Dukes’ Playoff Hopes Grow Dim With Loss to Sacramento

The Sacramento Capitals put a crimp in the Newport Beach Dukes hopes for a TeamTennis playoffs berth Wednesday night at the John Wayne Tennis Club.

A crowd of about 1,000 watched Sacramento’s Kelly Jones and Robert Van’t Hof win the deciding men’s doubles set, 6-5 (5-1), over Rick Leach and Tim Pawsat, which gave the Capitals a 26-24 victory.

A loss to the unbeaten San Antonio Racquets tonight would probably eliminate the Dukes from post-season play for the second consecutive year.

The Dukes (5-6) fell a half-match behind Wichita (6-6) in the battle for the final playoff spot in the West Division. Division-leading San Antonio is 12-0 and second-place Los Angeles is 7-5.

“Going into the final six matches I thought we could only afford to lose one,” said Greg Patton, the Dukes’ coach. “Now, we’ve got to go in and beat San Antonio (tonight). San Antonio is a must win and I really think we can do it.”

Win or lose, tonight’s match is Patton’s last this season. He’s headed to Cuba to coach the U.S. tennis team at the Pan American Games, which begin Friday in Havana. Bob Hochstadter, the club pro at the John Wayne Tennis Club, will coach the Dukes for their final regular-season matches, at Atlanta Saturday and at Charlotte Sunday.

The Dukes trailed, 12-7, after the women’s doubles and singles sets, due to the work of sisters Tami and Teri Whitlinger.

“We were chasing the train today,” Patton said. “Whitlinger is deadly to us. I don’t know who is who. I just know they give me a bad case of double vision.”

Tami (she had the blue ribbon in her hair Wednesday) and Teri (a red ribbon), won the opening women’s doubles, 6-5 (5-3), over the Dukes’ Elise Burgin and Manon Bollegraf. Teri came back to beat Bollegraf, 6-2, in women’s singles.

Pawsat and Bollegraf won the mixed doubles over Tami Whitlinger and Van’t Hof, 6-3, and Leach defeated Jones, 6-5 (5-1), in men’s singles, setting up the deciding doubles set.

Sacramento broke Leach to go up, 2-1, but the Dukes broke back on Jones to tie it at 2-all. The teams stayed on serve, going to a tiebreaker, which the Capitals eventually won, 5-1.

“(Leach and Pawsat) saved the day twice before this match (in victories over Miami Tuesday and the Strings Saturday),” Patton said.