USC’s Leach, Cal’s DeVries Reach Tennis Final

Rick Leach of USC made both his father and his coach happy Saturday by reaching the final of the Volvo Tennis/All-American Championships at the Los Angeles Tennis Center on the UCLA campus.

Of course, it wasn’t all that difficult since his father and coach are one and the same person.

But as pleasing as his son’s victory was, for Dick Leach it was a day of mixed emotions. He rejoiced as his son, seeded fifth, defeated Bobby Blair of Arkansas, 6-2, 6-2. He was less happy, however, when unseeded Steve DeVries of Cal defeated sixth-seeded Jorge Lozano of USC, 2-6, 7-6, 6-4, in the other semifinal.

Blair, not DeVries, had been the upsetter earlier in this tournament, knocking off top-seeded Jim Grabb of Stanford in the second round and No. 7 Brad Pearce of UCLA in the quarterfinals.

But Rick Leach would not be upset by his long-time rival from junior tennis. The two have been playing against each other since they were 13 years old.

“He knows how I play,” Blair said. “He kept me back. I served only average. I think the difference was he was hitting his groundstrokes better than I’ve ever seen him.”

Leach agreed.

“I think that’s the part of my game that is most improved,” he said. “I’ve worked on my groundstrokes; now I can stay back and work the points around.

“In the first set, I stayed back, mainly because I wasn’t getting my first serve in. He wanted to rally in the backcourt.”

Blair stayed back, too, hitting hard and trying to pass. But he clearly wasn’t up to his previous form.

“It did surprise me how he played today,” Leach said. “He had beaten so many seeded players. I’m sure he was tired. It’s hard to play so many matches.”

Blair had to come up through qualifying, playing four matches. When he finished Saturday, Blair had played eight matches.

“I felt kind of tired,” he said. “I wasn’t satisfied with the tournament. My having to play qualifying was kind of a fluke. I don’t think the No. 20-ranked college player should have to play qualifying.

“I’ve never beaten Rick, so give him credit. He had the edge completely today.”

Leach was nearly in today’s final against teammate Lozano. The earlier semifinal appeared to be in hand for Lozano, but he let it get away.

Lozano, from Guadalajara, forced DeVries to stay back in the first set and won easily, but the roles reversed in the second set.

DeVries’ coach set on the bench and kept up a continual conversation with his player, and it seemed to help.

“I was staying back too much,” DeVries said. “He told me to get in more. He told me to attack more. It’s not my natural style, yet.”

Lozano was up, 5-4, and serving with two match points when he began to slip. He lost the set and struggled in the third set.

“After winning those two points, I got a lot of confidence and started hitting the ball well,” DeVries said.

Lozano agreed, saying he would like to have those two points back.

“It was definitely a change of momentum,” he said.