Newest Dukes Can’t Save Match Against Sacramento

Rick Leach and Amy Frazier, the Newport Beach Dukes’ latest ringers, couldn’t stop the Sacramento Capitals from gaining a 25-21 victory in front of 500 Saturday night at the John Wayne Tennis Club.

Leach teammed with Tim Pawsat to win the men’s doubles, 6-3, over Kelly Jones and Robert Van’t Hof. But Frazier and Elise Burgin lost to Teri Whitlinger and Alysia May, 6-1.

Greg Patton, Dukes coach, would have liked to have taken more advantage of Leach, a Davis Cup doubles veteran, and Frazier, who reached the round of 16 at Wimbledon this month, but TeamTennis has a ringer rule. It’s simple: A team cannot use a player in more than one set until that player has played in at least two matches. It tends to keep things fair, lest a team run out and get, say, Stefan Edberg to play in a key match.

Leach replaced Jorge Lozano, who injured his back in last Sunday’s loss to Wichita and who had earlier this week been replaced by Carsten Hoffman (for a set Sunday) and Stephen Enochs (for two matches). Frazier subbed for Manon Bollegraf, who returned to Holland to begin Federation Cup play this week.

The changes figure to help the Dukes (2-4) in the long run, but Saturday night the crowd saw only brief hints of what might be. Leach, who teamed with Pawsat to win the 1986 NCAA doubles title when both played at USC, said he had always wanted to play TeamTennis.

“Jorge got hurt and they needed a player,” said Leach, whose Davis Cup doubles partner is Jim Pugh.

Said Pawsat: “When they told me he was going to play, I didn’t think it was true. I haven’t played with him in a long time, but some things you never forget. We’ve always gotten along really well. A righty (Pawsat) and a lefty (Leach) is always good. Some people just play well together.”

In other sets, Jones defeated Pawsat, 6-3, in men’s singles. Burgin defeated May, 6-4, in women’s doubles. And Whitlinger and Van’t Hof defeated Burgin and Pawsat, 6-5 (5-2), in the mixed doubles set that clinched the victory for Sacramento (2-4).

The Dukes play the L.A. Strings, featuring Jimmy Connors, at 7 tonight at the Forum before returning home to play host to the New Jersey Stars at 7 p.m. Thursday.