Leach Advances in ITCA Event at UC Irvine

With an assist from U.S. Open champion Stefan Edberg, Jon Leach is becoming a better tennis player.

Leach, who graduated from Laguna Beach High in January and helped USC to its first NCAA men’s title since 1976 in May, practiced with Edberg each day during the U.S. Open, starting in late August.

“He’s jumped a whole level from last year,” Dick Leach, Jon’s father and USC coach, said Thursday after Jon had defeated Jacobo Lamonaco of Pepperdine, 6-4, 6-1, in a first-round match of the ITCA Southern California men’s tennis championships at UC Irvine. “He’s much stronger. He realizes how critical a factor movement and conditioning is in tennis. That’s what Stefan does so well. By practicing with him, he could see how a big person can move and dominate the court, just like a big serve can.”

Leach, ranked 51st on the Volvo Tennis/Collegiate Rankings and the tournament’s fifth seeded player, was playing in his first singles match since a second-round loss to UC Irvine’s Mike Roberts in the West Coast Fall Men’s Collegiate Championships Oct. 4. A shoulder injury had kept him out of singles play since then.

In the interim, in a dual match Oct. 25 against Notre Dame, Leach teamed with Brian MacPhie to defeat Chuck Coleman and David DiLucia, ranked first in the nation. Dick Leach said it was the best match he’d seen Jon play.

Against Lamonaco, Leach won the first four games, then lost the next three. Leach broke Lamonaco’s serve in the eighth game for a 5-3 lead. Lamonaco broke back in the ninth game, but Leach held serve in the 10th to close out the set.

Leach won the first four games of the second set, as Lamonaco was plagued by serving problems.

All eight seeded players won their first-round matches, as did four of the nine UC Irvine entrants. Fred Bach defeated Brandon Hearn of Arizona, 4-6, 6-3, 6-3; Brett Stern topped Marx Durant of Loyola Marymount, 6-0, 6-2; Neel Grover ousted Bill Pham of UC Santa Barbara 7-6 (7-4), 6-3, and Chris Tontz eliminated Jeremy Eastman of Nevada Las Vegas, 6-2, 6-4.

Two rounds of singles play are scheduled today, beginning at 9 a.m.