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.”
