First Win Not Easy for Strings

In World TeamTennis there are no ties, a nice fact for two last-place teams who hadn’t had a victory in weeks, or, in the Los Angeles Strings’ case, all season.

The rules of the game required one team to win Monday night at the Forum, and somehow, that team was Los Angeles.

The Strings, seizing a rare opportunity for victory, defeated the San Antonio Racquets, 27-26, winning a 13-point super-tiebreaker in front of a crowd of 1,089.

The Strings improved to 1-6; the Racquets dropped to 1-6.

Los Angeles had a 17-15 lead heading into the fourth set, then nearly squandered the match in men’s singles and mixed doubles.

Bjorn Borg was defeated, 6-2, by Andrew Sznajder, giving the Racquets a 21-20 lead going into the final set of mixed doubles.

The Racquets’ Cammy MacGregor and Sven Salumaa took a 5-2 lead in the final set, but the Strings won the next three games.

The Strings then won the tiebreaker, 5-4, and the super-tiebreaker, 7-2.

The Strings had opened the match by taking a slim lead in women’s doubles, winning 6-5 (5-2).

Kimberly Po then lost, 6-5 (5-4), to San Antonio’s Shaun Stafford.

Borg and Stefanki gave the Strings their 17-15 lead by defeating Salumaa and Sznajder, 6-4.