Tennis Roundup : UCLA’s Pearce Surprises USC’s Leach

Brad Pearce, a UCLA sophomore, upset top-seeded Rick Leach of USC, 6-2, 6-2, Friday in the quarterfinals of the NCAA singles tennis championships at Athens, Ga.

Twice earlier this season, the fifth-seeded Pearce had lost to Leach in close matches.

“I was confident I could beat him today if I could stay at the top of my game,” Pearce said. “I felt the pressure was on him because it’s tough to win three in a row against someone who plays you tough. Today, it was my turn to get the big shots on the key points of the match.”

Earlier in the day, Pearce rallied to defeat Bobby Weiss of Pepperdine, 3-6, 6-2, 6-2. Leach beat Christian Schulthes of Utah, 6-1, 7-6, to reach the quarterfinals.

Stanford’s Patty Fendick won her first NCAA women’s singles championship at Austin, Tex., beating second-seeded Gretchen Rush of Trinity in the final, 2-6, 6-1, 6-3.

Miami’s Ronni Reis and Lise Gregory completed a perfect 29-0 season by defeating Rush and Ann Hulbert in the doubles final, 7-6, 6-2.

At Lugano, Switzerland, Bettina Bunge defeated 14-year-old Mary Joe Fernandez, 7-5, 6-3, to gain the semifinals of a $100,000 tournament.

At Dusseldorf, West Germany, the United States beat West Germany, 2-1, to finish third in the Red Group behind France and Argentina in the $500,000 World Team Cup tournament.

Hansjoerg Schwaier of West Germany defeated Eliot Teltscher, 7-6, 4-6, 7-6, but Kevin Curren beat Andreas Maurer, 6-1, 6-2, and the U.S. doubles team of Curren and Robert Seguso defeated Maurer and Wolfgang Popp, 6-3, 3-6, 6-4.