Wichita Takes Advantage of Dukes to Claim WTT Title : Tennis: With the championship on the line, the team of Kronemann and Bollegraf lose for the first time in mixed doubles.

Just when Greg Patton expected the best, he got the worst.

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

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

The Dukes finish the season 14-2. Champion Wichita closes at 10-7.

Kronemann and Bollegraf came into Sunday’s final 6-0. So when they took the court for the fifth and final set of the match with the Dukes leading 21-20, Patton was on the sideline flashing a wide smile to the standing-room-only crowd.

When Kronemann and Bollegraf left the court 35 minutes later as 6-2 losers, Patton’s smile was gone.

“I didn’t think it would happen,” he said. “Those two guided us to the mountaintop. They were the reason we were 14-2 this season because we would enter the final set of a close match and turn it over to them.”

Kronemann, league co-MVP, was outplayed for one of the few times this season by his male counterpart. Middleton, a former standout at Georgia, missed only one shot in the final set. He keyed a run of 10 consecutive points by the Wichita pair by hitting two of Kronemann’s powerful first serves back for winners.

“T.J. played unbelievably,” Kronemann said. “He just took over. The momentum was never in our favor.”

Wichita had the early momentum, winning the first two sets in women’s doubles and women’s singles. Lori McNeil teamed with 17-year-old amateur Julie Steven for a 6-5 (5-3) victory over the Dukes’ Katrina Adams and Bollegraf.

McNeil then beat Adams, 6-4, in singles after trailing, 3-1.

The Dukes’ Rikard Bergh and Kronemann tied the score at 15-15 with a 6-3 victory over Buff Farrow and Middleton. When Bergh beat Farrow, 6-5 (5-4), the Dukes had their first lead, 21-20.

The lead didn’t hold up. Kronemann and Bollegraf won the first game, but Middleton and McNeil took the next four and breezed for the victory and the league championship.

“One minute I was relaxing in the chair, the next minute I was flat on my butt,” Patton said. “It was like a roller coaster. I was way up, then way down. Tank and Bolle are a world-class doubles team. I didn’t expect to lose that final match.”