Learning from a legend

Rick Leach loved the sport of tennis.

He couldn’t get away from it, even at age 6. That was when his father, Dick, said Rick had his first sports injury. He had been playing so much tennis that he had injured his left elbow from overuse.

The orthopedist said Rick would never play tennis again, and a sparkling career was nearly derailed before it really ever began.

Game, set and match. But not so fast.

The improvisation necessary in a sport like tennis took over. The young lefty switched to playing right-handed until the injury could heal.

“His left elbow somehow healed,” Dick Leach said. “Then they said he could play once a week, which of course turned into two or three times a week. And he hasn’t missed a match since due to injury.”

Pretty impressive, considering that “since” for Rick Leach encapsulates 46 career Assn. of Tennis Professionals (ATP) doubles titles, nine of those Grand Slams (five in men’s doubles and four in mixed doubles).

Leach, 42, also won an ATP doubles title for 16 straight years and reached the No. 1 world ranking in 1990. And he has also played World Team Tennis for years; he’s in his second year for the Newport Beach Breakers.

The résumé speaks for itself. That’s good because Leach, who lives in Laguna Beach, isn’t big on chest-thumping.

He still lives in the same town where he leaped onto the high school scene, leading Laguna Beach High to a pair of CIF Southern Section Division 3-A boys’ tennis titles in 1980 and ’82. And there, it’s somehow easy for Leach to blend into the background noise of the crashing waves, the rock piles and the beachfront shops.

Not that Breakers Coach Trevor Kronemann, himself an accomplished doubles player, knows why.

“It’s really a story untold,” Kronemann said. “I know that’s how Ricky wants it, but he can walk around Laguna Beach and go unnoticed with nine Grand Slam doubles titles. We don’t cover the game enough, like golf does. We’ve got 10, 15 stars that drive the game.

“If not the best, he’s one of the best doubles players to play the game. These are the guys whose stories need to be told.”

Rick Leach has plenty of stories. In his senior year playing for Laguna Beach High, then known as the “Artists,” the United States Tennis Assn. invited him to play in the French Open junior tournament.

Quite an offer for a high school kid, but Rick had to decline. Why? Schedules conflicted, and he wanted to help Laguna Beach win another CIF team title.

“Whereas most kids don’t play high school tennis because they’re selfish, he had to play all four years,” Dick Leach said. “He felt the team was more important. He declined the French Open, and the USTA didn’t understand. But he still got to play juniors at Wimbledon a couple of weeks later.”

Rick went on to star at USC playing for his dad, winning NCAA doubles titles in 1986 and ’87 and earning All-American honors all four years. His younger brother Jon — now married to Lindsay Davenport — also played at USC, while younger sister Mindy played collegiate tennis at Minnesota and Alabama.

But it was at Wimbledon where Dick, who coached men’s tennis for 23 years at USC, had words of encouragement for his eldest son. In 1989, Leach and longtime partner Jim Pugh finished as runners-up at the All England Club in four tough sets.

“He and his partner were doing great, but they lost the match because they got too conservative,” Dick Leach said. “After the match, I said, ‘By the way Rick, if you get to the finals again, these guys aren’t going to give it to you. You have to finish it off.’ ”

That was what Rick Leach and Pugh did the next year, winning a hard-fought match in the finals, 7-6, 7-6, 7-6, over Pieter Aldrich and Danie Visser.

No American team would win the Wimbledon men’s doubles title again for another 11 years.

“It’s just amazing the respect [Leach] has in the locker room,” Kronemann said. “He grabs the respect of the players around him … His name’s up on the board at Wimbledon. I know millions of people who’d love to have their name on that board.”

Part of what makes Leach so successful in doubles is his sure hands and how comfortable he is at the net. Those are traits that his Breakers teammates, like mixed doubles teammate Michaela Pastikova, have noticed.

Leach and Pastikova have won 23 games in mixed doubles entering tonight’s home match for the Breakers, losing 25. Not too bad, considering the two players had never even met until this year’s Breakers season.

“He’s a really great player,” Pastikova said. “He’s trying to help me a lot. He’s a big gentleman and he has a great character.”

Rick Leach now helps other players, too, since he became a coach at the Newport Beach Tennis Club. One such player is Corona del Mar High incoming senior Fabian Matthews, who said he has been coached by Leach for about six months.

“I think it’s really great hitting with a living legend who has won so many Wimbledon titles and slams,” Matthews said. “And he has a good sense of humor. It’s just fun playing with him.”

In that six-month stretch, Matthews won doubles titles at the Ojai Valley Tennis Tournament, the CIF Individuals and the Southern California Junior Sectionals. So, has Leach helped Matthews take his game to the next level?

“I really think so,” Matthews said. “He’s helped me on my volleys and pretty much my overall game.”

If the Breakers are going to contend for a World Team Tennis title this year, Leach will also be a big help with that.

“He’s the same as he’s always been,” said Dick Leach, who combined with his son for nine USTA father and son doubles titles before coaching him on the Breakers last year. “He tries 100%, he’s a winner and he’s a great teammate. He’s zero-maintenance.

“He just truly, truly loves to play tennis. He never gets tired of it.”

MATT SZABO may be reached at (714) 966-4614 or at matthew.szabo@latimes.com.