Breakers rally for another win

Barry Faulkner

Ramon Delgado continued his late-match dominance, but the Newport

Beach Breakers’ 19-15, come-from-behind World Team Tennis victory

over the visiting Sacramento Capitals Thursday night may have been

set up early on.

Katerina Bondarenko, who was disappointed with her performance in

the Breakers’ season-opening win over visiting Springfield Tuesday,

made amends in a big way to help the Breakers improve to 2-0.

Bondarenko defeated Sacramento’s Elena Likhovtseva, 5-3, in

women’s singles -- the second match of the five-match contest -- to

help the hosts close in after the Capitals seized a 5-1 led by

dominating the opening men’s doubles match.

“I cannot believe Katerina Bondarenko,” Breakers Coach Dick Leach

said. “She was not happy about the way she played [Tuesday] and she

was very nervous about tonight, because she wants to do well to help

her team so much. But she had two great practices and, tonight, she

beat Elena, who is ranked No. 17 in the world.”

Bondarenko’s victory drew the Breakers, the defending WTT

champions who upset Sacramento in last year’s semifinals, to within

8-6 on the overall scoreboard (each game counts as a point).

Anna Kournikova, who helped bring a near-capacity crowd to

Palisades Tennis Club, did her part, contributing to a 5-3 mixed

doubles win with partner Mark Knowles.

Kournikova, who has retired from the Women’s Tennis Association,

was pleased with her play, as well as the rousing crowd reception.

“I thought I played pretty well for my first match,” said

Kournikova, who along with Likhotseva was beaten in women’s doubles

by Bondarenko and Anastassia Rodionova, 5-2. “It was great to have

the fans into it and I had a lot of fun.”

The Breakers, however, had the most fun, thanks to having their

ace, Delgado, in the hole.