TEAM TENNIS : Dukes’ Mixed Pair Upset; Wichita Wins Title, 26-23

When Greg Patton expected the best, he got the worst.

“I was smacking my lips,” said Patton, Newport Beach Dukes coach. “I thought we had it.”

As it turned out, Patton and the Dukes had it handed to them in the World TeamTennis championship match Sunday. Newport Beach lost to the Wichita Advantage, 26-23, as the Dukes’ mixed doubles team of Trevor Kronemann and Manon Bollegraf was beaten for the first time this season. Newport Beach finished the season 14-2, Wichita 10-7.

Kronemann and Bollegraf came into Sunday’s final with a 6-0 record in WTT mixed doubles play. So, when the Duke tandem took the court for the fifth and final set of the match and Newport Beach leading, 21-20, Patton was on the sideline displaying a wide smile to the standing-room-only crowd.

When Kronemann and Bollegraf left the court 35 minutes later, 6-2 losers to T.J. Middleton and Lori McNeil, Patton’s smile had been erased. “I didn’t think it would happen,” Patton said. “Those two guided us to the mountaintop . . . they were the reason we were 14-2 this season.”

McNeil teamed with 17-year-old amateur Julie Steven for a 6-5 (5-3) victory over Newport Beach’s Katrina Adams and Bollegraf in women’s doubles. McNeil then beat Adams, 6-4.

The Dukes’ Rikard Bergh and Kronemann tied the match, 15-15, with a 6-3 victory over Buff Farrow and Middleton. When Bergh beat Farrow, 6-5 (5-4), Newport Beach had its first lead, 21-20, but Middleton and McNeil took over.