With Lindsay Davenport done for the remainder of the season, much of
the attention on the Newport Beach Breakers is bound to fall upon
Maria Sharapova. She is proving more than capable of handling the
spotlight.
Sharapova, a 16-year-old Russian ranked 57th in the world, won all
three sets she played for the Newport Beach World Team Tennis
franchise as the Breakers snapped a three-match losing streak with a
24-19 victory over the host St. Louis Aces Monday at the Dwight Davis
Tennis Center.
The Breakers return home to the Palisades Tennis Club at 7 tonight
for a match against the New York Sportimes and John McEnroe. On
Wednesday, they play host to a rematch with St. Louis, also at 7 p.m.
at Palisades.
While McEnroe is sure to draw in fans to Tuesday's match, many
will most likely be leaving impressed by Sharapova.
Ranked seventh among World Team Tennis women's singles players
going into Monday, Sharapova had no problem dispatching Julia
Vakulenko, 5-3. She was also victorious in the mixed doubles set that
opened the match and followed that with a victory in women's doubles.
Sharapova teamed with Josh Eagle in mixed doubles, defeating
Nicole Arendt and John-Laffnie de Jager in a tiebreaker. She then
paired up with Eva Dyrberg for a 5-2 victory over Arendt and
Vakulenko in women's doubles, giving the Breakers a 10-6 overall
lead. World Team Tennis matches are based upon a cumulative score.
While Sharapova's success has been a constant throughout the first
week of the season, she also received help on this night, which
allowed the Breakers (2-4) to finally get back in the win column.
Eagle and Brian MacPhie played men's doubles in the third set of
the night and also won in a tiebreaker, defeating de Jager and Amir
Hadad. With Sharapova's victory in women's singles, the Breakers went
into the final set holding a 20-13 advantage.
But MacPhie lost the last set to Hadad, 5-3, forcing overtime.
World Team Tennis rules stipulate that if the trailing team wins the
final set, the match goes into overtime. The match doesn't end until
the leading team wins a game or the trailing team ties the score,
which would send the match into a supertiebreaker.
MacPhie avoided that fate, winning the second game of overtime to
seal the victory.
With McEnroe on the court tonight, the Breakers should expect a
difficult match. A winner of seven Grand Slam singles titles and 10
Grand Slam doubles titles, the 44-year-old has still shown himself to
be quite a tennis player. Going into play Monday, he ranked third in
the league in men's singles, winning 10 of the 17 games he had
played. In his first two matches this season with the Sportimes,
McEnroe had yet to lose a set in either men's singles or men's
doubles.
McEnroe's appearance will mark the third by one of the league's
marquee players at Newport Beach this season. Davenport played in the
Breakers' first two home matches. The last appearance by a marquee
player is scheduled for July 26, when Martina Navratilova will play
with the Philadelphia Freedoms.
