Hecklers, Dukes Get Best of Kronemann : Team Tennis: UC Irvine graduate loses two of his three sets, and Newport Beach defeats Charlotte Heat, 29-17.

NEWPORT BEACH —  Before the Charlotte Heat’s Team Tennis match with the Newport Beach Dukes, Trevor Kronemann was excited about returning to Orange County.

But after the Dukes defeated the Heat, 29-17, and Kronemann, a four-time All-American at UC Irvine, lost two of his three sets, he was upset with more than just his performance.

Kronemann had vocal supporters among the 578 people who watched the match at John Wayne Tennis Club Tuesday night, but he was upset that hecklers hounded him during his singles match.

“Little kids down here were saying, ‘choke, choke, choke,’ ” Kronemann said. “I come here and that’s the greeting I get? It’s unbelievable. It’s just not right.

“(But) it’s partly my fault because I let them get to me and that’s the first time that’s happened all year.”

The victory put the Dukes (7-4) into a tie for last place in the West Division with the Sacramento Capitals, who lost to the Los Angeles Strings Tuesday. The San Antonio Racquets, who play the Dukes Thursday in Newport Beach, are a half-match ahead.

Kronemann, who graduated from UC Irvine this spring, is in his first summer of professional tennis. He was in Kansas playing in a month-long USTA event when the Heat asked him to replace injured Mark Dickson before the season began.

He accepted and has become the Heat’s top men’s player, competing in singles, mixed and men’s doubles.

In mixed doubles, teaming with Ronni Reis, Kronemann showed the power of his fiery demeanor.

“You don’t make Trevor mad, because all of a sudden you start unleasing that nuclear power plant in him,” said Dukes Coach Greg Patton, who coached Kronemann at UC Irvine.

Sophie Amiach didn’t anger Kronemann in the mixed doubles set Tuesday but she bore the brunt of his reaction to a line call.

During the seventh game of the set, which was tied, 3-3, Kronemann disputed a line call that gave the Dukes a 40-30 lead. Amiach went to the net on the next point and paid for it. Kronemann hit two big forehands at her. The first she managed to return to Kronemann; the second knocked the racket from her hand.

Although the Dukes won the next point to take the game, Kronemann and Reis won the set, 6-5, when Kronemann won the final two points of the tie breaker--one with an ace; the other with a service winner.

In men’s singles, the Dukes’ Roger Smith cooled off Kronemann, 6-3, as Kronemann lost his final two serves.

In the final set of the match, Marty Davis and Smith defeated Kronemann and Paul Koscielski, 6-4.

The Dukes’ women opened the match with two victories, which gave Newport Beach a 12-4 lead.

Frazier and Amiach took a 3-0 lead against Reis and Donna Faber, but the Heat closed the deficit to 4-3 when Frazier lost her serve. The Dukes then broke Faber’s serve and Amiach won her serve and the set, 6-3.

Frazier then extended the Dukes’ lead with a 6-1 victory in women’s singles.