TEAMTENNIS : Dukes Stay Hot With Victory Over Sacramento

Greg Patton jumped in the air, waved his towel and pumped his fists. Big deal. He’s always getting a little carried away about something or other.

But wait a minute. What got into his Newport Beach Dukes Friday night? Why were they following his lead so closely?

“Oh, baby . . . this was the biggest win in our history,” Patton said after the Dukes pulled out a 25-23 victory over the Sacramento Capitals in front of 1,200 at the John Wayne Tennis Club.

That’s four victories in a row, Patton will have you know, and the Dukes (5-3) have vaulted past Sacramento (5-4) and into second place behind Vail (6-2) in the West Division of World TeamTennis.

“I’m ready to jump into any snowball and roll downhill,” Patton said.

Translation: The Dukes are hot.

“That team was an impostor,” Patton said of early, embarrassing losses to San Antonio and Atlanta. “That’s not the team that beat Raleigh (Monday). That’s not the team that beat New Jersey (Wednesday). That’s not the team that beat Sacramento up there (July 11).”

Winning didn’t come easily for the Dukes, who needed victories by Rikard Bergh in the men’s singles set and by Ronnie Bathman and Amy Frazier in mixed doubles--the final two sets of the match.

“I could feel the cold blade against our throats,” Patton said. “Amy could feel the heat, so she took off her wool coat and took on more pressure. Amy wasn’t giving up that pocketbook. I don’t care how many muggers were around her.”

The muggers in question in the mixed doubles set were the Capitals’ Patty Fendick and David MacPherson, who promptly fell behind, 3-0, then rallied to win the next four games to tie the match at 22.

One set earlier, Bergh had out-muscled Sacramento’s Steve DeVries for a 6-4 victory and a 19-18 Dukes lead.

But after falling behind, 4-3, Bathman and Frazier seemed to regain their momentum and managed to send the set to a tiebreaker at 5-5. Finally, with MacPherson serving for the set and a chance to force a 24-24 tie, MacPherson double faulted, giving the Dukes a narrow victory instead.

In other sets:

Debbie Graham, a former standout at La Quinta High and the 1990 NCAA singles champion at Stanford, and Fendick defeated Frazier and Lise Gregory, 6-3, in women’s doubles.

Graham later lost to Frazier, 6-2, in women’s singles.

DeVries and MacPherson, doubles quarterfinalists at the ’91 U.S. Open, defeated Bathman and Bergh, 6-4, in the men’s doubles.

The Dukes play host to the Wichita Advantage (2-6) at 7 tonight at the John Wayne Tennis Club.