World TeamTennis’ Blase Style Troubles Dukes Owner : Future: Lieberman cannot wait for season to begin, but he wonders what lies ahead for the league.

NEWPORT BEACH —  The World TeamTennis season can’t start soon enough for Fred Lieberman, the enthusiastic owner of the Newport Beach Dukes.

Ticket sales are running 30% ahead of last year, local and regional sponsorship income is up, Zina Garrison-Jackson, one of the biggest names in women’s tennis, has signed to play half the season, and the team will be playing its biggest match of the season--against Jimmy Connors’ Phoenix Smash--in Anaheim Arena.

Lieberman, in his fourth season as the Dukes’ owner, only wishes he was as excited about the future of team tennis.

“Where is it going?” Lieberman said. “I’m not sure. I have roughly $30,000 less from the league than when I started this business. I hope we’ll have absolutely fantastic success. On the other hand, I’m not sure. (WTT director and co-founder) Billie Jean (King) won’t let this die. She’s too proud and too strong, but this has been a relatively average league.

“If you went and polled all the owners, there’s a lot of owners breaking even or losing money. That’s no fun after a while.”

Lieberman? He plans on being one of the few owners to make money.

“You can’t be blase about this,” he said. “It’ll eat you up. There’s just enough going on to be blase and lose a lot of money. A franchise in Vail (Colorado) last year lost over $300,000 because they were blase. Tampa lost $200,000 because it was blase.”

Lieberman, who is anything but blase, believes his franchise has turned the corner.

“People are well aware of us now,” he said. “They didn’t used to be. The one thing that we discovered is that once we make a fan, once we get somebody to show up, that’s the hardest part. They usually always come back again because it’s very exciting.”

Greg Patton, in his fourth season as Duke coach, is about as laid-back as Lieberman about team tennis.

“This sport is anything but dry,” said Patton, who was the men’s tennis coach at UC Irvine from 1979 to 1992. “It’s a zoo, a festival, a carnival and a circus all in one.”

Even so, Lieberman acknowledges that selling a circus is not an easy task.

“It’s very difficult,” he said. “We’re in a recession. People are cutting back. Team tennis is a tough sell if you’re not a hands-on marketing person.”

The league is also cutting back. Lieberman said he received five times as much national sponsorship money from the league in 1990.

“That’s very disappointing to a lot of us (owners),” Lieberman said.

But Lieberman’s disappointment has not turned to bitterness.

“I’m more committed to this because I have to be,” said Lieberman, who has promoted several professional tennis tournaments in Orange County. “This takes as much or more work than an event that I used to do when I’d make five times the money. It’s not selling Becker and Agassi. It’s selling Amy Frazier and Trevor Kronemann. They’re very entertaining, but I don’t have real stars, although Garrison is a help.”

Garrison-Jackson has been signed for half of this season, and Lieberman is negotiating to sign her for next year as well. She will split the season with Manon Bollegraf of the Netherlands, who played for the Dukes two years ago.

“Zina Garrison is the best thing that’s happened to this league since Martina,” Lieberman said. “She was in the finals of Wimbledon a couple years ago.”

Garrison-Jackson is also coming off a straight-set victory over Mary Joe Fernandez, the fifth-ranked player in the world, at Wimbledon.

But Lieberman said tournament success does not necessarily translate to team tennis success.

“I have no idea how (Garrison-Jackson) is going to react to team tennis or the team concept,” Lieberman said. “We don’t know how she’s going to do. She’s never played for four other players before and a coach, and an owner, and a general manager. She’s always Zina Garrison, playing for herself, and her husband, money, and maybe her agent.”

On the other hand, Kronemann’s game is probably better suited for team tennis. Kronemann, a four-time All-American at UCI, is a 6-foot-4, 225-pound heavy-hitter who won WTT male MVP and rookie of the year honors with Charlotte in 1990 but is among only the top 500 singles players on the Assn. of Tennis Professionals tour.

“This sport is a sprint,” Patton said. “Trevor plays tennis at a machine-gun pace. I don’t think there’s a player in this league more suited to team tennis than Tank (Kronemann). He’s just so physically intimidating.”

Patton believes Kronemann, in his first year with the Dukes, Bollegraf, Garrison-Jackson, Katrina Adams and doubles specialist Rikard Bergh form the makings of “a dream team.”

“I know everyone but Zina, and I know how to motivate them,” Patton said. “I know how to get them to play better tennis.”

Now if only the Dukes’ season can match Patton and Lieberman’s excitement level.

Duke Facts

League: World TeamTennis, 13th year.

Format: A match consists of five sets, one each of men’s and women’s singles, men’s and women’s doubles and mixed doubles. Game scoring is no-ad (first team to win four points wins the game). A nine-point tiebreaker will be played should a set be tied at five games.

Notes: The Atlanta Thunder beat the Dukes, 30-17, in the 1992 World TeamTennis finals. . . . The Vail and Tampa Bay franchises folded after the season. Minnesota, Florida and Kansas City are new franchises. . . . Martina Navratilova of Atlanta was last year’s female MVP and Mikael Pernfors of Tampa Bay was the male MVP. . . . Florida’s Iva Majoli is the league’s youngest player at 15. Phoenix’s Jimmy Connors is the oldest at 40. . . . The first three teams in each division make the playoffs. The divisional finals and the championship match will be in Atlanta, Aug. 7 and 8 . . . . Tickets for Duke home games at John Wayne Tennis Club are $24 for box seats and $14 for reserved seats. . . . For ticket information, call 644-5800.

Duke schedule: July 7--Raleigh at Dukes, 7 p.m.; July 9--Dukes at Minnesota; July 11--Los Angeles at Dukes, 5 p.m.; July 13--Dukes at San Antonio; July 14--Atlanta at Dukes, 7 p.m.; July 16--Dukes at Sacramento; July 17--Dukes at Los Angeles; July 18--Sacramento at Dukes, 5 p.m.; July 22--San Antonio at Dukes, 5 p.m.; July 24--Phoenix vs. Dukes at Anaheim Arena, 7:30 p.m.; July 27--Minnesota at Dukes, 7 p.m.; July 28--Dukes at Phoenix; July 30--Dukes at Wichita; July 31--Dukes at Kansas City. Home games at John Wayne Tennis Club unless noted.

EAST DIVISION

Atlanta Thunder: Martina Navratilova, Heather Ludloff, Casio Motta, Kelly Evernden

Florida Twist: Nicole Arendt, Iva Majoli, Jimmy Arias, Paul Kildberry

Raleigh Edge: Tracy Austin, Sandy Collins, Neil Broad, Tim Wilkison

Kansas City Explorers: Gretchen Magers, Marianne Werdel, Ken Flach, Brent Haygarth

New Jersey Stars: Jenny Byrne, Marianne de Swardt, Mats Wilander, Ronnie Bathman (player/coach)

Wichita Advantage: Lori McNeil, Julie Steven, Buff Farrow, T.J. Middleton

WEST DIVISION

Newport Beach Dukes: Zina Garrison-Jackson*, Katrina Adams, Manon Bollegraf*, Rikard Bergh, Trevor Kronemann

Los Angeles Strings: Kimberly Po, Robin White, Bjorn Borg, Larry Stefanki (player/coach)

Minnesota Penguins: Jessica Emmons, Ginger Helgeson, Paul Annacone, Johan Kriek

Phoenix Smash: Mary Lou Daniels, Carrie Cunningham, Jimmy Connors, Ellis Ferreira

Sacramento Capitals: Lindsay Davenport, Patty Fendick, Steve DeVries, David MacPherson

San Antonio Racquets: Shaun Stafford, Cammy MacGregor, Sven Salumaa, Andrew Sznajder

*--Two players will split season