Breakers’ horse unleashed

Chris Yemma

Newport Beach Breakers’ Coach Dick Leach received a very important

phone call Monday night.

Breakers’ star and top-ranked World Team Tennis men’s singles

player Ramon Delgado, who had suffered a sprained thumb Sunday in a

mixed doubles set against Springfield, was on the line.

“He’s our horse; we get on his back and we ride him,” Leach said

about Delgado. “He called me up [Monday] night and said, ‘Coach, the

horse is coming out of the barn.’ ”

Lucky for the Breakers, it was just in time.

Delgado recovered from a 5-0 setback to Springfield’s Rik de Voest

Sunday and produced a blistering comeback against Brian MacPhie

Tuesday night to seal the Breakers’ 23-17 victory over visiting

Kansas City at Palisades Tennis Club.

Last year’s final’s MVP, Delgado rallied from a 3-1 deficit

against MacPhie to force a tiebreak at 4 games apiece. He prevailed

in the tiebreak, 5-1, capped with an ace to clinch what Leach

described as the season’s most important match.

“I told them [the Kansas City match] will determine how we do the

rest of the time,” Leach said. “We had to win tonight, we had to. And

the only stinker all year was [July 10] against Kansas City.”

Newport (7-3) redeemed itself from an 18-15 loss at Kansas City

(4-7) earlier this month, as Delgado and Katerina Bondarenko led the

way Tuesday to boost the Breakers within a half game of

Western-Conference leading Sacramento.

Bondarenko won her women’s singles match against Samantha Reeves

in a convincing 5-1 fashion and later teamed with Anastassia

Rodionova to prevail, 5-2, in a women’s doubles match against Reeves

and Nana Miyagi.

Delgado, who defeated 2003 U.S. Open champion and current world

No. 3-ranked Andy Roddick, 5-3, in a match Saturday at St. Louis,

teamed with Rodionova and Devin Bowen in mixed doubles and men’s

doubles, respectively. Both doubles teams lost, 5-4.

But Delgado’s singles victory over MacPhie re-energized the

28-year-old Breakers’ star, originally from Paraguay.

“It’s always good to win, especially at home,” Delgado said. “I

think we’re right back on track now. It’s always important to win at

home.”

Bondarenko sealed her women’s doubles match with teammate

Rodionova in convincing fashion.

Leading the overall score, 15-13, the two Breakers’ prevailed,

5-2, capped by Bondarenko, who sprinted to a tipped ball and hit it

over for a dramatic save. It was then fired out of play by the two

Kansas City women, and Newport took an 18-3 lead.

“I just like to win,” Bondarenko said.