Gold River champ Hibi loses in U.S. Open girls semis

Mayo Hibi, seeded 11th, fell to No. 2
Ana Konjuh of Croatia 6-3, 6-3.
Photo by Paul Bauman

   Second-seeded Ana Konjuh of Croatia defeated 11th-seeded Mayo Hibi of Japan 6-3, 6-3 today in the junior girls semifinals of the U.S. Open in Flushing Meadows, N.Y.
   Hibi, 17, won the $50,000 FSP Gold River Women's Challenger in the Sacramento area in July. She was born in Japan but has lived in California, first in Foster City in the San Francisco Bay Area and now in Irvine, since she was 2 1/2.
   Konjuh, who won the Australian Open girls singles and doubles titles in January, will play wild card Tornado Alicia Black of Boca Raton, Fla., for the title on Sunday in a matchup of 15-year-olds.
   Black downed seventh-seeded Antonia Lottner of Germany 7-5, 6-3. Lottner had ousted top-seeded Belinda Bencic of Switzerland in the quarterfinals.
   Bencic, 16, won this year's French Open and Wimbledon girls titles, defeating Lottner and Taylor Townsend, respectively, in the finals. Townsend, 17, played for the Sacramento Capitals of World TeamTennis in July.
   Sylvester Black, an African American, hopes to mold his daughters, Ali and 12-year-old Tyra, into the next Venus and Serena Williams. Sylvester nicknamed Alicia "Tornado Ali" because of her quick feet and Tyra "Hurricane Tyra" for her aggressive style.