USTA Men’s 45 Hardcourt Championship : Coronado’s Perley Wears Out ‘Rookie’ to Reach Final

Jim Perley of Coronado used his booming left-handed serve and wicked volley Saturday to advance to the finals of the U.S. Tennis Assn. Men’s 45 National Hardcourt Championships for the fourth time.

In senior tennis events, seniority generally proves a burden as the match wears on.

But not for the 53-year-old Perley, who dispensed with Solana Beach resident Bill Cover, 47, in a semifinal match at the Lindborg Racquet Club in Huntington Beach. The 6-1, 7-6 victory--in which the unflappable Perley hardly seemed to break a sweat--presented a compelling argument that youth can be overrated.

“He’s a rookie,” Perley said of Cover, giving his first sign of emotion with a smile. “We (50s players) can’t afford to lose to rookies or they’ll get the upper hand and start thinking they can win all the time.”

In seeking his third national 45s hardcourt title at 11 a.m., the sixth-seeded Perley will face an opponent closer to his vintage--50-year-old Gordon Davis of Santa Monica. Davis, the No. 8-seeded player, beat Hank Leichtfried of Corona del Mar in the other semifinal, 6-3, 6-2.

Cover, who already had left three seeded players in his wake, was one of the tournament’s most obviously youthful entrants despite enduring surgery to remove a stomach tumor last summer.

“What makes Bill so tough is his legs,” Perley said. “He might not have the prettiest strokes but he’s extremely fast.”

The age gap aside, Perley was in control from the start with a style as methodical as his profession, mechanical engineering. If he wins today, he will become the first player to earn three hardcourt national titles in the 45s since Emery Neale of Portland in the 1960s.

But in assessing himself, Perley was self-effacing. He won his first title in 1979 and took the tournament again in 1982. Looking back, he started to suggest that maybe his game was improving with time like “fine wine,” but he started to laugh.

“I’m dull,” he said. “I’ve always been that way. I really don’t get too upset about anything.

“A lot of players mix it up and play more of a cat-and-mouse game, which might be more crowd pleasing,” he said. “(My style) is probably not a whole lot of fun to watch, but it’s the way I have to play if I’m going to win.”

In any running race, Cover would have prevailed. Perley’s maneuvering was restricted to beating a path to the net. But with Perley stationed there, Cover would have needed wings to get his racquet on many of the angled volleys.

In the doubles semifinals, the No. 3-seeded team of Bob Duesler and Jim Nelson of Newport Beach, who held the title from 1981-1983, beat the No. 2-seeded team of Bob Dalton of Danville, Calif., and Len Saputo of Walnut Creek, 6-2, 6-1.

The No. 1-seeded team, Laguna Beach’s Dick Leach and Ron Livingston, defeated the No. 8-seeded team of Lenny Lindborg of Laguna Beach and Leichtfried, 7-6, 4-6, 6-2. Leach and Livingston will play Duesler and Nelson in an All-Orange County final at 1 p.m. Admission is free.