Sunday, April 29, 2012

Stanford's Gibbs posts another shutout

   The question entering today's women's singles final at the Pac-12 Championships might not be whether Cal's Anett Schutting will win the match.
   It might be whether she will win a game.
   Granted, the unseeded Schutting has knocked off second-seeded Robin Anderson of UCLA (after Anderson retired with an injury at one set apiece), third-seeded Mallory Burdette of Stanford and seventh-seeded Danielle Lao of USC.
   But Schutting's opponent in the final, top-seeded Nicole Gibbs of Stanford, has lost only two games in her last three matches. The sophomore from Santa Monica demolished her teammate, Stacey Tan, 6-0, 6-0 Saturday in the semifinals after hammering Cal's Tayler Davis 6-0, 6-0 and Annie Goransson 6-2, 6-0. All three victims were unseeded.
   But Tan, a junior from Lakewood, avenged a loss to Jana Juricova of Cal in last year's NCAA final in the second round and upset sixth-seeded Zoe Scandalis of USC in the quarterfinals.
   Schutting, a sophomore from Estonia, defeated Burdette 1-6, 6-3, 6-2 to become the first Bear to reach the conference final since NCAA champion Susie Babos in 2007. The last Cal player to capture the title was Zsuzsanna Fodor in 2006.
   Gibbs is ranked third nationally, and Schutting, who ended Burdette's winning streak at 21 matches, is 96th.
   Also today, Gibbs will try to become the first Stanford player to sweep the singles and doubles titles since Marissa Irvin in 1999. The top-seeded team of Burdette and Gibbs will face third-seeded Kaitlyn Christian and Sabrina Santamaria of USC in the final.
   Burdette and Gibbs eliminated Juricova and Zsofi Susanyi 8-5 in the quarterfinals and Valeria Pulido and Scandalis 8-3 in the semis.Christian and Santamaria routed Sofia Hager and Patricia Skowronski of Oregon 8-2 and second-seeded Goransson and Schutting 8-1.
   In the men's team final, second-seeded USC (27-1) beat UCLA (22-3). The Trojans, three-time defending NCAA champions, are ranked first and the Bruins fifth. However, UCLA recently beat USC.
    Big West Championships in Indian Wells -- The UC Davis men and women lost 4-0 in the semifinals of their respective conference tournaments.
   The fifth-seeded UCD men (6-16) fell to top-seeded Cal Poly (14-7), and the No. 2 Aggies women (12-12) succumbed to No. 3 UC Irvine (16-7).
   Anteaters freshman Kat Facey of Cameron Park in the Sacramento area did not finish her match at No. 4 singles. Nor did Facey and her twin sister, Ali, at No. 3 doubles.
   Women's Challenger in Charlottesville, Va. -- Fourth-seeded Maria Sanchez of Modesto and Yasmin Schnack, a member of her hometown Sacramento Capitals in World TeamTennis, reached the doubles final of the $50,000 Boyd Tinsley Women's Clay Court Classic.   Sanchez and Schnack -- former rivals at USC and UCLA, respectively -- outplayed unseeded Irina Falconi and CoCo Vandeweghe, another Capital, 7-6 (1), 6-4 in an all-American encounter.
   In the other semifinal, Elena Bovina of Russia and Julia Glushko of Israel downed third-seeded Sharon Fichman of Canada and Valeria Solovieva of Russia 6-4, 6-4. Bovina and Glushko also beat second-seeded Jill Craybas and Alison Riske in the first round.
   In the singles semifinals, the second-seeded Falconi overcame Vandeweghe 5-7, 7-5, 6-2 to set up a meeting with Melanie Oudin of Marietta, Ga. 
   Men's Challenger in Kaohsiung, Taiwan -- Second-seeded John Paul Fruttero, a former Cal All-American from San Jose, and Raven Klaasen of South Africa dispatched Taiwan's Tsung-Hua Yang and Chu-Huan Yi 6-4, 6-2 in the quarterfinals of the $125,000 OEC Kaohsiung.
   USTA National 30's in Gold River -- Fifth-seeded Sherif Zaher, a former Sacramento State star living in Folsom, ousted second-seeded Michael Cunningham of Lexington, Ky., 6-4, 6-4 in the quarterfinals of the $10,000 USTA National Men, Women & Mixed 30's Indoor Championships at the Spare Time Indoor Tennis Center.
   In today's semifinals at 9 a.m., Zaher will face fourth-seeded Hunter Gallaway of Lafayette, and top-seeded Jan Tiilikainen of Reno will meet third-seeded Calle Hansen of Newbury Park.
   The women's semis are set for 10 a.m. Top-seeded Romana Tedjakusuma of Tracy will take on unseeded Ioulia Bolotova of Philadelphia, and second-seeded Kelly Wilson of Cameron Park will go against unseeded Elizabeth Seiverling of Portland, Ore.
   The men's and women's doubles semis are scheduled for 3 p.m. and the mixed doubles semis for 6 p.m.
   Admission to the tournament is free, and food and drinks are available for purchase.      

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