Breakers add local:

Kaes Van’t Hof already calls Newport Beach home.

More specifically this summer, he will call Newport Beach Country Club home.

That’s where Van’t Hof will play his home matches for the Newport Beach Breakers this World Team Tennis season, the team announced Wednesday. The Breakers begin their season July 3 at Sacramento, with the first home match two days later against Kansas City.

The team needed to add Van’t Hof because Bruno Echagaray will not be playing as he recovers from back surgery. When Breakers Coach Trevor Kronemann heard that, he said Van’t Hof was the first person who came to his mind.

“We’re really excited about having Kaes play for us,” Kronemann said. “Obviously, he’s a local talent. I think, for the community, having a local guy with Kaes’ talent is great to have out there.”

Kronemann, also the men’s tennis coach at UC Irvine, said he tried to recruit Van’t Hof when he was coaching at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. He has known the family for some time; Kronemann and Van’t Hof’s father, Robert, used to play against each other in World Team Tennis. Kronemann played for Charlotte and Robert Van’t Hof played and later coached for Sacramento.

But, after graduating from Mater Dei High, Kaes decided to go to USC, where his father was the NCAA men’s singles champion in 1980. Kaes just finished off a similarly sparkling four-year career with the Trojans.

The two-year USC captain, 21, won the NCAA men’s Division I national championship in doubles with partner Robert Farah on May 26. It capped a year where Van’t Hof went 41-3 in doubles. He won his last 26 doubles matches of the year and also won the Pac-10 conference championship with Farah at the Ojai Valley Tennis Tournament in April.

Van’t Hof, also the Pac-10 champion in singles, advanced to the second round at the Division I finals after upsetting No. 2-seeded Greg Ouellette of the University of Florida in the first round.

Named an All-American in doubles, Van’t Hof said he looks forward to playing with the Breakers. On Newport Beach, he’ll be able to play doubles with Breakers mainstay Ramon Delgado.

“I’m really excited,” Van’t Hof said Wednesday from Northern California, where he is playing in a futures tournament this week. “I hear a lot of good things about the Breakers and World Team Tennis. I’ve watched it in Newport the last couple of years.

“It couldn’t be better to be able to play in front of family and friends. All my buddies will be around. It’s going to be really fun.”

Van’t Hof said he was also excited about the opportunities that World Team Tennis brings. He could play mixed doubles with Lindsay Davenport, the former world No. 1 who is playing at home with the Breakers on July 10 against Springfield. He could also play against John McEnroe and Anna Kournikova.

“It’s nice to play against someone like Anna Kournikova, who you grew up having a crush on,” Van’t Hof said. “It’s cool. It’s your idols who you grew up watching.”

Van’t Hof, the CIF Southern Section Individual singles champion in 2004 with Mater Dei, also brings smarts to the court. He finished up a double major at USC (business and accounting) with a 3.28 grade-point average, and was named to the Pac-10 All-Academic first team.

Breakers executive director Jeff Purser said he also thinks Van’t Hof will be a great fit.

“We expect him to do well,” Purser said. “It’s not simply a local play, ‘Hey, let’s get a local guy in and sell some tickets.’ Trevor knows talent, and he’s optimistic that Kaes will do well and hold his own. He’ll be a very valuable asset to the team.”

MATT SZABO may be reached at (714) 966-4614 or by e-mail at [email protected].