Davenport's son Leach excited for his moment at Indian Wells: 'It feels surreal'
Lindsay Davenport won the Indian Wells singles title in 1997 and 2000, well before her son, Jagger Leach, was born. Now it is Leach who has a chance to shine at the BNP Paribas Open.
The 18-year-old, a freshman at Stanford University, is competing in an ATP Tour qualifying event for the first time at the season’s first ATP Masters 1000 event. It is a fitting venue considering the Californian has spent nearly every March of his life at Indian Wells, from the days following around his mother, who coached Madison Keys, to competing in a junior tournament at the same location.
“Some of my best memories are from when I was seven years old and I was running around and I was trying to find open practice courts with my dad,” Leach said of his father, former pro Jonathan Leach. “When my mom was coaching Madison, we could go over to the practice courts, and if she finished her practice seven minutes early, then my dad and I would jump on and hit for those seven minutes, and then we would walk around.
“If we saw another pro finish 10 minutes before their practice time was up, then we would try and go hit for those 10 minutes and we were just scavenging around. And that was a lot of fun. I have great memories from that.”
Leach has images at Indian Wells from before he was a teen: on court, in player dining with Keys and around the grounds. This tournament was a major part of his childhood.
“When I was young, I had access to the pro player lounge area where they have the Pop-A-Shot games,” Leach said. “I would hang out there and eat lunch and play Pop-A-Shot and just be around. It was an incredible experience. The dining there, I thought it was amazing.”
<img alt=”Jagger Leach and Madison Keys” style=”width:100%;” src=”/-/media/images/news/2026/03/02/17/10/leach-keys-indian-wells.jpg” />
The American climbed as high as No. 4 in the ITF Junior Rankings and was a junior qualifier for the ATP Next Gen Accelerator. But for now, Leach has been focused on playing college tennis at Stanford. On Sunday, the Cardinal defeated Duke in North Carolina and Leach then flew to California for the biggest opportunity of his young tennis journey.
“The experience has been incredible. I love my teammates and my coaches here at Stanford. I love the campus and the campus life. And really, one thing that has been incredible among a lot of things, has been being a part of a team. That has been the most unbelievable experience,” Leach said. “Usually in tennis, you’re alone out there on the court. And when you’re going to tournaments and travelling around, you might have friends and people that you enjoy spending time around, but at the end of the day, they’re your competitors and nobody is really cheering and rooting you on and wants you to succeed.
“I think one thing about being a part of a college team is, I have nine other players that really want me to succeed and are pushing me every day to try and get better.”
[NO 1 CLUB]Leach, a wild card, will have plenty of local support Monday evening when he takes on 14th seed Tomas Barrios Vera in the first round of qualifying. The young American has been around high-level tennis his entire life, but this is different.
“It’s super cool. And it’s an incredible experience that I’m going to cherish and hopefully I can keep improving, and I can get to the place where I’m back playing these tournaments and it’s not so intimidating and I’m so starstruck,” Leach said. “That’s the ultimate goal. But for right now it’s intimidating. It’s super cool. They seem like superheroes. Sinner and Alcaraz, their tennis is just on a different planet. And so thankfully, I don’t have to worry about them in the qualies, but being around them and being in the same locker room and knowing that I’m going to be playing in the same tournament, it feels surreal.
“It would be incredible to have the chance to play against one of them some day.”