Top-Ranked Men’s Doubles Team of Leach and Pugh Falls in 4 Sets

If tennis were baseball, the top-ranked doubles team of Rick Leach and Jim Pugh just went one for four.

Leach and Pugh, who won the Australian Open, the first Grand Slam of the year, lost in the quarterfinals of the U.S. Open, 4-6, 7-6 (7-3), 6-4, 7-6 (7-3), to the team of John McEnroe and Mark Woodforde.

For Leach and Pugh, it was the end of an unsatisfying Grand Slam year for the team that began with high hopes of clearly establishing itself as the top doubles team in the world.

Leach and Pugh lost in the first round of the French Open and lost to the team of Anders Jarryd and John Fitzgerald in the final at Wimbledon.

“We’ve been up and down,” Pugh said. “Last year, we played solidly for a long time. This year, sometimes we played well and sometimes we played badly.”

McEnroe said he thinks Leach and Pugh have the potential to be a good Davis Cup team, but he isn’t sold on them. The U.S. team of Ken Flach and Robert Seguso suffered its first Davis Cup loss in a semifinal defeat at West Germany.

McEnroe isn’t sure Leach and Pugh would have made any difference.

“Beating (Boris) Becker and (Eric) Jelen in Germany isn’t exactly an easy task,” McEnroe said. “As far as Leach and Pugh, I think that’s a decision you don’t have to make for a while.

“Form can change in three months. I’m not even sure if I’m going to be on the team. All I can say is they’ve got some potential.”

Leach said their showing at the Open should not hurt their chances for the Davis Cup.

“Last year, we beat Flach and Seguso in the semifinals and it didn’t seem to mean anything,” Leach said. “I think we’ve done considerably better than the other team. If they want to call us, we’re ready to go.”