OC Breakers headed to WTT title match

A beautiful sunset peeked over the trees on the west side of the Palisades Tennis Club on Wednesday evening.

As the sun set on the World Team Tennis regular season, the Orange County Breakers already had a spot in the league finals wrapped up. Yet, the Breakers did not let up or back down.

They won all five sets in a 25-13 win over the Philadelphia Freedoms, and now have two days to prepare for the league finals Saturday night.

The Breakers have a trip down Interstate 5 in their future. Orange County plays the San Diego Aviators for the title on Saturday at 8 p.m. at the Omni La Costa Resort and Spa in Carlsbad.

The match will be a rematch of last year’s final, won by San Diego. The Breakers (9-5) are the top seed and thus have the advantage of setting the order of play against the Aviators. They will be trying to win just their second World Team Tennis championship, the first coming in 2004.

The coach of that 2004 team, Dick Leach, was honored in an on-court ceremony on Wednesday. His son, Rick Leach, is now at the helm and has the Breakers on the brink of another title.

“I’m amazed at how hard they fought, because everybody’s tired,” Rick Leach said. “They just really rose to the occasion tonight. It was, once again, a team effort.”

The Breakers improved to 13-0 at home over the last two seasons with another dominant effort. Yanina Wickmayer started it off in women’s singles with a 5-4 (5-3) tiebreaker win over the Freedoms’ Taylor Townsend. Wickmayer and Andreja Klepac then widened that lead in women’s doubles, where they routed Townsend and Kveta Peschke, 5-1.

The Breakers finished the regular season as the top team in the league in women’s doubles, as well as men’s singles and men’s doubles.

“We’re a great team, and we get along together very well,” Klepac said. “I think team spirit helped us to get through all of those 14 matches in 17 days. We’re all pretty tired, but we’re having so much fun on the court and off the court, so it helps a lot. We’re very looking forward to the finals.”

Klepac said the Breakers felt no pressure and were more relaxed in Wednesday’s match against the Freedoms (6-8), since they had already clinched the finals berth. They continued their strong play in men’s doubles, where Ken Skupski and Teymuraz Gabashvili earned a 5-2 win over Philadelphia’s Darian King and Fabrice Martin.

Klepac saved a set point on her serve in mixed doubles, and she and Skupski rallied for a 5-4 (5-2) win over Townsend and Martin. Skupski raised his hands in victory after the tiebreaker, which ended with his winning volley.

“The key of doubles is to have a good partner,” Klepac said with a laugh. “That’s what Rick said, so it’s funny, but it’s working. Yanina is very good at serving, and I do things at the net. With Ken, it is so easy to play with him. He is such a good player.”

Gabashvili was broken in his first men’s singles game against King, but he came back strong for a 5-2 win that gave the Breakers the final 25-13 advantage.

The Breakers are in the finals for the third straight year, after also making it in 2015 when they were the Austin Aces. This time, they look to finish it out with a title against the rival Aviators at San Diego’s home stadium.

“We’ve played them, and we will have some crowd there, so it’s fine,” Klepac said. “We’re looking forward to the match, to win at their home and become a champion.”

matthew.szabo@latimes.com

Twitter: @mjszabo