A Quieter Coach Expects Dukes to Make Noise on Court : Team Tennis: Lopez replaces quotable Patton and has made the team stronger by adding two doubles specialists.

For four years, Newport Beach Dukes owner Fred Lieberman had Greg Patton, the greatest quote machine in World TeamTennis, as his coach.

Now that Patton and his wacky quotes are in Idaho with the newest WTT franchise, Lieberman has Angel Lopez, who before his first match already has become probably the biggest non-playing drawing card in WTT history.

About 150 of Lopez’s closest friends from the San Diego Tennis & Racquet Club are taking two buses from San Diego to Newport Beach Saturday to see Lopez’s home debut Saturday against the Sacramento Capitals.

“That’s more business than Patton brought me in four years,” Lieberman joked. “I just hope the guy can win. If the guy can win, I’ll be a hero.”

Patton wasn’t exactly a loser. The last two years, he led Newport Beach to the WTT final where the Dukes lost both times. Last season, the Dukes had the WTT’s best regular-season record at 13-1 before losing to Wichita, 26-23, in the final.

With doubles specialists Kelly Jones and Larisa Neiland added to a team that already had Zina Garrison Jackson and Trevor Kronemann, Lieberman said the expectations for this season, which begins tonight at San Antonio, are higher than last.

“We improved our team drastically,” he said. “We’ve got the strongest team on paper, but there’s always luck and injuries involved, too.”

Lieberman freely acknowledges that Lopez is partly responsible for the Dukes having the league’s strongest team on paper. Lopez recruited his former student Jones, who was the No. 1 doubles player in the world two years ago.

So not only is Lopez the Dukes’ promoter, he’s also a part-time general manager.

However, he is not a quote machine.

“I’m not Greg Patton,” Lopez said. “I don’t have little rhymes for everything. I’m just a hard-working, soft-spoken guy. But I get the job done.”

Lopez was not kidding about the hard-working part. He often spends his days teaching nine hours of tennis at the San Diego Tennis & Racquet Club, where he has been the head pro since 1979.

He is also president of the U.S. Professional Tennis Assn.’s San Diego Division, which has 300 tennis pros as members, and he is a board member for the U.S. Tennis Assn.’s Southern California Section and the San Diego Tennis Patrons.

Lopez also has found time to coach Garrison Jackson, Jones, Michael Chang, Angelica Gavaldon and Tami Whitlinger. During 1989 and 1990, Lopez was a touring coach for Jones and Garrison Jackson.

It was Garrison Jackson who recruited Lopez to be the Dukes’ coach.

“Zina called me and asked if I’d be interested in coaching the Dukes,” Lopez said. “She sounded really excited about team tennis and that got me excited. Then she said, ‘Let’s go get Kelly.’ So we did.”

Though he’s not familiar with team tennis, Lopez said his familiarity with his team should make up for any shortcomings he has with the format.

“I’ve got my little rule book that I’m studying, but I think good communication is very important,” said Lopez, who played college tennis at Arizona in 1977 and 1978. “And it’s not like I’m working with four people I don’t know. I know Kelly and Zina well. I’ve met Trevor. He’s a great guy and I met Laurisa at Wimbledon. I started thinking the other day, ‘This could be a lot of fun.’ ”

Lopez said it wouldn’t have been much fun anywhere but Newport Beach.

“Being in Southern California got me excited,” Lopez said. “If the job was in Sacramento, there’s no way I would have taken it.”

Lieberman said he’s simply happy Lopez took it.

“I don’t know the drill in team tennis for how you find a coach,” Lieberman said. “Greg Patton was my third choice. The good news is that Zina called me and recommended Angel to be the coach.”

The better news is that season-ticket sales suddenly look a lot better because of an influx of San Diego fans.

“People in San Diego are pretty excited about this,” Lopez said. “People in Orange County don’t know me that well yet.”

Lieberman is hoping that will soon change.

Duke Facts

League: World TeamTennis, 14th year

Format: A match consists of five sets, one each of men’s and women’s singles, men’s and women’s doubles and mixed doubles. Game scoring is no-ad (first team to win four points wins the game). A nine-point tiebreaker will be played should a set be tied at five games. A 13-point super-tiebreaker will be played should the match be tied after five sets.

Notes: Charlotte, Idaho and St. Louis are the newest franchises, replacing Kansas City, Minneapolis and Los Angeles . . . There will be three four-team divisions this year, East, Central and West. Last year, there were two six-team divisions. Each division champion makes the playoffs along with three wild-card teams. The wild cards are the next three teams with the best overall won/loss records. . . The semifinals will be held Friday and Saturday, Aug. 5 and 6 in Sacramento. The final is Aug. 7 in Sacramento . . . The Dukes’ Greg Patton was coach of the year last year and Duke Trevor Kronemann was male co-MVP with Phoenix’s Jimmy Connors . . . Atlanta’s Martina Navratilova was the female MVP . . . NBC is televising four WTT matches this season, one of them live. CBS and ABC will televise one match each on a tape-delay basis. ESPN will show the final on a same day, tape-delay basis. Tickets for Duke home games are $15 and $25, except for the July 30 match with Phoenix and Jimmy Connors, which will be $25 and $35. For ticket information, call 644-5800.

Duke Schedule: July 6--Dukes at San Antonio; July 7--Dukes at Wichita; July 9--Sacramento at Dukes, 7 p.m.; July 12--Idaho at Dukes, 7 p.m.; July 14--Dukes at New Jersey; July 15--Dukes at Atlanta; July 17--Dukes at Idaho; July 19--Florida at Dukes, 7 p.m.; July 23--Dukes at Sacramento; July 24--Wichita at Dukes, 7 p.m.; July 26--Charlotte at Dukes, 7 p.m.; July 27--St. Louis at Newport Beach, 7 p.m.; July 29--Dukes at Phoenix; July 30--Phoenix at Dukes, 5 p.m. Home games at John Wayne Tennis Club.

EAST DIVISION

Atlanta Thunder: Key player--Bjorn Borg.

Charlotte Express: Key player--Johan Kriek.

Florida Twist: Key player--Andres Gomez.

New Jersey Stars: Key player--Martina Navratilova.

CENTRAL DIVISION

Kansas City Explorers: Key players--Luke and Murphy Jensen.

St. Louis Aces: Key player--Ken Flach.

San Antonio Racquets: Key player--Kevin Curren.

Wichita Advantage: Key player--Lori McNeil.

WEST DIVISION

Idaho Sneakers: Key players--Jon and Rick Leach.

Newport Beach Dukes: Key player--Zina Garrison Jackson.

Phoenix Smash: Key player--Jimmy Connors.

Sacramento Capitals: Key player--Debbie Graham.