When Doug Flach got the bad news about his brother Ken in March 2018, he was living in France with wife Katie and their children, Adeline and Bennett. Within a couple of hours, Doug was on a plane out of Stuttgart, Germany, headed for a hospital in San Francisco to be at Ken’s bedside. 

Ken, seven years older than Doug, was on life support while fighting bronchitis and then sepsis. 

“I got to spend a little time with him,” Doug said. “He was in a coma, but we felt like he could kind of hear us. I’m glad I made the trip and got to hold his hand for a little bit. 

“Ken and I were really close. It was painful.” 

While oldest brother Rick had been “my coach forever who taught me everything,” Doug saw more of Ken once he got on tour in 1999, and Ken helped Doug on and off the court. Ken, in part, was responsible for Doug meeting his wife, Katie. 

Ken was playing in a tournament in Atlanta in 1993 and was being housed by what Doug calls “a crazy-wealthy family. This place had its own golf course, like a $60 million estate, and Ken said to come visit him. Katie was working at the house, doing faux finishing and painting, and that’s how we met.” 

They married and settled in Atlanta, and Doug credits Katie with helping him last for 10 years on tour. 

“She traveled with me that last seven years I was on tour,” Doug said. “Travel was hard for me and being alone was very difficult. It’s a lonely existence and you constantly have to deal with losing. 

“There were a few times when I was like ‘I don’t know if I want to do this.’ For the most part, I really enjoyed it a lot. But having Katie with me probably kept me out there a couple more years than I probably would have.” 

They’ve been in Atlanta ever since, except for the time in France. 

“We spent a year (in France) mostly as a cultural experience for the kids,” Doug said. While over there, Adeline attended a tennis academy run by Patrick Mouratoglou, a former coach of Serena Williams. Son Bennett, after initially playing tennis and then baseball, is now a golfer and hopes to play collegiately. 

In 2023, when we spoke, Adeline had just completed her junior year at Auburn, where she is on the tennis team. Doug and Katie travel often to see her play. When Adeline was a freshman, an assistant coach was pregnant and couldn’t travel the last half of the season, so Doug filled in. 

“I got to be on the court with her,” Doug said. “That has given me as much or more joy than any tennis I’ve ever done. That was probably my biggest tennis thrill ever.” 

Which means it ranks up there with Doug’s 1996 victory over third-seeded Andre Agassi in the first round at Wimbledon. Or the victory over Ivan Lendl in Cincinnati. Or his second victory over Agassi in Washington. And Doug’s victory with Jim Courier over John McEnroe and Goran Ivanisevic at Wimbledon. 

“The Wimbledon victory over Agassi was kind of my 15 minutes of fame,” said Doug, who didn’t realize at the time that HBO was showing the match back in the States. “So many people saw that match. It was a big deal for a day or two in the tennis world and the sports world I guess. It’s something people always want to talk about. It never dies.” 

Doug said he never felt any urgency to live up to Ken as a tennis player. Doug reached a highest singles ranking of 108, and he’s OK with that. 

“Tennis is difficult for a lot of people to understand,” he said. “If I was the 100th-ranked tennis player in the world, people who don’t really know tennis are like, ‘Oh, that’s too bad. Maybe next time you can get ranked higher or something.’ Being the 100th-ranked tennis player in the world, it was very cool. 

“I couldn’t be happier with how I did – one year at Tennessee and to be All-American and we lost in the finals to Stanford that year. Tennis has given me everything, it really has.” 

When his career was over, Doug dabbled in stockbroking before getting into the tax business. He now owns Accurate Tax Solutions, a tax preparation company based in Alpharetta, Ga. 

Although it’s been more than three decades since Doug last resided in St. Louis, he hasn’t completely cut ties. He and friend Tim Noonan, a fellow St. Louis native who now is a partner at Universal Tennis Academy in Alpharetta, text and compare notes on St. Louis teams. 

Not only does Doug watch nearly every Cardinals and Blues game on cable TV, he has Imo’s pizza and toasted ravioli flown in to enhance the experience. 

“You contact them and they ship it in big boxes with dry ice,” Doug said. “I’ve always got a refrigerator full. It’s almost like I live in St. Louis.” 

Doug Flach was inducted into the St. Louis Tennis Hall of Fame in 2002.