Leach in Altercation; Kaplan Advances in Men’s Play

Rick Leach of USC, son of Trojan tennis Coach Dick Leach, chased a fan and had to be retrained by campus police Thursday at the 103rd National Collegiate Athletic Assn. men’s tennis championships at the University of Georgia.

After losing his third-round match to Ned Carswell of Furman, 7-5, 6-7, 7-5, Leach traded insults with a Georgia reserve player, then turned over a newsstand. When a fan responded, Rick Leach went after the fan with a broken racket and stepped onto the hood of a car, saying: “C’mon, you want me to kill you?”

Police then intervened. No charges were filed.

“People couldn’t let me leave in peace,” Leach said later. “Then they started saying things about my dad I didn’t like. I’m sorry I freaked out.”

The elder Leach also apologized.

Meanwhile, Mark Kaplan of UC Irvine advanced to the semifinals by defeating Scott Warner, 6-4, 2-6, 6-4. UC Irvine’s Trevor Kroneman, UCLA’s Brett Greenwood and Leach lost in the third round.

Kaplan beat Felix Barrientos of LSU, 4-6, 7-6, 6-2, in the third round before meeting Warner in the quarterfinals.

In doubles action, Eric Amend and Luke Jensen of USC upset top-seeded Charles Backman and Royce Deppe of Texas, 6-2, 6-2. Another USC team, Leach and Scott Melville, defeated Sean Cole and Ville Jansson of Northwest Louisiana, 7-5, 6-4.