Rick Leach and Jim Pugh strengthened their Davis Cup credentials Sunday with a 7-6 (8-6), 4-6, 7-6 (7-4), 6-4 victory over Ken Flach and Robert Seguso in the $300,000 WCT World Doubles Championship in Dallas.
Leach and Pugh, both from the Los Angeles area and ranked No. 1 and No. 2, respectively, in the world in men's doubles, received the $100,000 first prize.Flach and Seguso, who were displaced as U.S. Davis Cup doubles regulars last year by Leach and Pugh, received $60,000. It was only their third tournament together in five months, and the only one in which they won a match.
Leach and Pugh also beat Flach and Seguso in the round robin, Wednesday, 6-4, 6-4.
Flach and Seguso failed to capitalize on eight set points in the first set, four on Pugh's serve at 4-5 and four in the tiebreak, which they led 6-2. Leach and Pugh won six points in a row to take that tiebreak 8-6.
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At Largo, Fla., top-seeded Monica Seles of Yugoslavia needed only 54 minutes to beat Katerina Maleeva of Bulgaria 6-1, 6-0 Sunday and win the Eckerd Open.
Seles, who has won three consecutive tournaments and 15 straight matches, dominated from the baseline, hitting 32 winners to Maleeva's nine.
"I wasn't missing too many balls," said Seles, a 16-year-old who's ranked third in the world. "I know I have been saying all week that I wasn't playing well. If I said that today, I would be lying."
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