Nash Beats Pressure, Takes Title

Though far removed from the premier events of the tennis world, for those competing at the USTA Men’s 45 Hardcourt National Championships, the stress is just as intense.

“You wouldn’t believe the pressure out there,” said David Nash, a 45-year-old bank vice president who won the tournament’s singles championship Sunday at Lindborg Racquet Club. “For us, this is as far as we can go.”

Drawing on powerful serves, Nash, of Wayzata, Minn., defeated Len Saputo, 6-3, 6-4, to win the title, his first in the 45-and-over division. In 1985 and ‘89, Nash won the national grass court singles title in the men’s 40 division.

“(My serve) is a weapon for me,” Nash said. “If I don’t get some first serves in, I’m in trouble.”

Saputo, a 50-year-old physician from Walnut Creek, Calif., who won the hardcourt 45 title in 1985 and ’88 and was seeded sixth in the tournament, gave fourth-seeded Nash little trouble. Nash won the first set, 6-3, and each player held his serve through eight games of the second.

But serving at 4-4, Nash faltered a bit and was down two break points, 15-40. Then Nash won four consecutive points, making each of his first serves, to save the game.

“That was a pivotal point of the match,” Saputo said. “But he basically was really pumped up and hitting the ball too hard for me. I wasn’t up to the pace.”

Nash broke Saputo in the following game to win the match, the $500 first prize and the gold-ball trophy.

The hardcourt championships is the second of four major USTA tournaments for men 45 and older. Nash lost to Jim Osborne in the quarterfinals of his first 45 major, the Indoor Championships, in February in Salt Lake City. Saturday, Nash defeated top-seeded Jim Parker, 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, in the semifinals.

In doubles, Dick Johnson and Jody Rush, who won the doubles title at February’s Indoor Championships, rallied to defeat Parker, of Houston, and Ken Robinson, of San Carlos, 2-6, 6-3, 6-3.

Johnson, of St. Louis, and Rush, of Tumwater, Wash., recovered from a rough start. Each was broken early in the first set and they trailed, 4-0.