Breakers’ rally runs out

NEWPORT BEACH — Ramon Delgado simply would not give up.

Even given a nearly impossible deficit headed into his men’s singles set Sunday — the final set of the night for the Newport Beach Breakers against the St. Louis Aces — Delgado’s confidence was unwavering.

The Aces’ Andy Ram, the man who had wowed the Breakers Stadium crowd of about 1,250 for much of the night with dazzling doubles play, started appearing tight.

But Ram would get the final hold of serve, the one he desperately needed, to give the Aces a 20-17 overtime win over the Breakers.

Newport Beach (2-5) trailed, 15-8, entering the final set. Delgado beat Ram in the set, 5-4 and 5-1 in a tiebreaker, but the Breakers still trailed, 19-13, headed into overtime.

That meant Delgado, the Breaker veteran, would have to reel off six straight games in OT to tie the match and force a super-tiebreaker. And he almost did it.

“Ramon just stayed steady and kept fighting,” Breakers Coach Trevor Kronemann said. “That’s not the first time Ramon’s done that, and it won’t be the last. He can make a five, six-game run there at the end … Every night, that’s how he plays is mistake-free tennis. That’s why he’s so good for this format.”

Delgado broke Ram’s serve twice in overtime, and after the second time teammate Lauren Albanese felt compelled to grab the microphone during the changeover.

“Let’s go everybody!” she yelled to the crowd. “Let’s cheer on Ramon! Louder. Let’s go!”

Delgado held serve to pull within 19-17, and had a break point in Ram’s next service game. But two Delgado unforced errors on the forehand side gave Ram the game, and St. Louis (3-5) the match.

Halfway through the season, Newport Beach is now in fifth place in the six-team Western Conference of World Team Tennis. The top two teams from each conference advance to the playoffs.

The night started off well for the Breakers, as Albanese dominated St. Louis’ Jasmin Woehr, 5-0, in women’s singles to open the match. And even after Albanese and teammate Michaela Pastikova fell in women’s doubles, Newport Beach had a 10-8 lead.

Enter Ram.

The Israeli doubles specialist, who won the Wimbledon mixed doubles title last year and the French Open mixed doubles title this year, had it all working in the next two sets of mixed doubles and men’s doubles.

He and Woehr won in mixed doubles and Ram and Jonathan Erlich then won in men’s doubles. More importantly, both were by 5-0 counts, allowing the Aces to grab the 15-8 advantage.

“He was hitting topspin lobs, drop volleys,” Kronemann said. “He had every shot in the bag working for him … In 18 seasons [of World Team Tennis as a player, coach and announcer] I’ve never seen a male player take over like that. It was impressive. What can you do?

“I’m sitting there the whole time thinking, What can I say to [my team]?’ He was just too good. The girls were asking me, ‘What’s his ranking?’ Well right now he’s No. 1 in the world; he can’t miss.”

Delgado cooled him off, but it was too little, too late for the Breakers.

Newport Beach, which also beat Houston, 23-17, on Friday, plays host to Kansas City tonight at 7 p.m.

MATT SZABO may be reached at (714) 966-4614 or at [email protected].