Experience Necessary in Resume for Doubles

Seemingly, Rick Leach had everything going for him Saturday afternoon at the Palisades Tennis Club in Newport Beach.

Home-court advantage, hometown crowd, a 7-1 Davis Cup doubles record and a doubles partner, Jonathan Stark, with whom he felt comfortable.

But Leach learned Saturday that familiarity does not always breed content. Sometimes you run into a team that also knows a little bit about familiarity.

In doubles, familiarity is called chemistry. Saturday, the Netherlands team of Jacco Eltingh and Paul Haarhuis had the right chemistry as it defeated Leach and Stark, 6-4, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3, keeping the Dutch alive in the Davis Cup quarterfinals and narrowing the United States’ lead to 2-1.

Haarhuis and Eltingh are probably about as cozy as two tennis players can be. Their significant others are best friends. They travel together year-round and they’ve been playing doubles together for five years.

Leach and Stark are actually ranked higher as a team than Haarhuis and Eltingh, but rankings were deceiving Saturday. While Haarhuis and Eltingh appeared to read each other’s moves well all day, Leach and Stark were hesitant at times as they waited for each other to make a move. Haarhuis and Eltingh constantly hit volleys up the middle while Leach and Stark stood flat-footed.

Eltingh said it takes a long time to get to know your doubles partner. Great doubles teams are not born in a few months or even a few years.

“We didn’t start playing and winning every tournament when we started,” Eltingh said. “It was the same for the Woodies [Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde of Australia]. But we’ve stuck together now for five years and they already stuck together for eight years. That is when you start winning the big events.”

Leach has been one of the best American doubles players for 10 years. But he has had several partners--Kelly Jones, Jim Pugh, John McEnroe, Ken Flach, his father, Dick. He has been with Stark for less than a year, but they have gone 12-5 in 1997, reaching the semifinals at the Australian Open and the finals in Memphis and Auckland, New Zealand.

But until Saturday, Leach hadn’t played a Davis Cup match in five years.

“It was such a thrill to be back on the team,” he said. “Win or lose, we went down fighting.”