After a promising 2-1 start, the New York Buzz have resumed their losing ways, despite the addition of four-time Grand Slam champion Jim Courier to the lineup. Courier dropped both of his sets in a July 12th road loss to the New York Sportimes. Carting a 2-4 record, the Buzz would look to snap their skid at home against the Newport Beach Breakers. The atmosphere was fairly subdued at MVP Stadium, as Courier (like Martina Hingis two nights prior) proved to be less of a draw than marquee players who'd come to Schenectady in the past.

First set: men's doubles -- Courier/Crabb vs. Bowen/Delgado

Brian Vahaly was feeling a bit sore and wasn't scheduled to play singles, so Buzz coach Jolene Watanabe opted to give him a night off, inserting Jaymon Crabb into the lineup. Despite a few cheers of "c'mon Crabby!" from Vahaly, Crabb struggled throughout the opening set. After Courier was broken in the first game, Crabb double faulted twice in his own service game. Jaymon threw his racquet after allowing Devin Bowen and Ramon Delgado a quick 3-0 lead. Bowen, who bears a passing resemblance to character actor Max Perlich, tacked on a hold for 4-0.

Courier got a couple nice rounds of applause in Game 5, which saw him hold at love on a second serve ace. At 15-15 in the following game, Crabb did some nice scrambling and threw up a well placed lob, setting the table for Courier to win the point with a vintage backhand pass down the line. It was the highlight of the set for the Buzz, but was much too little, much too late. New York dropped the next three points to lose the set 5-1.

OVERALL SCORE: BREAKERS 5, BUZZ 1

Second set: men's singles -- Jim Courier vs. Ramon Delgado

Jim Courier didn't remember his one ATP Tour meeting with Ramon Delgado, a 1998 Bogota quarterfinal pulled out 7-5 in the third by Delgado. The two were longtime practice partners, however, and Courier knew approximately what to expect from the Paraguayan. The bad news for the home squad was that 34-year-old Courier is a part-time player who's been retired from the circuit for five years, whereas 28-year-old Delgado has really hit his stride in this World TeamTennis season, boasting the best men's singles record in the entire league so far.

Courier opened up a 15-40 lead on Delgado's serve in the opening game, but squandered the opportunity and soon found himself throwing up his hands in frustration. An errant Courier forehand allowed Delgado to break for 2-0. Struggling to put returns in play, Courier then fell behind the 3-0. With her team leading 8-1 in the cumulative tally, young Katerina Bondarenko of the Breakers had good reason to boogie in her chair while James Brown's "I Feel Good" played over the loudspeaker. Courier himself felt good in Game 5, pumping his fist after a nice backhand pass, but Delgado matched his hold to 4-1.

Looking like an erratic shell of his Hall of Fame self, Courier opened Game 6 by badly missing an overhead. Jim pantomimed watching the ball sail off into the distance and jokingly asked, "Was that close?" Better news came for Courier at 30-30, when he won a side-to-side rally on a spectacular running backhand. He held from there, narrowing the lead to 4-2, but there was no catching Delgado. Courier's efforts on this night ended meekly -- he dumped a drop shot into the net on set point and gave his racquet a disheartened end-over-end flip into the air.

"His confidence level has skyrocketed," Buzz coach Jolene Watanabe would later say of Ramon Delgado, who took the singles by a 5-2 count. Courier also had nothing but praise for his old practice partner. "He's not missing. He's moving well. He was defending the court well. Ramon's got a very complete baseline game and he got a high percentage of first serves in."

OVERALL SCORE: BREAKERS 10, BUZZ 3

Third set: mixed doubles -- Crabb/Lee vs. Delgado/Rodionova

Break up the Breakers -- they continued to look unbeatable in the evening's third event. Facing a break point in the opening game of the mixed doubles, Jaymon Crabb could only take a helpless stab at the ball when Ramon Delgado put a perfect return at his feet. Delgado then held at love, good for a 2-0 lead in the set and a 12-3 lead overall. Breakers coach Dick Leach, a legend from his days running the tennis program at USC, almost seemed to be struggling to stay awake during this blowout. Leach (the father-in-law of Lindsay Davenport) didn't even notice at first when Delgado asked him for a towel following the set's second game.

Janet Lee held for 1-2 and Anastassia Rodionova played a couple sloppy points in Game 4, giving the Buzz a chance to break back. However, Crabb netted a return on the 30-40 point. This prompted the angry Aussie to drop his racquet and mutter a pair of expletives. Delgado, still absolutely on fire, put away a volley to win the ensuing game point, good for a 3-1 lead. The rest of the set went with serve. Up 4-2, 40-15, Delgado rifled a forehand at Crabb, who reflexed a volley into the net, bringing the 5-2 set to a close.

OVERALL SCORE: BREAKERS 15, BUZZ 5

Fourth set: women's singles -- Evie Dominikovic vs. Katerina Bondarenko

Evie Dominikovic has been a rare bright spot for the Buzz of late, having drubbed Jenny Hopkins 5-1 in the previous night's road loss. She had a tricky assignment here, however, against Katerina Bondarenko, a 17-year-old Ukranian sensation who was the # 1 junior in the world a year ago. Dominikovic came out serving well, but struggled to win baseline rallies that were generally commanded by Bondarenko's formidable forehand. It was a forehand winner, in fact, that finally allowed Bondarenko to break for a 4-2 lead.

Rather than get despondent with her team in such a huge hole, Dominikovic came to life. "Come on!" and "yes!" were among the things she blurted out whilst breaking at love to get back on serve. Questioning a fault call at the start of Game 8, Dominikovic got an answer from teammate Jim Courier. "They called it out, Evie, but it was good," he told her. Bondarenko pushed Dominikovic to deuce and the two put together a nifty rally on game point. Katerina lost it on a backhand error and Evie celebrated with an enthusiastic fist pump.

If young Bondarenko was unnerved by this shift in momentum, it didn't show in the tiebreak. She took early control of it, charging ahead 4 points to 1. Dominikovic saved two set points, but a deep, unreturnable Bondarenko forehand clinched a 5-3 win of the 'breaker (and 5-4 win of the set) for Newport Beach.

OVERALL SCORE: BREAKERS 20, BUZZ 9

Fifth set: women's doubles -- Bondarenko/Rodionova vs. Dominikovic/Lee

No team in the 30-year history of World TeamTennis has ever rallied from a deficit of more than eight games entering the final set, so the women's doubles had the distinct feel of a moot formality. This was especially true after the bubbly Breakers tandem of Katerina Bondarenko and Anastassia "The Other A-Rod" Rodionova broke Evie Dominikovic for a 3-2 lead. Even after Bondarenko dropped serve at love to tie the set at 3-all, teammate Ramon Delgado blithely danced in his chair to the Run DMC chestnut "It's Tricky." The only person who still appeared to be taking all of this seriously was Dominikovic. When Rodionova smacked an ace to force a tiebreak, Dominikovic gestured wildly at a mark on the court, dropped her racquet, kicked it, and intoned, "That was so wide!" Nevertheless, the 4-4 score remained and the tiebreak got underway.

ED serving: Janet Lee puts away a winning forehand volley -- 1-0 BUZZ

ED: Bondarenko's lunging half-volley lands long -- 2-0 BUZZ

KB: Rodionova nets a routine forehand volley -- 3-0 BUZZ

KB: Rodionova dumps another forehand volley, this one a bit tougher -- 4-0 BUZZ

JL: Rodionova steers a forehand pass wide -- 5-0 BUZZ

OVERALL SCORE: BREAKERS 24, BUZZ 14

Overtime began with confusion, as nobody seemed sure which team was supposed to serve first. Janet Lee did the honors, holding easily. Now trailing 24-15, the Buzz needed to win nine consecutive games to stay alive. No such luck. Making up for her gaffes around the net in the tiebreak, Rodionova forcefully demolished an overhead smash on match point to make the Newport Beach victory official.

FINAL SCORE: BREAKERS 25, BUZZ 15

Needless to say, this was not what Jim Courier hoped for when he signed up to play a pair of matches with the New York Buzz. "We got off to a tough start in the doubles. That didn't really help with momentum," he said after the loss. The singles was no picnic, either. "Ramon's been playing very well. I just felt a little bit shaky on a couple backhands early on. I never really got my groove goin'. I felt OK out there, but I didn't quite get the early good start that you have to have."

Courier has no plans whatsoever for a return to the ATP Tour. "I had 13 wonderful years on tour -- started when I was 17, stopped when I was 30. It was a great road, but I also am very aware of the level of commitment it takes. It is a 52-week-a-year job." He won't be putting his racquet away, though, as he embarks on a return to the seniors circuit. "I kick back into the Champions Tour at the beginning of August. I'll be playing from now until the end of the year, periodically, averaging a tournament a month." In the meantime, "The Rock" can bask in the glow of the moving Hall of Fame induction ceremony that honored him mere days before his WTT tour of duty. "It was magical. It was one of the most special weekends I've ever had...exactly as I hoped it would be."

Sporting a 2-3 record before Courier's arrival, the Buzz are now 2-5 and practically hemorrhaging. "We have to get both of our strengths together," Buzz coach Jolene Watanabe told me after this latest defeat. "One night the guys play good; the next night the girls play well. We have to get 'em on the same page, playing well together on the same night." Watanabe says it was "wonderful" of her friend Janet Lee to answer her distress call and join the team on short notice. However, the hope is that Wimbledon doubles semifinalist Bryanne Stewart will have recovered from her back injury in time for the Buzz's next match, another home affair on Friday, July 15th. "We play Delaware and that's a must win situation for us," said Watanabe. "Brian (Vahaly) will definitely be playing and hopefully we'll get Bryanne in there too."