Smirnoff and Sampras - Initial Results from World Team Tennis Championship Weekend

There will be more information and overanalysis of WTT's Championship Weekend in the next couple days, but here are the results from the first two matches (the semi-final between the Philadelphia Freedoms and New York Sportimes is on going):

• The Newport Beach Breakers defeated the Missouri Lasers, 22-17 in overtime in the wildcard match on Thursday.
• Today the Breakers built on that success by defeating the regular season Western Conference champs, the Sacramento Capitals, 19-18, to advance to the finals.

The Breakers are poised to win the King Cup for the second time in the last three seasons. However, I've gotta wonder about Pete Sampras, who played in the wildcard match, but not in the semi-final game. The Breakers lost Sampras's big event - men's singles - 5-4, and that nearly proved to be a fatal loss in the closely contested match. How much commitment could he possibly have to the league if he's nowhere to be found in his team's biggest match of the year? This is another reason why WTT isn't more popular than it is - even the stars don't care. I'll be curious to see if he plays tomorrow.

And Yakov Smirnoff was a no-show to support his Springfield Lasers. The more I think about it, the more I think Yakov and WTT need each other. This is getting a full column later.