Czechoslovakia Slows Down Americans With Doubles Victory : Davis Cup: Suk’s serves prove baffling to McEnroe and Leach. U.S. needs one win in singles today.

The United States trotted out its grand old man of Davis Cup tennis, 33-year-old John McEnroe, to pitch in to win the doubles Saturday and wrap up a victory over Czechoslovakia.

In his path, the Czechs placed 25-year-old Cyril Suk, ranked No. 530 in singles but a gritty doubles specialist who gets to the net faster than a bill gets to the mailbox and whose serve is, is . . . well, what exactly is his serve like?

“It’s the size of a basketball and nothing on it,” McEnroe said. “There is no excuse for us missing that serve.”

Maybe so, but that’s what happened as the underdog Czechs stayed alive and cut the U.S. lead to 2-1 in the best-of-five Davis Cup quarterfinal match. Suk and Petr Korda scored a stunningly easy 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 victory over McEnroe and Rick Leach, requiring only 1 hour 48 minutes.

The U.S. team, which needs one more victory today to clinch a Davis Cup semifinal matchup against Sweden, sends Pete Sampras out against Korda, then Andre Agassi against Karel Novacek.

One more singles victory became necessary in a rare loss by two of the top doubles players in U.S. Davis Cup history--this was McEnroe’s second loss in 18 matches and Leach’s first loss in eight matches.

It was an outcome that few could have expected when examined in the light of Friday’s two U.S. singles victories, a double feature blowout starring Sampras and Agassi.

Czechoslovakia Coach Tomas Smid was asked to explain his team’s quick turnaround: “Well, they couldn’t be worse than (Friday).”

So much for the coaching angle. Actually, McEnroe’s explanation was as good as anyone’s.

“We were outplayed,” McEnroe said. “That’s the sad truth.”

A great deal of the credit goes to Suk, who never ceased to confuse Leach and McEnroe with his slow, spinning serves. Suk, whose serves resemble Tom Candiotti’s pitches, missed exactly one first serve the entire match, finished with 97% first-serve accuracy and walked off the court with a well-deserved victory over boyhood idol McEnroe.

Said Suk: “I just had wonderful day today.”

Needless to say, McEnroe’s day wasn’t nearly so great. In the end, McEnroe spread the blame evenly.

“It was them and maybe (our) slight overconfidence,” he said. “On the other side, it was their last-ditch hope to salvage something, especially after playing so poorly (Friday).

“There was absolutely no pressure on them. All of a sudden, if Korda hit a ball over the net, it was a big surprise. Hey, he is No. 10 in the world.”

Neither McEnroe nor Leach exactly distinguished themselves with their play, but at least they were consistent. McEnroe said he and Leach felt they could just hang in and their game would pick up. It didn’t.

“You can call it a mistake,” McEnroe said. “We didn’t go to plan B or C or something.

“When it rains it pours. Everything went wrong. It just didn’t happen.”

Korda’s ace down the middle closed out the first set, which prompted McEnroe to hurl his racket underneath his chair. The second and third sets were reruns of the first--a single break of serve (Leach, McEnroe, Leach) and a series of popped-up returns of Suk’s slow-ball serves that either Suk or Korda smashed halfway to Captiva Island offshore.

“I did everything below average,” Leach said.

Tennis Notes

The last time the U.S. blew a 2-0 Davis Cup lead and lost was in 1960 at Italy. The last time it happened at home was in 1939 at Philadelphia against Australia when Bobby Riggs and Frank Parker played singles. . . . John McEnroe on the popular theory that McEnroe-and-anybody is the best doubles team in the world: “That was many years ago when I played a lot of doubles. (Rick Leach) had to get that out of his mind (that) we’re just going to have to work out on the court and win.”

Czech Coach Tomas Smid assessed the first two days: “You see the tennis (Friday), our players had no chance. Today, your players had no chance. Your players didn’t wake up with the right foot forward. I don’t know what happened to them.” . . . Smid said getting Petr Korda ready to play Friday’s singles match, which he lost in straight sets to Agassi, was “like pushing a car that ran out of gas uphill.”