Czech Republic

Ramon Delgado and Michaela Pastikova will return to the Newport Beach Breakers for the 2008 World Team Tennis season, joined by newcomers Angelika Bachmann and Bruno Echagaray. They will join the Breakers’ new marquee player, Lindsay Davenport, who will play her only home match at Newport Beach Country Club on July 10. “We’re excited to have drafted a great roster of talent for this season,” Breakers Coach Trevor Kronemann said in a release. “Ramon has consistently been one of if not the best players in the league and will be the cornerstone of our team again.

Slovakian team Amara Aguilar BREN EVENTS CENTER - The UC Irvine women's basketball team played a game Sunday much different than any they will play all year. The Anteaters' opponents, Delta Kosice from Slovakia, spoke a different language. They had a different style of play. Although the Anteaters earned an 87-55 victory in an exhibition game that featured a foreign team, the two teams did have a few things in common besides basketball. UC Irvine's Jana Ciperova, who lived in the Czech Republic until she was 19, previously played with Delta Kocise's Nikova Topolarova on the Czech junior national team.

NEWPORT BEACH — The warmups prior to the Newport Beach Breakers' match against the Kansas City Explorers on Monday were complete and it was time to play tennis. But a loud, squealing distortion sound coming out of the speakers wasn't helping things. Eyes turned to the audio guy, who at first was unable to stop the noise. Finally, the problem was solved and the Breakers' Michaela Pastikova could serve. Pastikova did a lot of that Monday, helping Newport Beach win three of its sets in a crucial 23-19 overtime victory over Kansas City before 1,680 at Breakers Stadium.

VELDEN, Austria -- Daily Pilot Sports Hall of Famers Bob Duesler (Newport Beach) and Jim Nelson (Palisades Tennis Club), playing doubles for the U.S. Britannia Cup team, defeated Germany Friday in the final round to clinch the second straight Cup title for the U.S. in the International Tennis Federation men's 65s team event at Velden Tennis Club. The U.S. squad was victorious in all six matches against the world's best in the division. In the tournament final, Larry Sears and King Van Nostrand won singles matches to give the U.S. a 2-0 lead over Germany, then Duesler-Nelson won in straight sets, 6-2, 7-6, to secure the Britannia Cup. In earlier rounds, the U.S. beat Croatia, Czech Republic, Sweden, France and Great Britain in the semifinals.

Alexa Glatch of Newport Beach will make her Fed Cup debut for the United States in its semifinal tie against the Czech Republic in Brno from April 25, the country’s tennis assn. announced Wednesday. With sisters Serena and Venus Williams both absent from the team, 19-year-old Glatch and 24-year-old Bethanie Mattek-Sands received their chance ahead of Jill Craybas and Julie Ditty. Mattek-Sands is ranked 38th in the world and is the top-ranked U.S player behind the Williams sisters.

LONDON - Former Corona del Mar High standout Taylor Dent lost to second-seeded Andre Agassi, but outhit the international superstar in the first set of the first round Tuesday at Wimbledon. Agassi, the 1992 champion and last year's runner-up, turned up the heat to take the second set and then reeled off 10 games in a row before Dent retired, dropping the match, 2-6, 6-3, 6-0, 4-0. Dent, 19, won three qualifiers to advance to the main draw, knocking off Argentina's Hector Moretti, Czech Republic's Petr Luxa and Germany's Lars Burgsmuller.

COSTA MESA -- Two former Stanford players are leading the charge as seven Americans remain alive out of 16 players in the championship singles field in the $10,000 United States Tennis Association Diadora Pro Championships at Costa Mesa Tennis Center. In the USTA Futures Tour event, which features up-and-coming players on their way to the Association of Tennis Professionals Tour, top-seeded Radim Zitko of the Czech Republic edged his first-round opponent Wednesday, Mirko Pehar, 7-5, 7-6 (3)

COSTA MESA -- Five of the top eight seeded players, including top-seeded Radim Zitko of the Czech Republic, were shown the upset city door Thursday in the championship singles draw in the Diadora Pro Championships at Costa Mesa Tennis Center. American David Martin, a former Stanford star who gained entry into the tournament via wild card, enjoyed a 6-2, 6-3 upset victory over Zitko and will face Sweden's Oskar Johansson in the quarterfinals today.

Corona del Mar High product Jake Lemmerman went one for four to help Israel defeat Spain, 4-2, in the second round of a four-team World Baseball Classic qualifying tournament on Friday in Jupiter, Fla. Lemmerman, a Los Angeles Dodgers farmhand who started at shortstop for the second straight game, played alongside former UC Irvine star Ben Orloff, a second baseman who went hitless in three at-bats. Israel (2-0) advances to the tournament final on Sunday at 2 p.m. PT. In another World Baseball Classic qualifying tournament in Regensburg, Germany, Daniel Cooper, a pitcher at Costa Mesa High and Orange Coast College, is representing Great Britain.

Strakonice from the Czech Republic defeated the UC Irvine women's basketball team 73-67 in overtime in an exhibition game Sunday. UC Irvine missed four consecutive free throws in the last 29 seconds which could have sealed the victory before Jana Kleckova hit a three-pointer with five seconds remaining to send the game into overtime (63-63). Strakonice had two layups and hit six of seven free throws in the extra period, while UCI missed another four free throws and managed just four points in the overtime session.