Breakers at high tide with win

NEWPORT BEACH ? The Newport Beach Breakers had just earned their second straight victory to climb back to .500, having blown out the Western Conference-leading Springfield Lasers, who came in with a 7-0 record.

But Sunday night’s 25-12 World Team Tennis win at Palisades Tennis Club, was, in the view of Breakers’ Coach Dick Leach, as good as it will get this season for Newport Beach.

When asked what his team (4-4) needed to do to continue the recent success on its five-match road trip that begins at Philadelphia on Tuesday, Leach did not sugar coat his response.

“Unfortunately, we’ve got no chance because [Pete] Sampras [who won 14 Grand Slam singles titles before retiring after winning the 2002 U.S. Open] is so out of shape,” Leach said. “With Ramon [Delgado, who helped key the two-match winning streak] out and Sampras [who will replace Delgado the next five matches] in, it makes a big difference. Having Pete is great for the league and the fans love it, but it just kills us. I’m surprised [Sampras] is not in better shape. He got so sore from playing [he dropped his singles sets in Breakers’ losses to visiting St. Louis on July 10 and at Sacramento on Wednesday] that he can’t practice.

“[Sampras] shouldn’t have [played this season],” Leach said. “You can’t put down your racquet in 2003, then pick it up three months before you play a match. That’s too hard. He’s a great guy, great to his teammates and the fans love him. But [with him in the lineup] we can’t win.”

The Breakers had little trouble winning Sunday against a Lasers squad that beat Newport Beach, 21-20, in the season opener July 6 in Missouri.

“That’s how good we can be,” Leach said of a five-set sweep, in which the Breakers won men’s and women’s singles, men’s and women’s doubles, and mixed doubles.

Delgado capped the victory with a 5-2 singles win over Nick Monroe.

Delgado and Rick Leach teamed to handle Monroe and Aleksandar Vlaski, 5-3, in men’s doubles, after Rick Leach and Tina Krizan posted a 5-2 mixed doubles triumph over Vlaski and Andreea Vanc.

Krizan and Anastassia Rodionova got things started for the Breakers by trouncing Vanc and Victoria Azarenka, 5-1, in women’s doubles.

Azarenka had her serve broken twice in the set, as she double faulted five times.

Azarenka had been scheduled to play women’s singles against Rodionova, but Lasers Coach Trevor Kronemann, a former UC Irvine All-American hired this week to coach the men’s team at his alma mater, instead substituted Vanc.

Vanc put up a fight against Radionova, before “A-Rod” wrapped up a 5-4 triumph by winning the first-to-five tiebreaker, 5-4.

All four players in the Springfield lineup Sunday are in their first season in the league.

The Breakers’ lineup, on the other hand, entered this year with a combined 19 years of WTT experience.

The Lasers were without their marquee player, Anastasia Myskina, the 2004 French Open women’s singles champion.

Newport Beach is assured at least a wild-card berth in the postseason, which until this season has included only the top two finishers in each conference.

The wild-card match is essentially a play-in match against the No. 4 team among the four semifinalists, with the winner advancing to the semifinals.

But Sampras is scheduled to play in all the Breakers’ postseason matches.dpt-breakers.BGraphicInfoM01T0I4J20060717M01T0I4JCredit: Caption: (LA) dpt-17-wtenn1-dl-BPhotoInfoM01T0I2V20060717j2j61cncCredit: Caption: (LA)Anastassia Radionova rips a forehand winner in her 5-4 singles triumph to help the Breakers win. dpt-17-wtenn3-dl-BPhotoInfoM01T0I2620060717j2j5yoncCredit: PHOTOS BY DON LEACH / DAILY PILOT Caption: (LA)The Newport Beach Breakers’ Tina Krizan digs out a volley in Breakers’ 25-12 win Sunday over Springfield Lasers.