Leach Positive This Is His Final Season

Rick Leach swears he’s really leaving this time. A former standout at Laguna Beach High who has won 40 ATP Tour doubles titles, Leach has contemplated retirement for five years. But this time, he’s serious.

“You get to a point where you know it’s time,” he said. “I’ve been fortunate to stay at the highest level for a long time. But my mind and my body are telling me it’s time. I just want to stay home and be with my family.”

But Leach’s results and his wife, Christie, are telling him there is still some life left in his 35-year-old body. One of the elder statesmen on the men’s tour, Leach is enjoying one of the best seasons of his 14-year career--claiming three doubles titles with partner Ellis Ferreira, including the Australian Open, and $202,685 in purses.

Tuesday afternoon, Leach and Justin Gimelstob, seeded first, defeated John Paul Fruttero and Zack Fleishman, 6-4, 6-4, in the first round of the Mercedes-Benz Cup at UCLA.

“Christie convinced me to play again this year,” Leach said. “She told me I would have been crazy to stop, the way I was playing. But now I just have to put my foot down.”

Leach and Ferreira ended the 1998 and ’99 seasons ranked fifth and fourth. Leach wasn’t expecting much in this, his farewell season. He simply wanted to win at least one tournament--keeping alive his streak of winning at least one title for 14 consecutive years.

He took care of that in Auckland, New Zealand, his first event of the season. Leach followed it up by winning his third Australian Open title and his fifth Grand Slam men’s doubles championship--he has also won four mixed doubles Grand Slams. In the Australian finals, Leach and Ferreira won in 4 hours 21 minutes over Andrew Kratzmann and Wayne Black--winning, 18-16, in the two-hour fifth set.

“It’s sad knowing this is my last Wimbledon, my last French Open,” Leach said.

Some of Leach’s buddies may be sadder than he is.

“All my friends are going to be looking for a new way to get into tournaments,” he said. “They’re not going to get grounds badges anymore.”

Leach will finish out the year by playing the U.S. Open and a few fall tournaments, but he begins the next phase of his life in September, when he becomes an assistant coach to his father, Dick Leach, at USC. Rick Leach, who was an All-American for the Trojans, said he plans to watch his father closely and take lots of notes.

“I’ve never coached before,” he said. “I don’t know if I’ll be any good. I’ll see if I can help some of these kids get ready for the tour and improve their games.”

Leach didn’t rule out the possibility of taking over as head coach when his dad retires.

“That’s a possibility,” he said. “I’m waiting to see if I like it.”

If Leach coaches like he plays, he might have a second career.

“I was really a thinking man’s tennis player,” he said. “I don’t have a big serve. I’m more of a finesse player.”

That finesse player has won almost $3.5 million over his career.

“I’ve done a lot better than I ever thought,” he said.

CHEC FOR KIDS

On Sunday, the Sunny Hills Racquet Club will hold a nonprofit fund-raising event benefiting the Childrens Health Environmental Coalition (CHEC). The event--the CHEC Grand Slam For Kids--will feature a kids’ clinic, hosted by Pavel Slozil, former coach of Steffi Graf and Anna Kournikova. The benefit starts at 4 p.m. and concludes with a professional exhibition match.

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