Dukes Finally Make Themselves at Home by Beating Phoenix : TeamTennis: They win four of five sets in 29-16 victory, their first of the season in Newport Beach.

Steamrolled by the Tank and mugged by Martina, the Newport Beach Dukes, who looked horrible during their first two home matches, finally found someone to cuff around Saturday night.

“To be honest with you, we were embarrassed in our two home loses,” said Coach Greg Patton after the Dukes had won four of five sets and defeated the Phoenix Smash, 29-16, in front of 600 at the John Wayne Tennis Club.

“I’ve seen how good we are on the road. We needed to show our fans how good we are.”

The Dukes did nothing of the sort in losing their opener, 27-13, to the San Antonio Racquets and Trevor (Tank) Kronemann, and getting routed, 30-13, by Martina Navratilova and the Atlanta Thunder Thursday.

“The loss against Atlanta might turn out to be the best thing for us,” Patton said.

The victory gives the Dukes a 2-3 record. Phoenix, which lost to Atlanta, 26-25, Friday, is 1-5.

“I told our team (Friday) that our goal is to win eight more matches,” Patton said. “That would put us at 9-5. I think that would get us into the playoffs.”

The first order of business for the Dukes was simply winning one at home. Playing without the distractions of opening night or Navratilova, the Dukes seemed to loosen up Saturday night. Or perhaps Phoenix was as dreadful as the Dukes had been during their first two home matches.

The Dukes won the first three sets. Amy Frazier and Lise Gregory defeated Ros Fairbank-Nideffer and Anne Smith, 6-2, in women’s doubles; Frazier defeated Fairbank-Nideffer, 6-3, in women’s singles, and Ronnie Bathman and Rikard Bergh beat Ellis Ferreira and Greg Holmes, 6-3.

Ferreira then rallied from a 4-1 deficit to beat Bergh, 6-5 (5-2) in the men’s singles set. Bathman and Gregory won the mixed doubles over Ferreira and Smith, 6-2, giving the Dukes a 29-16 victory.

“I was starting to feel there was a curse on this place,” Patton said. “We finally found home. We made it through the jungle and found home. We finally feel good in our own bedroom.”

The Dukes play Monday at Raleigh and Wednesday at New Jersey before returning home to play Sacramento at 7 p.m. Friday at the John Wayne Tennis Club.