TENNIS:Breakers a hot ticket at NBCC

Even as the losses kept piling up for the Newport Beach Breakers this season, the fans kept coming.

The Breakers sold out five of seven home matches, including a season-high 2,358 fans for Wednesday’s match featuring Maria Sharapova and John McEnroe.

First-year coach Trevor Kronemann said the venue, which moved from the Palisades Tennis Club to the Newport Beach Country Club this year, couldn’t have been better. Kronemann said of the various venues in World Team Tennis, the Breakers’ stadium is top-notch.

“It’s first-rate,” Kronemann said. “There’s only one that even compares, and it’s Sacramento, where they’re having the final. It’s a great atmosphere, and I think it’s only going to get better from here on out.”

Kronemann hopes he can say the same about the Breakers, who finished 3-11 and ended the year on a six-match losing streak. The talent on the team was evident with legends like Pete Sampras and Rick Leach, as well as the steady veteran Ramon Delgado. But Delgado wasn’t 100% with his right knee issues, and 17-year-old phenom Lauren Albanese also battled problems with her right ankle.

All of these issues, along with playing in the tough Western Conference, were factors in Newport Beach finishing in fifth place in the six-team conference.

“I loved doing this,” said Kronemann, who coached the Springfield Lasers for seven years before the Breakers. “I’m already counting the days to get back into this next year. It was just a tough season all the way around. My first losing season in 18 years [in WTT], so it’s a little bit of a shock.

“Nobody likes to lose. We were just a little beat up all year … The fans were great. Had we been winning, it would have been a tough ticket to get every single night. As with all L.A. teams, if you win, people are going to start coming.”

LOVE FOR THE O.C.

Billie Jean King, the tennis legend who was the co-founder of World Team Tennis, would probably disagree with part of Kronemann’s last statement.

At a pre-match press conference on Wednesday, King said the Breakers are distinctly not an L.A. team. Rather, they are an Orange County team.

King grew up in Long Beach, which straddles the southern border of Los Angeles County. She said having a WTT team in Newport Beach was important, as the Breakers were formed in 2003 following a nine-year period when the area had no franchise.

The Newport Beach Dukes played from 1990-94 before disbanding.

“The reason I brought this team here is because I didn’t want it to be an L.A. team,” King said. “I wanted it in Orange County. I wanted something in this area. It belongs to them, not just the step-sister or step-daughter of Los Angeles.

“I was upset when [Major League Baseball’s Los Angeles Angels of] Anaheim changed their name. I thought they should have kept it [the Anaheim Angels]. I thought that was a huge mistake.”

SAMPRAS IS STREAKY

Sampras, who said before the season that he was looking forward to a better showing in his second year with the Breakers, never really got it.

The tennis legend, who owns a record 14 Grand Slam men’s singles titles, won 16 games and lost 18 for Newport Beach in men’s singles.

He won just one of four singles matches, a 5-3 victory over St. Louis’ Andy Ram on July 24.

In men’s doubles with Rick Leach, Sampras won 14 games and lost 16. Again, he won just one of four doubles matches, a 5-1 win over the New York Buzz’s Rick de Voest and Ashley Fisher on July 18.

But Sampras did still prove to be a big draw for the Breakers. His only home match of the season on July 10 drew 2,311 fans, which was the second-largest total of the seven-match season.

WHAT’S NEXT?

One positive for the Breakers is that they will have a high draft pick for the 2008 World Team Tennis Player Draft, scheduled for next March.

Teams select in reverse order of finish from the season before. So the Breakers, whose 3-11 record was the second-worst in the league behind Houston (1-13), should have the second pick in the draft.

This year the Breakers used their first pick to protect their rights to Delgado, the 2004 WTT Most Valuable Player.

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