Friday, January 6, 2012

Former Cal star reaches Brisbane doubles final

   Unseeded Raquel Kops-Jones, a former Cal All-American from Fresno, and Abigail Spears of San Diego edged Australian wild cards Ashleigh Barty and Casey Dellacqua 5-7, 7-6 (3), 10-7 tiebreak today to reach the doubles final of the $655,000 Brisbane (Australia) International.
   Barty, 15, and Dellacqua, 26, won their first Grand Slam titles last year. Barty triumphed in Wimbledon girls singles and Dellacqua in French Open mixed doubles (with Scott Lipsky, the 2002 NCAA men's doubles runner-up from Stanford).
   Kops-Jones, who won the 2003 NCAA women's doubles title with Sacramento native Christina Fusano, and Spears will meet fourth-seeded Nuria Llagostera Vives and Arantxa Parra Santonja of Spain for the title.
   Kops-Jones, 29, will seek her fifth career WTA doubles crown and third with Spears, 30. They won Estoril in 2009 and Quebec City last September.
   ATP World Tour -- Sixth-seeded Radek Stepanek, a Czech who won singles titles at Brisbane and San Jose in 2009, fell to third-seeded Alexandr Dolgopolov of Ukraine 4-6, 6-3, 6-3 in the quarterfinals of the $434,250 Brisbane International.
   In Chennai, India, Lipsky and fellow American Rajeev Ram, the No. 2 seeds and reigning San Jose doubles champions, nipped unseeded Colombians Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah 6-3, 4-6, 10-7 tiebreak to gain the semifinals.
   In Doha, Qatar, Sacramento-area resident Dmitry Tursunov and Nenad Zimonjic of Serbia came up just short against Filip Polasek of Slovakia and Lukas Rosol of the Czech Republic, 6-2, 3-6, 13-11 tiebreak, in a battle of unseeded teams in the doubles semifinals.

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