Johnson lifts Breakers to win

World Team Tennis is known for having an enthusiastic announcer and loud music, but Orange County Breakers fans lost both Monday night late in the team’s home opener.

At 9:30 p.m., sound was cut off at Newport Beach Tennis Club. The announcer explained that it was due to a city ordinance.

The only sounds left came from the fans in the form of applause. Marquee player Steve Johnson earned it after helping the Breakers capture their first win of 2016.

Johnson beat Ryan Harrison of the San Diego Aviators in a men’s singles tiebreaker in the final set of the night as Orange County won, 22-20.

The second of four matches in four nights between the teams went the Breakers’ way. They’ll play San Diego again on the road on Tuesday, and at home on Wednesday.

Johnson played for the Breakers when they were last in Orange County in 2013, earning WTT Male Rookie of the Year honors before the team moved to Texas. A lot has changed since then for Johnson, namely that his ranking has gotten much higher, to No. 22 in the world.

Johnson, the former Orange High and USC star, is also bound for the Summer Olympics to compete for Team USA in doubles with Jack Sock. He was actually headed from Newport Beach to LAX late Monday night, to catch a red-eye flight to Houston before heading to Rio on Tuesday.

“I love playing at home and everything, so I’m super-excited to come back,” said Johnson, playing his only scheduled match of the season for the Breakers. “Having a chance to win at the end was pretty cool. You know, it’s just fun to be able to play in front of a lot of home fans, friends and family. I’m just happy to see everybody have a fun night, a beautiful night here in Orange County. I couldn’t be happier with the outcome.”

Johnson had to work for his victory over Harrison in men’s singles, after the Breakers took a 17-16 advantage into the fifth and final set. Johnson opened up a 4-1 lead over Harrison in the first-to-five format, putting the Breakers one game away from winning the match.

But Harrison rallied to 4-4, forcing a tiebreaker. If Harrison won that, it would have tied the total team score at 21-21, and a 13-point super-tiebreaker would have been played.

Instead, Johnson went out to leads of 3-0 and 4-1 in the tiebreaker, which was also first to five. Harrison hit a couple of winners to bring it to 4-3, but his forehand into the net sealed the match for the Breakers.

“Ryan’s a fighter, that’s what he does,” said Johnson, who beat Harrison, 6-4, 6-4, at the ATP Citi Open two weeks ago in Washington D.C. “I didn’t serve well the last game, but I finished it off in the tiebreaker, so I was super-happy with that.”

The Breakers never trailed the match. They won the first two sets completed, as Scott Lipsky and Alla Kudryavtseva beat San Diego’s Raven Klaasen and Darija Jurak, 5-2, in mixed doubles. Nicole Gibbs then edged Shelby Rogers, 5-4, in women’s singles.

But San Diego responded with a 5-3 men’s doubles win by Harrison and Klaasen over Johnson and Lipsky. Jurak and Rogers then defeated Gibbs and Kudryavtseva, 5-4, in women’s doubles to pull the Aviators even closer before Johnson closed out the match.

“If we can get that women’s doubles going, that would really help us,” Breakers Coach Rick Leach said. “It was great to get a win, we needed it. San Diego has a very good team, and they have a lot of confidence right now. It was good to stop them. I think being at home helped a lot … and it was great having Stevie because he’s so confident right now.”

Confident enough to stick around after the match to sign autographs and take pictures, and still make a red-eye flight at LAX a couple of hours later.