Newport breakdown

NEWPORT BEACH — The Newport Beach Breakers fan was giving the visiting Springfield Lasers all they could handle, especially early in the match.

“Quit wasting our time,” the fan yelled as Springfield Coach John-Laffnie De Jager challenged an early call.

“That’s why we’re here,” De Jager responded. Then, moments later as Springfield’s Martin Verkerk served up an ace, De Jager couldn’t resist.

“That’s for you,” De Jager said, pointing both his arms at the fan. “Challenge!”

No challenge needed that time. But in the end, the Lasers would provide plenty of one, winning the last two sets to hand the Breakers a 20-19 loss at Breakers Stadium.

Newport Beach (1-1) never trailed the match until Springfield went up, 19-18, during Lauren Albanese’s women’s singles set against the Lasers’ Tamarine Tanasugarn, the last set of the night.

Serving at 1-0, Tanasugarn fell behind, 0-3, in a game before winning four straight points to pull it out. The change of momentum was felt on the Breakers’ bench, said Breakers Coach Trevor Kronemann.

“We realized we needed three games in that last set to get to a super-tiebreaker,” Kronemann said. “ … We knew from the bench that was going to be a tough game to lose, especially when we needed to win three games that last set. That’s just the way it goes some nights.”

Tanasugarn went ahead 4-1 in that final set, giving Springfield the 19-18 lead, and Albanese essentially had to win two straight games to keep the match alive. She broke Tanasugarn’s serve for one game but couldn’t hold her own serve, with a backhand that went long to end the match.

The ending overshadowed plenty of positives for the Breakers against the Lasers (2-0). Ramon Delgado, perhaps buoyed by the showing of his fan club “Desperate Housewives for Ramon Delgado,” opened the match with a 5-2 men’s singles win over Verkerk.

He and partner Rick Leach then lost in doubles to Verkerk and Glenn Weiner, 5-4. But Leach and Michaela Pastikova rebounded for a 5-3 win in mixed doubles, getting a key break of serve at 4-3 on Pastikova’s nice crosscourt backhand.

That win gave the Breakers a seemingly safe 14-10 lead in the match, but not so fast.

Tanasugarn and partner Andreea Vanc beat Pastikova and Albanese, 5-3, in women’s doubles, pulling the Lasers within two and setting up the final set.

Women’s doubles and singles have been the final two sets in each of the first two matches, as chosen by Kronemann. That may have put a bit of pressure on World Team Tennis newcomers Pastikova and Albanese, a 17-year-old who is the youngest player on the team. But after the season-opening win against Sacramento, Kronemann said there was no reason to change the order of play.

“It was trying to ride the wave of what happened [against Sacramento],” said Kronemann, who had coached the Lasers for the past seven years. “It didn’t work for us … Tanasugarn played a great match. They have a good team this year. They’re probably the best team I’ve seen in Springfield in a long, long time. They’ve got solid sets all the way through.”

He added that Delgado has a strained right knee, so he tried to make each Breakers player play consecutive sets to make it easier.

“I think it’s going to be fine,” Kronemann said of Delgado’s knee. “But we’ve got to manage it and keep going … We’ll have to see how it progresses.”

The Breakers play at Kansas City today at 6:05 p.m. before returning home to host Sacramento on Tuesday at 7 p.m. That match is Pete Sampras’ only home match of the season.

MATT SZABO may be reached at (714) 966-4614 or at matthew.szabo@latimes.com.