Comebacks were the theme at Breakers Stadium at Newport Beach Tennis Club in more ways than once on Sunday night, but the Orange County Breakers steadied enough overall to hand the visiting Philadelphia Freedoms a third straight defeat, 23-17.
The night began with men’s doubles, and it was the Breakers who started off the stronger of the two sides, as Dennis Novikov and Scott Lipsky began the night with a serving clinic, hitting three aces in their first two service games to build a 4-1 lead in the set. However, the Freedoms pair of Lukas Lacko and Fabrice Martin was just getting started from there, and the visiting side ran off three straight games, with Lacko in particular providing a spark with his returns of serve in the seventh game, to level the set at 4-4 and rode the momentum all the way through the tiebreak to steal the opening set for Philadelphia.
The tide quickly turned in the match behind Nicole Gibbs, however, as she duly took advantage of a slow start from Naomi Broady to get the first break and lead 3-1. Although Broady got herself back into the set, a poor serving night did her in, as she landed only 36% of her first serves to quickly give the upper hand back to Gibbs. A double fault for the Brit put her down 1-2 serving at 3-3, and after Broady hit an ace to level the game at 2-2, Gibbs ended the first point out of the ensuing GEICO Timeout with a smash winner for break point, which she converted on by showing off her speed and chasing down a dropshot for a winner. Given the lead for a second time, Gibbs made no mistake, as a backhand winner set up set point before Broady buried a forehand volley into the net to put the Breakers up 9-8.
