UCI Tennis Enjoys a Stroke of Luck : Gueche of Algeria Is Latest Foreign Standout to Join Team

Greg Patton, the UC Irvine men’s tennis coach, was watching his players compete during the Anteater Invitational tournament in March of 1985 when he felt a tap on his shoulder.

“It was the most significant tap on the back I’ve had in my life since the doctor did it when I was born,” Patton said.

A slight young man introduced himself as a tennis player from South Africa who was visiting an aunt in Irvine. He also expressed an interest in attending college in the United States.

“Let’s just say that when I turned and looked at this skinny kid, I had no idea he would become probably the greatest player in the history of the UCI,” Patton said, a flash-of-white grin splitting his tanned face.

Mark Kaplan, now a senior, is the seventh-ranked collegiate singles player in the country and an important factor in Irvine’s No. 5 preseason team ranking.

And just when Patton thought the “tennis gods” were doing all they could for him, African lightning has struck again.

Sadri Gueche, the No. 2 junior player in Algeria last year and already eighth in his country in the men’s division this year, showed up at John Wayne Airport one day a couple of months ago with a duffel bag and the determination to play tennis at Irvine.

Gueche had been visiting a friend in Los Angeles a year earlier and decided he might like to attend school in Southern California. So he “took some addresses.” Despite the odds and obstacles, he managed to end up at Irvine.

“I must have my own tennis guardian angel,” Patton said. “I keep getting these players dropping out of the sky. It didn’t used to happen to me and it doesn’t happen often to other coaches.

“I’ve been very, very fortunate.”

Gueche’s arrival was not unannounced, but that’s not to say it wasn’t somewhat unexpected. Patton wasn’t going to count on a player who was 6,000 miles away.

“I get tons of letters from foreign players and I send them all the same form letter back,” Patton said. “The letter describes the school and the program and it also says that I don’t give scholarships to incoming foreign freshmen.

“That part discourages 99% of them.”

Gueche wasn’t discouraged. He even flew in from Paris, where his family had relocated in 1986, to visit the school once.

“His mom works for Air France so they came in one day and then flew back to Paris,” Patton said. “We walked around school for an hour or so and then watched the team practice. Kids aren’t allowed to try out, so I’d never seen him play.

“After that, we talked twice on the phone, but when you think about the expense and the paper-work problems involved with having gone to high school in both Algeria and France . . . well, I just figured there would be too many problems.”

Less than a week before the fall quarter began, Patton was informed by Irvine’s admissions department that Gueche had been accepted.

“So I called him up again and it was, “Well, do you really plan to come?’ ” Patton said.

A couple of days later, Patton got the call from the airport.

“I went over to pick him up and I really had to laugh,” Patton recalled. “Here’s this kid with one bag and no place to live, embarking on a whole new life.”

Gueche, 19, sat on the Air France flight alone with his thoughts . . . not to mention his fears.

“It had all happened so very fast,” he said. “So many things were going through my head. I didn’t know where I was going to live. School would start in just a couple of days and I had no time to adjust.

“Also, my parents were against it. They didn’t want me to live so far from home. This is the first time on my own. The first time I’ve had to cook my own food. I’ll tell you, I’m quite tired of spaghetti and rice for the moment.”

But Gueche reminded himself of his tennis beginnings on the public courts of Algiers and the fact that his family had moved to Paris in hopes of furthering their son’s tennis career. Only in America, he told himself, could he get a college education and still play tennis.

Convinced he was doing the right thing, the sacrifices and insecurities seemed a bit easier to face.

“In France, it is impossible to go to a university and play tennis,” Gueche said. “All the top 30 players haven’t even finished high school. In high school, you attend classes from 8 until 5 and have about 2 hours of homework a night. And that’s just high school.”

So Gueche made the trek to Irvine. Patton hooked him up with a UC Irvine recreation department employee who needed a roommate, handed him a campus map to find his classes and told him to show up on the school’s tennis courts every day at 2.

Sounds rather intimidating, but Gueche said his overnight life style transplant has been mostly pleasant. He’s certainly not suffering from culture shock.

“I thought I’d have more difficulty . . . socially, in school, and in tennis,” Gueche said. “The Parisians are very cold, but people here have been very, very nice.

“I always had high grades in high school so I wasn’t concerned too much about school, and I’m doing fine in my classes here so far. The biggest thing is the guys on the team have been very friendly and helpful.”

Still, Gueche was a newcomer to an obviously close-knit club. Heck, he didn’t even have a nickname and everybody on the Anteater tennis team has a nickname.

When Patton reads off his daily practice schedule, it goes something like this:

“Tank, you play the Lion. Popeye, you play Shogun. Iggy, you play Picasso . RoboZot, you play the Streak . . . “

You get the idea.

Not to worry, though. Patton wasn’t about to let Gueche feel left out for long. He quickly hung a few noms de racquet on his newest protege:

-- The Sabre . (Gueche, who has played almost exclusively on clay-court surfaces, hits a lot of underspin shots).

-- Kermit . (He hops up--like a frog?--when he volleys).

-- Padre. (It rhymes with Sadri).

There you have it. Gueche is a bona fide Anteater tennis player.

And, it appears, he has a wealth of raw talent. They may be calling him Terminator some day.

Gueche already has a wealth of international experience. He has been playing in junior tournaments all over the world since he became a teen-ager.

Patton said Gueche already is close to being among Irvine’s top 6 singles players. (The top 6 players compete in collegiate matches).

“He’s a player, there’s no question of that,” Patton said. “He’s obviously very talented, but he’s played very little on hard surfaces. He’s about a year away from being a really great hard-court player.

“We’ve pretty much reached the decision to redshirt him this season. I want to give him the freedom to work on his (hard-court) game. He’s already really solid on the baseline and I can’t believe how fast he’s picked up the net and transition games.

“If we put this jewel in the bank for one year, I think the investment will return tenfold.”

Gueche has goals, but right now he’s limiting them to just improving.

“I’m just going to take it as it comes,” he said. “If you work hard, the results will come. You don’t say, ‘This year, I’m going to beat John McEnroe.’ That’s stupid. You just say, ‘This year, I will work as hard as I can.’ ”

Those words are music to Patton’s ears. When he found out Gueche was in fact coming to Irvine, he figured he was getting a good player. He could only hope he was getting a good person in the bargain.

“To tell the truth, I was a little worried, because the guys I recruit, I know,” Patton said. “And I only recruit friendly guys, not cocky guys. Guys who believe in the team concept. Guys who will give up part of their practice time to help other guys get better.

“We call it the Anteater Mystique.”

As it turns out, Gueche is downright mystical, in the Anteater sense, anyway. He’s an intense, but unselfish, practice player and, according to Patton, “just a super kid,” as well.

Patton smiles and rolls his eyes toward the heavens--home of the tennis gods.

“Yeah, Sadri’s been a very pleasant surprise,” he said.

In more ways than one.