Sharapova will stay with Breakers

Bryce Alderton

The defending World Team Tennis champion Newport Beach Breakers

retained the rights to their most marketable possession while

acquiring a Newport-Mesa product in the league’s player draft held

Tuesday in Key Biscayne, Fla., at the NASDAQ-100 tournament.

The Breakers protected the rights to Maria Sharapova, 2004

Wimbledon champion and No. 3 player in the world, for a third

straight season and also retained Ramon Delgado, the team’s top

singles player last year.

Sharapova, who has nine Women’s Tennis Association tour singles

wins and three doubles victories, is once again scheduled to play one

home match at Palisades Tennis Club -- to be determined -- during the

season which runs July 4-24.

The second-seeded Sharapova knocked off Justine Henin-Hardenne,

6-1, 6-7 (6), 6-2, Tuesday in the quarterfinals of the women’s draw

at the NASDAQ-100.

Delgado, who hails from Paraguay, finished in the top 100 of the

Association of Tennis Professionals’ points race in 2002 and has

played in Davis Cup matches.

Devin Bowen, who grew up playing tennis at Mesa Verde Tennis Club

and starred at Estancia High, joins the Breakers for the first time

this season.

Bowen, a Huntington Beach resident, reached a career high of 39th

in doubles on the ATP tour in 2003. The Breakers, who enter their

third season under Coach Dick Leach, also secured Anastasia Rodinova

and Katerina Bondarenko in the draft.

Palisades honorary member Lindsay Davenport, ranked No. 1 in the

WTA as of March 21, was drafted by the Springfield Lasers. Davenport

played for the Breakers in 2003.