NEWPORT BEACH BREAKERS HOME OPENER:

NEWPORT BEACH — The more things change for the Newport Beach Breakers, the more other things seem to stay the same.

Kaes Van’t Hof was the Newport Beach product who dazzled the crowd Saturday night with his big serves, and the 21-year-old heard the most cheers in his Breakers debut.

But, at the end of the match, Van’t Hof turned to spectator like all of the other 1,512 fans at Breakers Stadium. There was five-year Breakers veteran Ramon Delgado, like he has countless times in the past, out there giving his all to bring Newport Beach back from a deficit.

Delgado nearly did it, but his serve was broken to end the match, as the visiting Kansas City Explorers survived for a 20-18 overtime win at Newport Beach Country Club.

The Breakers (1-1) were behind, 15-12, entering men’s singles, the final set of the night. Delgado battled to a 5-4 overtime victory over Dusan Vemic in the set, 5-2 in the tiebreaker, to the match into overtime. He then broke Vemic’s serve, as the crowd roared and Newport Beach got within a single game.

Delgado fell into a 3-1 points deficit on his serve, and then rallied to a 3-3 point that he had to win to tie the match and send it into a decisive super tiebreaker. But Vemic’s blistering service return forced Delgado’s shot wide, and Vemic raised his arms in triumph for Kansas City (2-0).

Delgado, by comparison, slammed his racquet on the net in frustration. He immediately left the court and the venue.

“Ramon makes you play, makes you work,” Breakers Coach Trevor Kronemann said of the veteran, who broke Vemic twice and had opportunities in Vemic’s other two service games. “[Delgado] could have won that set 5-0 and we could have walked out of here with a win. He was within one shot. He continues to make these guys work.

“I don’t think Dusan outplayed Ramon. I think Ramon, probably for the first time that I’ve seen in Ramon’s career, missed some more returns that he normally does. It was kind of like in golf, where you’re in the U.S. Open and you’re down by two strokes coming up to [hole No.] 17. You’ve got to make something happen; otherwise you know you’re going to lose anyway. I felt like he started to press a little bit.”

The match started off well enough for Newport Beach, as Angelika Bachmann earned a dominant 5-1 win in women’s singles over Angela Haynes. But Michaela Pastikova and Bachmann gave it all back, losing their women’s doubles set, 5-0, to Haynes and Rennae Stubbs.

Stubbs, a former world No. 1 doubles player from Australia who has won 59 career Women’s Tennis Assn. doubles titles, made several highlight-reel volleys during the set.

Van’t Hof and Bachmann teamed for a 5-4 victory in mixed doubles, tying the overall score at 10-10, but then Vemic and the Explorers’ James Auckland downed Van’t Hof and Delgado in men’s doubles, 5-2.

That set up Delgado’s heroics, which he so nearly finished off. Vemic, for one, was appreciative of his opponent’s effort.

“He showed today, again, like probably many other times, that he’s a great player,” Vemic said. “He’s a great athlete and he plays extremely well under pressure. The crowd was behind him and he fought hard … I felt the pressure but I gave my best. In the end, it was all or nothing and I just had to believe in my shots. I just pulled it off and took the victory for the Explorers home.”

The Breakers hit the road for two matches at Springfield on Monday and at St. Louis on Tuesday. They then return home to face Springfield on Thursday, a match that’s scheduled to be the only home match for marquee player Lindsay Davenport.

“It’s going to be exciting,” Kronemann said. “We’re looking forward to our next six matches here, and the tennis is only going to improve.”

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