Leach-Pugh Breakup Affects U.S. Team : Davis Cup: Doubles partners part ways. Americans might opt for a return to Flach-Seguso in final against France.

The two most-asked questions about the U.S. Davis Cup team are these:

(1) Who’s playing?

(2) Who’s not?

Always a steamy breeding ground for controversy, the U.S. team might have cooled off a little now that doubles specialists Rick Leach and Jim Pugh seem to have become the answer to question No. 2, perhaps permanently.

Leach and Pugh, unbeaten in Davis Cup matches but not selected for last month’s semifinal round against Germany, have no plans to play together again and are looking for new partners for 1992.

“It’s their demise,” said Randy McWilliams, a fitness expert from Palm Desert and a friend and adviser to Pugh. “It’s kind of like a marriage that fell apart. I think they just grew in different ways.”

Pugh, who is taking the rest of the year off, needs an extended vacation away from tennis, McWilliams said.

“He needs time off to relax, so he can just go back on the court next year and be eager to play and he won’t get burned out again,” McWilliams said.

With Pugh idle, Leach teamed with David Wheaton last week in a tournament in Tokyo and reached the quarterfinals. This week in a tournament at Lyon, France, Leach is playing with Kelly Jones.

Winners of 18 tournaments, Leach and Pugh took three Grand Slam doubles titles--Wimbledon in 1990 and the Australian Open in 1989 and ‘90--and were the No. 1 doubles team in the world in both 1988 and ’89.

However, Leach and Pugh began to slide this year, winning only two tournaments. McWilliams said Pugh’s attempts at singles play hurt the doubles partnership.

“There were a lot of events where Jim got into the main draw and Rick didn’t, and Rick put a lot of pressure on Jim to play a lot of doubles tournaments to make some money,” McWilliams said. “Jim needs to learn to take care of himself.”

Leach and Pugh reached the French Open final, but they lost in the first round of Wimbledonas the defending champions, and in the second round of the U.S. Open.

It was their upset loss to Czechs Petr Korda and Karel Novacek at Flushing Meadow that cost Leach and Pugh their Davis Cup spot. Despite a 6-0 record in the annual international competition, the U.S. Tennis Assn. passed over Leach and Pugh, and chose Scott Davis and David Pate to play Germany in the Davis Cup semifinals.

Davis and Pate lost in straight sets to Eric Jelen and Michael Stich--a defeat that might have cost them their spot in the final against France next month at Lyon.

There is speculation that Tom Gorman, the U.S. team captain, and David Markin, immediate past president of the USTA, will drop Davis and Pate, and are leaning toward replacing them with Ken Flach and Robert Seguso, the team deposed by Leach and Pugh.

Although the United States has not announced the singles players it will field against France, there are strong indications that Andre Agassi and John McEnroe are the front-runners.

McEnroe, ranked No. 26, won both his matches on grass against Spain in the Davis Cup quarterfinals at Newport, R.I., in June. Agassi, ranked No. 8, won both his matches in the 3-2 U.S. victory over Germany at Kansas City, Mo.

The absence of Leach and Pugh at Kansas City remains a source of controversy. Pugh said he was unsure why the USTA would choose Davis and Pate, who had not won a match on clay this year and had never played Davis Cup.

“I could maybe understand if they had chosen Flach and Seguso, but not Davis and Pate,” Pugh said. “Their record (on clay) was so terrible.”

Pugh also indicated that he was misled by The U.S. captain first told Pugh that he and Leach would play against Germany, then decided differently three days later, according to Pugh, who would not speculate on what had changed.

However, the longtime manager of Leach and Pugh, Jay Senter, was sure he knew what had happened.

“There’s no question whatsoever that Markin made the decision,” said Senter, who is no longer working with Leach and Pugh. “It’s Markin’s show. Everybody knows Gorman has nothing to say about anything.”

Gorman has maintained that the choice of a doubles team was his alone and that the choice of a doubles team for the final is not yet firm.

“You can be sure they’ll pick Flach and Seguso for France, no matter what,” Senter said. “Controversy will continue. As long as there is Davis Cup and David Markin, there will never be peace on earth.”