season matches, each winning twice at home, but San Diego dominated on Friday in the title match. Orange County failed to convert any of its six break-point chances in the match, while San Diego was six for six in those opportunities. The Aviators also won all five of the three-all game points in the match.
The Breakers’ Dennis Novikov beat the Aviators’ Ryan Harrison, 5-4, in the final set of men’s singles to send the match into extended play. Novikov was faced with the unlikely task of winning 11 straight games to send the match into a decisive super-tiebreaker.
Novikov held serve in the first game of extended play to pull the Breakers within 24-14, but Harrison, the WTT Male MVP, then held serve to end the match. It was a busy day for Harrison. Earlier Friday, he beat Henri Laaksonen of Switzerland, 6-3, 6-2 in the third round of U.S. Open qualifying to advance to the main draw for the seventh straight year.
San Diego, which had the regular-season tiebreaker over the Breakers because the Aviators had more total games won, was able to choose the order of play. The Aviators started strong in mixed doubles, as Raven Klaasen and Darija Jurak topped Alla Kudryavtseva and Scott Lipsky, 5-2.
The Aviators’ Shelby Rogers then beat Nicole Gibbs of the Breakers, the WTT Female MVP, by the same score in women’s singles.
After another 5-2 victory by Harrison and Klaasen over Lipsky and Novikov in men’s doubles, San Diego held a commanding 15-6 edge at halftime.
Jurak and Rogers beat Gibbs and Kudryavtseva, who were the top-ranked WTT women’s doubles team in the regular season, before Novikov earned Orange County’s lone set victory.
Klaasen, who has played for the Aviators in all three of their seasons in San Diego, was named the World Team Tennis Finals MVP.
Orange County Breakers players earned a $3,000 bonus for making the final, while Aviators players earned a $5,000 bonus for winning the title.
The Breakers, coached by Newport Beach resident Rick Leach, made the final last year as the Austin Aces before losing to the Washington Kastles. The team also made the final in 2005 and 2006 as the Newport Beach Breakers, losing both times.
Orange County went 8-4 in the regular season, clinching a WTT final berth with two matches to go after beating the New York Empire on the road on Aug. 11. The team was a perfect 6-0 at home at the Newport Beach Tennis Club.
— Matt Szabo
— Matt Szabo
