Leach Keeps Title Streak

Rick Leach, who will turn 37 in December, and his doubles partner, David Macpherson, 34, of Australia weren’t getting much respect from the New Balls generation in Tokyo.

They won a round-of-16 match in the AIG Japan Open tennis tournament against Barry Cowan of Great Britain and Irakli Labadze of Georgia, and the 20-year-old Labadze was incredulous.

“This guy [Labadze] said afterward, ‘I can’t believe I lost to two guys who are going to be using canes,”’ Leach said, chuckling.

The 30-something duo went on to win the title, fighting off three match points in the final Sunday for a 1-6, 7-6 (6), 7-6 (4) victory over Australians Paul Hanley and Nathan Healey.

For Leach, it continued a streak of winning at least one title every year for the last 15 years, dating to 1987. It is the longest streak among active players on the men’s tour. The ATP believes it is the longest streak in the Open era.

“I didn’t think it was going to happen,” Leach said. “I was so nervous. I didn’t feel we were going to win. We were up, 6-1 [in the tiebreaker], and [then] it was 6-4. I had a second serve and I was actually shaking. I took a deep breath and served a perfect serve right down the T.”

Leach had a lot of messages from confused friends when he returned to Southern California. They followed the match on the Internet and were surprised when the results in Monday’s papers had him losing. It turned out to be a wire service mistake. He had won his 41st title. Leach, who has won with 15 partners, says he’s leaning toward playing in 2002.

“Australia was the one place I really missed,” he said. “I didn’t get the chance to defend my title last year. My partner, Ellis Ferreira, called me ... and asked me to play. But I sprained my ankle playing basketball. I’d like to go back.”