The 1985 US Open doubles final hinged on a ball that came off Henri Leconte's racket, nicked the net, and sailed past Ken Flach's ear. Leconte and Noah immediately protested. The ball hit Flach, they said. Maybe his shoulder. Maybe his hair. 

The umpire hadn't seen it. So he asked Flach directly. 

"All this went through my mind in a matter of seconds," Flach said later. "I felt the ball go by my head. I felt the breeze of the ball. I knew for a fact that I didn't alter the flight of the ball." 

He let the call stand. Noah exploded. The crowd turned. Flach and his partner Robert Seguso won the tiebreaker by a hair, took the fourth set 6-0, and walked off with their first Grand Slam title. They were booed during the trophy ceremony. 

It took nerve. Ken Flach had it, even at 22. 

Ken Flach grew up in Kirkwood. He and Seguso began playing together in 1981 at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, where Flach was a singles and doubles All-American and two-time NCAA Division II champion. 

Flach and Seguso won their first title together immediately, then six more that first year. Seguso was the baseline basher. Flach the poacher. They used hand signals before anyone else did, and always seemed to know what the other was thinking. 

With Seguso, he won the 1985 US Open, Wimbledon in 1987 and 1988, and Olympic gold in Seoul in 1988. The 1987 title came back from two sets down — the first doubles team in 60 years to pull that off. They went 10-2 together in Davis Cup and anchored the U.S. team for nearly a decade. 

In 1994, Flach came home to play for the St. Louis Aces in the team's inaugural World TeamTennis season. 

Ken Flach died in 2018. He was 54. 

(1998)