Friday, December 31, 2021

NorCal's Tsoi upends No. 2 seed in National Winter 18s

   Unseeded Dylan Tsoi of El Dorado Hills, Calif., in the Sacramento area surprised No. 2 seed Bjorn Swenson, a University of Michigan signee from North Oaks, Minn., 6-7 (3), 7-5, 7-5 today in the fourth round of the boys 18s in the USTA National Winter Championships.
   Tsoi, a high school junior, is scheduled to play No. 18 seed Lucas Brown of Plano, Texas, in Saturday's quarterfinals in Orlando, Fla. Brown beat No. 22 seed Noah Hernandez of Hinsdale, Ill., 6-4, 6-1.
   Also reaching the quarters were No. 14 seed Emon van Loben Sels of Sacramento in the boys 18s, No. 2 seed Mitchell Lee of Oakland, Calif., in the boys 16s and No. 4 seed Natasha Rajaram of Cupertino in the San Francisco Bay Area in the girls 16s.
   The 14s and 12s in Tucson, Ariz., are behind schedule because of inclement weather, ZooTennis reported.

Brooksby breakthrough highlights top stories of 2021

Jenson Brooksby waits to return serve during practice at the BNP Paribas Open
in Indian Wells in October. Photo by Paul Bauman
   Amid the ongoing pandemic, it was a banner year in Northern California tennis.
   Two players won prestigious ATP awards, and a former Sacramento Capital in World TeamTennis reached the French Open final.
   A coach with strong NorCal ties helped a WTA player soar into the top 10 and reach the title match in the WTA Finals, and two doubles stars qualified for the season-ending tournament for the first time.
   A Sacramento native helped his team win the NCAA team championship, then snagged the singles title.
   And more.
   Here are my picks for the top 10 stories of 2020 with 10 honorable mentions:
   1. Brooksby voted ATP Newcomer of Year Jenson Brooksby, a lifelong Sacramento-area resident who turned 21 in October, skyrocketed from No. 307 to No. 56 in 10 months. He reached his maiden ATP Tour final in Newport, R.I., in his first tournament ever on grass, losing to two-time Grand Slam runner-up Kevin Anderson, and the round of 16 in the U.S. Open, steamrolling Novak Djokovic 6-1 in the first set before falling in four sets.
   Fifteen days after the Newport final, Brooksby beat the 6-foot-8 (2.03-meter) Anderson en route to the semifinals in Washington, D.C. Brooksby also advanced to the Antwerp semis in October as a qualifier.
Mackenzie McDonald lines up a forehand during his first-
round victory over James Duckworth in the BNP Paribas
Open. Photo by Paul Bauman
   2. McDonald voted ATP Comeback Player of YearMackenzie McDonald, a 26-year-old product of Piedmont in the San Francisco Bay Area, underwent right hamstring surgery in June 2019 and fell as low as No. 272 in March 2020.
   This year, McDonald reached the round of 16 in the Australian Open, advanced to his first ATP final in Washington, D.C., and climbed to a career-high No. 54 on Nov. 1.
   3. Ex-Capital reaches French Open final — Unseeded Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic outlasted No. 31 seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia 6-1, 3-6, 6-4 in the first Grand Slam final for both players.
   Pavlyuchenkova, who played for the Sacramento Capitals of World TeamTennis as the world's top junior at 15 in 2006, hurt her left leg late in the second set.
   4. Kontaveit cracks top 10, reaches WTA Finals title match under Tursunov — After hiring coach Dmitry Tursunov in August, Anett Kontaveit of Estonia won four titles, jumped from No. 30 to No. 7 and advanced to the WTA Finals for the first time.  
   GarbiƱe Muguruza, seeded sixth, defeated Kontaveit, seeded eighth, 6-3, 7-5 in the final of the season-ending tournament in Guadalajara, Mexico. Tursunov, a 39-year-old Moscow native, trained in Northern California as a junior and professional. 
   5. Shibahara, Olmos qualify for WTA Finals — Doubles specialists Ena Shibahara, who was born in the Bay Area, and Giuliana Olmos, who grew up there, qualified for the season-ending tournament for the first time separately. Second-seeded Shuko Aoyama and Shibahara advanced to the semifinals, while eighth-seeded Sharon Fichman and Olmos were eliminated in round-robin play. 
   Aoyama and Shibahara won a tour-leading five titles, including the Miami Open, in 2021. They also reached the Wimbledon semifinals and Australian Open quarterfinals. Fichman and Olmos won the Italian Open, gained the Australian Open quarterfinals and advanced to the round of 16 at Wimbledon.
Sam Riffice, far left, poses 10 years ago at age 12 with Roger
Federer at the La Quinta Resort in the Palm Springs area. Also
shown are Riffice's coach, Amine Khaldi (second from left), and
Khaldi's friend Steve Mohibi. Photo courtesy of Amine Khaldi
   6. Riffice helps Florida win NCAA title, adds singles crown — Sam Riffice, who was born in Sacramento and grew up in suburban Roseville, won at No. 2 singles and doubles as the top-seeded Gators beat second-seeded Baylor 4-1 in Orlando, Fla., for the NCAA championship. 
   The sixth-seeded Riffice then topped second-seeded Daniel Rodrigues of South Carolina 3-6, 6-1, 6-4 for the singles title.
   7. Wimbledon champ commits to Stanford — Samir Banerjee, who won the Wimbledon boys singles title in July, verbally committed to Stanford.
   Banerjee, from Basking Ridge, N.J., defeated Victor Lilov of Raleigh, N.C., 7-5, 6-3 in the Wimbledon final. Both players were unseeded.
   8. Cal men's coach retires after 29 years — Peter Wright, a Berkeley native who turned 58 on Dec. 8, amassed a 383-256 record at Cal. He guided the Bears to the NCAA Championships 25 times, including a semifinal berth in 2016, and four appearances in the top 10.
   USC associate head coach Kris Kwinta, a 41-year-old Poland native, was chosen as Wright's replacement.
Fiery Danielle Collins exults after winning a point during the final of the
Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic in San Jose, Calif. Photo by Mal Taam
   9. Collins claims crown in San Jose — No. 7 seed Danielle Collins of St. Petersburg, Fla., defeated No. 4 seed Daria Kasatkina of Russia 6-3, 6-7 (10), 6-1 to win the Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic in San Jose, Calif.
   Collins, who turned 28 on Dec. 13, won her second consecutive title and the second of her career. She had surgery for endometriosis, a painful disorder in which tissue inside the uterus grows outside of it, in early April. Doctors removed a cyst the size of a tennis ball from her ovary.
Emon van Loben Sels poses with his trophy
at the USTA Level 1 Spring Individual Cham-
pionships in Mobile, Ala. Photo courtesy of
Emon van Loben Sels
   10. van Loben Sels ranked No. 1 nationally in 16s — The pandemic gave Emon van Loben Sels of Sacramento a needed break last year. He won a USTA Level 2 tournament in Newport Beach, Calif., in February and the Level 1 Spring Individual Championships in March in Mobile, Ala.
   Van Loben Sels' biggest asset is his passion for tennis, according to Kiryl Harbatsiuk, one of his coaches. The high school junior has verbally committed to UCLA.
   Honorable mention — Cameron Norrie, who won back-to-back Northern California Challengers in Tiburon and Stockton in 2017, won the prestigious BNP Paribas Open as the No. 21 seed.
   —Qualifier Mariia Kozyreva, a fifth-year senior at Saint Mary's College in Moraga in the Bay Area, shocked top-seeded Zheng Saisai, ranked No. 75, in the first round of the $60,000 Berkeley (Calif.) Challenger.
   —Katie Volynets, a resident of Walnut Creek in the Bay Area who turned 20 today, won her first professional title to crack the top 200.
   —Former Stanford star Nicole Gibbs retired at 27. The three-time NCAA champion (twice in singles and once in doubles) reached a career-high No. 68 in the world in 2016.
   —Unseeded Usue Arconada won the Berkeley Challenger.
   —The Stanford women ended their longest losing streak in 40 years, three matches, with a 6-1 victory over USC in Los Angeles. 
   —Ethan Quinn of Fresno, Calif., reached the doubles final in the USTA Boys 18 National Championships in Kalamazoo, Mich., with Sebastian Gorzny and in the Orange Bowl in Plantation, Fla., with Nicholas Godsick.
   —Van Loben Sels advanced to the singles quarterfinals and doubles semifinals (with Dylan Tsoi of El Dorado Hills in the Sacramento area) in the USTA Boys 16 National Championships in Kalamazoo.
   —Wayne Thiebaud, a world-renowned artist from Sacramento who played tennis until just after his 100th birthday, died on Christmas at 101.

Sunday, December 26, 2021

Famed artist dies one year after playing tennis at 100

   Wayne Thiebaud, a world-renowned artist from Sacramento, Calif., who played tennis until just after his 100th birthday, died on Christmas at 101.
    "It's actually a blessing in disguise," said Larry Crabbe, who played doubles with Thiebaud (pronounced TEE-bo) for the last 13 or 14 years of Thiebaud's days on the court. "How appropriate that he went out with a flourish on Christmas Day. Anybody can go out on a boring day.
   "We'll certainly never forget him. Every Christmas, we'll be reminded, and I think in a happy way. He was ready to go."
   Thiebaud was best known for his colorful paintings of cakes, pies, sundaes and ordinary objects, but he also depicted landscapes and people. His 1962 work "Four Pinball Machines" sold at auction last year for more than $19 million.
   COVID indirectly caused Thiebaud's death, according to Crabbe.
   "He never did have COVID, but COVID wasn't a good thing for him because, like a lot of us, he was so restricted in his movement," said Crabbe, who will turn 76 on Wednesday. "We stopped playing tennis, which was really a terrible thing for him because he was very physical and going all around town. He stopped going to his studio, and it really slowed down his painting. That took its toll on his strength, and the problems compounded themselves."
   Crabbe last spoke to Thiebaud a few days before Christmas.
   "It was very challenging to understand him because his voice was slurred," Crabbe said. "Mentally, he was as sharp as ever, and we had a good conversation about how he felt and lighthearted things. 
    "He was in hospice and extremely weak. The outcome was inevitable, and I think he was comfortable with that, reconciled to that. He wasn't taking medications, other than blood pressure pills and aspirin." 
   Thiebaud played tennis for the last time the day after turning 100 on Nov. 15, 2020.
   "(It was) with my wife and me and another fellow," Crabbe recalled. "We did that basically to commemorate his 100th birthday. We had not played for quite a while, but things were calming down a little bit with COVID, and we had masks, so we just went out for the one morning. He did his own thing on his birthday, but we got together and played tennis the day after, and that was very special for my wife and (me)."
   Crabbe said he will remember Thiebaud, a longtime teacher, as "one of a kind, a fantastic human being, absolutely brilliant. He had a near-photographic memory about art and friends. When I forgot about a painting we saw, the artist or where we saw it, I could always go to him, and he'd know right where we saw it and who it was.
   "I've never met anybody like him in terms of mental capacity, a real intellectual. He was extremely gracious. He never wasted time being critical of other people. He always had a positive outlook on things, even when it became challenging recently."
   As a tennis player, Thiebaud "had a heck of a good game," Crabbe said. "Up to almost the end, the final time he played, he was still a very sophisticated player. He had lobs, all kinds of different serves and a drop shot right over the net. Even when he was 99, he would be all the way at the back line, somebody would drop one right over the net, and he'd run all the way up and most of the time get it. He was nationally ranked and an extremely competitive player when he was younger. So was his (late) wife, Betty Jean.
   "Amazing man. For a decade or so, he changed our lives far for the better. I wouldn't have been nearly the same without him."

Thursday, December 23, 2021

The Great Brooksby: He could end U.S. skid, rise to No. 1

Jenson Brooksby and his coach, Joseph Gilbert, pose on Dec. 11 at the Rio Del Oro
Sports Club in Sacramento, Calif. Brooksby first made an impression on Gilbert
while hitting against the wall at Rio Del Oro at 5 years old. Photo by Paul Bauman
   SACRAMENTO, Calif. — In 2006, director of tennis Joseph Gilbert was teaching a lesson at the Rio Del Oro Sports Club when he noticed a 5-year-old boy hitting against the adjacent wall.
   Lots of players, juniors and adults, do that. But Jenson Brooksby was different.
  "He was doing it with such intensity, such focus that I knew he was imagining himself playing a match," Gilbert (no relation to renowned coach and commentator Brad Gilbert) recalled recently. "Jokingly
enough, I looked at him, and I was like, 'Who you playing?' Within a millisecond, he goes, '(Rafael) Nadal,'" Gilbert added with a laugh.
Gilbert was teaching a lesson on the court at the left while Brooksby was
slugging balls against the wall. Photo by Paul Bauman
   "That was the first time I was really like, OK, I would want to coach this kid, because he was so focused. That's what I think a lot of people lack when it comes to tennis. You have to be out there for three to four hours, and these margins are so small. Throw away athleticism for a bit, throw away physicalness, throw away all this stuff that everybody's attracted to. At the end of the day, you've got to concentrate for three to four hours with not much letdown.
   "When I look at kids, I look at kids who can focus for long periods of time. That number is becoming smaller because everything in our life is about not focusing for three or four hours (laughs), whether it's their Instagram, their phone ... The kids I teach now are 18, 19 years old — they can't watch a movie. It's too hard for them; it's too long. A lot of parents ask me, 'What can we work on?' I'm like, 'Play cards, play chess, play games that last for long periods of time to work on their focus.' Jenson was good at that — he could focus for long periods of time. (Regarding) his attributes, that's a big one."
   Recalled Brooksby, who's as mild-mannered off the court as he is intense on it: "I just loved getting the racket and hitting. I always brought that intensity, even in a situation that doesn't seem you'd need to be intense, like hitting balls against the wall. ... I feel like I've kept that same intensity since I was a young kid to now and (will) into the future."
   Gilbert did indeed begin coaching Brooksby six months after the imaginary Nadal match. Fifteen years later, they're still together, but now at the top level of the game.
   Brooksby, 21, earned the ATP Newcomer of the Year award last week in a vote of players after skyrocketing from No. 307 in the world when he turned pro last December to No. 56 in the 2021 year-end rankings.
   The United States leads all nations with 12 men in the top 100. Three are tennis senior citizens in their 30s: No. 24 John Isner, No. 85 Steve Johnson and No. 96 Tennys Sandgren. Six are middle-aged (23 to 28): No. 23 Taylor Fritz, No. 26 Reilly Opelka, No. 38 Frances Tiafoe, No. 43 Tommy Paul, No. 55 Mackenzie McDonald and No. 66 Marcos Giron. And three are young at 20 or 21: No. 41 Sebastian Korda, Brooksby and No. 68 Brandon Nakashima
   According to the candid, outspoken Opelka, Brooksby could climb to the top of the rankings and end the U.S. men's soon-to-be-19-year title drought in Grand Slam singles.
   "The young guys are better than us, if I'm being honest," the 6-foot-11 (2.11-meter) Opelka, who lost to Brooksby 6-4, 6-4 in the first round in Antwerp in October, told Inside Tennis in October. "Korda is a hell of a player. Brooksby is brutal. He's going to be a big second-week guy. Nakashima is as pure of a ball-striker as there is. The young guys are going to be the guys to beat, from the American standpoint.
   "I'd invest in Brooksby. He's special and could be No. 1. His mind works so differently. He's got this game plan. He sees things so well and is so tricky. Behind the baseline, he reminds me of (Novak) Djokovic. He's got great depth, is a great ball striker, a great mover, (and has) good size and intangibles. He's got this X-factor, his mindset, that could make him a future Grand Slam champion." 
   Brooksby was almost unbeatable on the ATP Challenger Tour, equivalent to Triple-A baseball, in the first half of 2021 as he went 21-3 with three titles. The first loss came after a short turnaround between tournaments in Villena, Spain (elevation 1,657 feet or 550 meters) and Potchefstroom, South Africa (elevation 4,400 feet or 1,340 meters). The second defeat came in a final, and the third came via walkover.
   Brooksby became the first man since Florian Mayer of Germany in 2016 to win hardcourt and clay-court Challengers back-to-back, accomplishing the feat in Orlando and Tallahassee in April. The latter tournament was Brooksby's first on clay in two years.
   All Brooksby did in the second half of the year was:
   —Reach his maiden ATP Tour final in Newport, R.I., in his first grass-court tournament ever.
   —Advance to ATP Tour semifinals in Washington, D.C., and Antwerp.
   —Become the youngest American man to reach the fourth round of the U.S. Open since 20-year-old Andy Roddick in 2002. Roddick won the title the following year, the last singles crown for a U.S. man in a Grand Slam tournament, and was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 2017.
   —Knock off three top-25 players (No. 15 Felix Auger-Aliassime, No. 25 Aslan Karatsev and No. 25 Opelka) and three more top-50 competitors (No. 42 Fritz, No. 43 John Millman and No. 44 Alejandro Davidovich Fokina). The ATP on Wednesday chose Brooksby's 6-3, 6-4 victory over Auger-Aliassime in the third round in Washington as the third-biggest upset of the year.
   "I knew I had the game to get to this level, but I'm a little surprised it all came together so quickly, the jump I made after not playing last year," admitted Brooksby, who sat out in 2020 because of turf toe and pandemic cancellations when he was enrolled at Baylor University in Waco, Texas.
   Djokovic praised Brooksby after beating him in four sets in the fourth round of the U.S. Open in September.
   "Brooksby is very talented and intelligent," Djokovic said during his on-court interview. "America has a bright future."
   Brooksby was hardly intimidated by Djokovic or the occasion, steamrolling him 6-1 in the first set in 29 minutes in 23,771-seat Arthur Ashe Stadium, the largest tennis facility in the world.
   "There's nothing he loves more than playing in front of a big crowd and playing on TV," Gilbert asserted. " ... That's where he shines the most."
   Djokovic should be wary if and when he meets Brooksby again, as he and Gilbert learn quickly. Several times this year, Brooksby lost to a player in their first meeting and won the next time. It happened with Bjorn Fratangelo, the French Open boys singles champion 10 years ago. It happened with 6-foot-8 (2.03-meter) Kevin Anderson, a two-time Grand Slam runner-up. And it happened with Karatsev, who vaulted from No. 112 to No. 18 this year to snag the ATP Most Improved Player award.
   Brooksby doesn't just beat opponents. He often leaves them muttering in frustration.
   During his first-round loss to Brooksby in Antwerp in October, Opelka opined that his young countryman is "the best player I've played in my whole life." That includes Nadal and reigning U.S. Open champion Daniil Medvedev. Opelka also marveled, "How could Novak win a game against this guy in the first set of the U.S. Open?"
   During the Orlando semifinals, Christian Harrison fumed, "This guy is a freaking nightmare."
   After Brooksby ripped a lunging backhand down-the-line passing shot that landed on the sideline in the Tallahassee final, Fratangelo snapped: "No ----ing way. ... How easy is tennis for you right now?"
* * *
   Although Brooksby has sprouted to 6-foot-4 (1.93 meters), he is not today's prototypical power player. Rather, he's something of a mystery.
   "I feel like his game is underrated," contended Gilbert, who launched the JMG Tennis Academy (his middle name is Morris) 10 years ago. "I feel like people don't know exactly how he's winning. I feel like they don't know the style. It's just not simple, right? It's not just big serve, big forehand wins.
   "They have a tough time figuring out Medvedev because it's very similar. Medvedev is not a great athlete. How is he winning all the time? But that's OK. They called (Brooksby) unorthodox. The last two guys that got called unorthodox are Medvedev and Nadal. I like those guys (laughs). Being called unorthodox is a compliment."
Brooksby has one of the best two-handed backhands
in the world. Photo by Paul Bauman
   So are the comparisons Brooksby has drawn.
   "He has a bit of Djokovic in him; he's got a bit of Medvedev in him; he's got a bit of (Andy) Murray in him," Gilbert said. "A lot of people have compared him to those three players because he's playing a similar stylistic game as them. He's not relying on just (power). He's not playing off of a huge weapon. Murray said it right — he's using slice; he's using different shots. Murray said, 'I enjoy watching him play because it's a little more stylistic, kind of like an art form.' I think it's fun to watch."
   Regarding Brooksby's playing style, Gilbert said: "He has really good hands. He absorbs the ball really well. He has really good feel. He doesn't have too many weaknesses, doesn't have too many holes. He plays patterns a lot. He plays to a strategy, which changes a little bit pretty much every match."
   Gilbert studies videos of opponents the night before a match, tells Brooksby what shots to emphasize in the warmup and meets with his protĆ©gĆ© 15 or 20 minutes before the match.
   "I'm like, 'Alright, this is the pattern we're going to play, this is the style we're going to play, these are the shots I want you to use, and this is how you're going to win," Gilbert said. "Then he goes out there, and he has a good ability to focus on that throughout the match."
   Gilbert elaborated on the patterns Brooksby employs.
   "Without getting too specific — people try to dig into the strategy; we try to keep that a little bit close to us because we feel like there (are) only a few guys out there playing the same strategy — we'll talk about when he wants to change direction, what side he wants to play more (against) a certain player, when he wants to be aggressive, what side to come in on, when to use his drop shot, who to use it more against — all those different types of conversations," Gilbert said. "It's a 15-, 20-minute talk before the match. It's not two minutes long. It's like, 'OK, this is where I want you to serve, this is where I want you to hit these shots.' His ability to hit all those shots gives us the flexibility to change the strategy and patterns."
Brooksby practices his serve while Gilbert observes
during the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells in Oc-
tober. Photo by Paul Bauman
   Basically, Brooksby wins with metronomic consistency and fierce mental toughness. He possesses one of the best two-handed backhands in the world, a forehand that he says has caught up to his backhand, a great ability to turn defense into offense and a devastating drop shot. Seemingly impervious to pressure, he plays his best on the big points, the mark of a champion.
   "His ball tolerance is obviously high, his consistency is obviously high, but I think it's because he's going after patterns and targets," Gilbert said. "It's a little against what a lot of Americans have been taught — to create that big weapon, to end points fast, serve plus one — big serve, big forehand. It's just a different way to play the game. It's what I believe in — having fewer weaknesses and setting up the points. I'm not particularly worried about having a huge weapon.
   "It matched well for him. If Jenson had to do it based on strength and power and physicality, he's losing a lot of those matches. It doesn't make sense to take a player that's not going to be as big and strong as Serena Williams and tell him to try to outhit Serena Williams. You look at maybe a (Martina) Hingis or a (Justine) Henin, who gave her fits but aren't nearly as big and strong. They're moving the ball around — patterns, different shots, not trying to bang the ball. Those (players) gave her more fits than a (Maria) Sharapova. Sharapova's playing the exact same way (as Williams) but not as big, not as strong, not as physical, not as good at it. Then she goes 0-15 (actually 0-18 during one stretch) against her."
   Brooksby's intangibles, meanwhile, are off the charts.
   "A lot of commentators are saying he's so competitive, and I agree with that 100 percent," Gilbert stated. "Whether we're playing a bounce (short-court) game or he's talking college sports or he's shooting pool, he's so competitive. ... He's one of the (most) competitive kids I've ever seen."
   Brooksby grew up in a competitive environment, both at home and at Gilbert's academy.
   "His mom and dad are super competitive," Gilbert said of Tania and Glen Brooksby. "His mom always had a huge, high belief in Jenson, that he could always do it. She expected him to work hard every time, to compete every time, to be disciplined all the time, to be focused all the time. She really drove that ship."
   Tania Brooksby (nĆ©e Bentler), in fact, spent a lot of time in the water as a teenager in Van Nuys in the Los Angeles region, earning AAU All-America recognition in swimming.
    "I wouldn't use the word 'intense' (to describe her)," Gilbert said. "She's super loving, super caring but just demanded (Jenson) to work hard. It was about learning and getting better. It wasn't about, is my kid having fun? That's what Tania liked about me. I'm not handing out Jolly Ranchers, playing games and babysitting your kid. I'm not here just for entertainment purposes. I'm here to get better. If your kid doesn't want to get better, I don't want to do it. It's boring for me."
   Like Nadal, Brooksby goes all out on every point. Unlike Nadal, Brooksby is volatile, sometimes flinging his racket in disgust when he struggles. 
   "He doesn't want to give you a point," said Glen Brooksby, a Sacramento anesthesiologist. "Maybe some of that developed because he was always playing up and didn't have a big serve. He wasn't as big and strong and didn't have a putaway shot like the older kids. He had to get balls back, and he wasn't running around the backhand like other kids. He'd always just hit a backhand. He liked hitting backhands. A lot of coaches will say, 'You gotta run around that backhand and hit the big forehand, even at a young age. We never did that; Joe never did that; Jenson never wanted to. I think that helped him develop his backhand.
Brooksby's parents, Tania and Glen, chat with friends during the BNP Paribas
Open. Photo by Paul Bauman
   "He had to find ways to win at that age, and it forced him to grind out points, to play hard on every point. He'd always want to break serve. Even if he's up 4-1, he doesn't want to lose a game. He wants to break again. At 5-1, he wants to hold. A lot of players in the pros will pace themselves, especially if they have a big serve. If they get up a break, they'll coast on the return games knowing they can serve it out. He doesn't have that mentality. He's like, 'I want to win every game. You are going to work hard to hold serve against me. I'm going to break your serve every game.' He tries to do that. Obviously, it's hard, but that's his goal, to win every game. And that makes it easier for his serve. It puts less pressure on his serve if he's up a break or two breaks."
   Jenson admits that he hates to lose.
   "There's no tougher feeling for me," he said. "Getting a bad injury can suck, but there's no bigger feeling than losing, especially when I know there (are) things I could have approached better. It sucks, but it's also part of life. I'm more motivated to win than scared to lose."
   Brooksby's hatred of losing, Gilbert said, "motivates him to focus and put his best points together when it counts."
   During the Antwerp tournament, Tennis Channel commentator and Hall of Famer Tracy Austin crowed:  "His mental toughness is incredible. On the big points, he digs in and hits closer to the line. It's really quite impressive."
   Gilbert helped instill that with countless drills at the academy over the years. Games will start at 40-30 or 30-40. After 15 minutes, the loser moves down one court. Or Brooksby will play a set in which each game starts at 0-30 or 0-40.
   "(The coaches) create scenarios where the points are all really important, and nobody wants to move down a court," Glen Brooksby noted. 
   Work ethic? After beating Brooksby in the Newport final, Anderson said he saw Brooksby on the practice court more than anyone else during the week.
   Commentators unanimously say the only thing holding Brooksby back is his serve, but he and Gilbert disagree. Just give him a little more time, they say.
   "I think it's underrated," Brooksby said of his serve. "I know people say it's the speed, but I know I do have the speed. It's not that. Getting my body stronger and more in shape will naturally improve my serve. I feel like the placement is not mentioned."
   Gilbert put Brooksby's serve into perspective.
   "If you know his background, his serve has improved a ton," Gilbert asserted. "He's grown a lot; he was injured for a year. His physicality hasn't quite caught up to his body. Djokovic was similar in a way. He had to pull out of a lot of Grand Slams when he was younger. His serve wasn't a strong point when he was younger.
   "You've seen Jenson since he was a kid. I mean, he was small. He was small his whole junior career, tiny in comparison to everyone else. Now, all of a sudden, he's 6-4. Well, he's been serving as a small guy forever, so it's never been a thought for him to go after his serve so much. A lot of times, it was just like, hey, hit a serve that just doesn't get attacked (laughs) because you're smaller and weaker than everybody else.
   "Even in the gym now, he's not where he needs to be strength-wise, so we've hired a strength-and-conditioning coach, a very good one, Cassiano Costa (of Costa Performance in Boca Raton, Fla.). They've done a very good job with him in a short period of time."
   Gilbert noted that Brooksby "holds a lot, doesn't get broken a ton. His first-serve percentage is high; his spots are good. These are things I didn't feel they were pointing out in his serve (during the U.S. Open).
   "Yeah, if we get bigger and stronger, adding 10 mph (16.1 kph) doesn't seem terribly impossible, considering he's still a boy. He has pimples; he has no hair on his face. He's still maturing."
   Gilbert is more concerned about Brooksby's mental side.
   "He's emotional," Gilbert observed. "There's a positive side to that and a negative side. Djokovic is super competitive, but as he's matured, he's learned how to control it. Jenson has very little control over this. When he's emotional, I've seen it help him, give him energy, and at the same time, I've seen it suck energy out of him. ... I'm working on his emotions constantly."
   Gilbert also coaches pros Katie Volynets, ranked No. 180 at age 19; Govind Nanda, a 20-year-old former UCLA standout; and Collin Altamirano, who in 2013 became the first unseeded player to win the USTA Hardcourt National 18s (Brooksby won the 12s the same year). Brooksby shares a condominium in the Sacramento suburb of Carmichael with Nanda and JMG assistant coach Cam Muller.
   Gilbert's academy — based at Arden Hills, where swimming legends Mark Spitz and Debbie Meyer trained, in Sacramento since 2013 — has sent more than 50 players to Division I schools. Altamirano helped Virginia win the NCAA team title in each of his three years in Charlottesville (2015-17).
   "Joe's a genius," Glen Brooksby proclaimed. "He's one of the top development coaches in the country. Look at the success all of his players have had. All the assistant coaches are good. He selects them; he trains them. And then the parents are dedicated. Most of the kids are home-schooled."
* * *
   How many people — Americans, at least — are named after a race car driver? Glen Brooksby, a racing fan, and Tania christened their only child in honor of British driver Jenson Button, who won the Formula One world championship nine years later. Jenson's middle name is Tyler, hence the nickname J.T.
Gilbert poses with Brooksby and Collin Altamirano after they won the USTA
National Championships on hardcourts in the 12s and 18s, respectively, in 2013.
Photo by Paul Bauman
   Glen and Tania took tennis lessons from Gilbert at Rio Del Oro and dragged Jenson along when he was 2. He picked up a racket and began hitting balls. For the next five or six years, Jenson slugged balls off the garage door at home before and after school. 
   "I think he developed good hands because he was doing all kinds of little games," Glen said. "He'd do half-volleys and volleys and then groundstrokes and then move in. I think he really developed kind of a feel for the ball, and he still has a good feel for the ball. He takes pace really well, takes it off the rise when they hit a deep groundstroke instead of backing up."   
   Jenson also played T-ball for a year or two when he was 4 or 5, Glen noted. There were 15 to 20 players on the team, and all played in the field simultaneously. The extra players, including Jenson, spread out around second base. 
   "Some guy would hit it off the tee and lace it down the third-base line, and all the kids would run to where the ball was," Glen recalled. "But by the time they got there, the ball was over here. Jenson was the only one who ran to where the ball would be when he got there. He would field most of the balls because he knew how to intercept the ball."
   When Jenson batted, the coach "would always say, 'You're hitting it like you're hitting a forehand,' Glen said with a laugh.
   After T-ball, Jenson played basketball and soccer in addition to tennis.
   "There were weekends when we were doing soccer tournament, basketball tournament and tennis all in the same weekend in different towns," Glen said. "Something had to give, but it wasn't tennis (laughs).
   "We were seeing the end of the line with soccer because it's really physical. You get a lot of leg injuries. At 11, 12, those boys are really attacking the ball, and I didn't want him to get hurt. We kind of nudged him out of soccer because we didn't want some permanent knee or ankle injury. We knew tennis was going to be his best bet, and that's what he wanted to do mostly."
   Jenson beat Tania and Glen, former USTA League players, for the first time when he was 8 and 10, respectively.
   "We called it the Brooksby Cup," recalled Tania, who owned Bentler Insurance Services until selling it five years ago. "I remember him making me run all over the place. He could just put the ball wherever I wasn't (laughs). Then we took him to dinner."
   Brooksby had a stellar junior career, reaching the final of the Little Mo Nationals in the 8s, 9s and 10s, winning the USTA National Championships on hardcourts in the 12s, advancing to the final of the Clay Court Nationals in the 14s and 16s, reaching the USTA National final on hardcourts in the 16s, and winning the USTA Nationals and Easter Bowl on hardcourts in the 18s.
Brooksby, shown at 12, did not run around his back-
hand as a junior, and he certainly doesn't today.
 Photo by Paul Bauman
   Brooksby could have won more junior titles, but that wasn't Gilbert's philosophy.
   "Joe always wanted him to play up," Glen Brooksby said. "He was 11 or something and made the national clay-court semis. Joe's like, 'OK, now he goes to the 14s.' You don't need to win championships at that age. It's not important. It's more the competition. You want to be pushing yourself all the time, and the only way for top players in one age group to do it is to move to the next age group and play the bigger, stronger players. ... 
   "Joe was always looking for that next level, because to him, it wasn't about the juniors. It's about where (Jenson) is right now. He had the vision to do that with Jenson and the vision to create his game. It's Jenson hitting the shots and Joe creating the game style and the way he hits the ball."
   Brooksby reached the USTA National 16s final on hardcourts at 15 and won the 18s at 17. Instead of trying to make it two in a row in the 18s, he won back-to-back $25,000 tournaments in Illinois against budding professionals and earned ranking points. Two weeks later, the 18-year-old Brooksby qualified for the U.S. Open and stunned 2010 Wimbledon runner-up Tomas Berdych in the opening round for his first tour-level win. In the second round, Brooksby led No. 17 seed Nikoloz Basilashvili of Georgia by a set and 4-0 before losing in four sets.
   Forgoing $100,000 for reaching the second round of the U.S. Open, Brooksby enrolled at Baylor in January 2020 but never played a match for the Bears. He turned pro on Dec. 8, 2020.
    Just over one year later, Brooksby is training for his first Australian Open after recovering from an abdominal strain that ended his season two weeks early in November. Nadal is questionable for the year's first Grand Slam tournament, Jan. 17-30 in Melbourne, after testing positive for COVID on Monday. He ended a four-month injury layoff in last week's exhibition event in Abu Dhabi.
   Barring more injuries, Brooksby and Nadal figure to meet somewhere, sometime in 2022. This time, it will be for real.

Saturday, December 18, 2021

All NorCal players eliminated from Junior Orange Bowl

   The last three Northern Californians, all from the San Francisco Bay Area, lost today in the fourth round (round of 16) in the Junior Orange Bowl in Coral Gables, Fla., and Key Biscayne, Fla.
   In the closest match in the singles-only tournament, No. 5 seed Jordan Lee of Orlando, Fla., edged No. 9 seed Tanishk Konduri of Cupertino 1-6, 6-4, 7-6 (6) in the boys 12s.
   Also in the boys 12s, No. 9 seed Juan Miguel Bolivar of Port Saint Lucie, Fla, outlasted No. 7 seed Vihaan Reddy of San Jose 6-2, 0-6, 6-4.
  Meanwhile, No. 1 seed Iva Jovic of Torrance in the Los Angeles region routed qualifier Sabrina Lin of Saratoga 6-1, 6-0.

Friday, December 17, 2021

No. 2 seed ousted in Junior Orange Bowl girls 12s

   No. 17 seed Yui Komada of Japan stunned No. 2 seed Kristina Penickova of Campbell in the San Francisco Bay Area 6-0, 6-2 today in the third round of the Junior Orange Bowl girls 12s in Key Biscayne, Fla.
   Penickova won the Eddie Herr International Championships two weeks ago in Bradenton, Fla.
   Also in the girls 12s in the singles-only tournament, No. 8 seed Zaire Clarke of Greenacres, Fla., dispatched No. 17 seed Sephi Sheng of Palo Alto, Calif., 6-3, 6-1.
   Three Bay Area players reached the round of 16 in other events. Advancing were qualifier Sabrina Lin of Saratoga in the girls 14s and No. 7 seed Vihaan Reddy of San Jose and No. 9 seed Tanishk Konduri of Cupertino in the boys 12s.
   Kaia Giribalan of Los Altos in the Bay Area fell to Sara Conde of Argentina 6-2, 6-2.

Thursday, December 16, 2021

NorCal's Brooksby, 21, voted ATP Newcomer of Year

Jenson Brooksby, warming up for a match in Indian Wells in October,
soared from No. 307 to No. 56 in 10 months. Photo by Paul Bauman
   Jenson Brooksby of Carmichael, Calif., in the Sacramento area was voted the ATP Newcomer of the Year, the organization announced today.
   Brooksby, 21, became the first American to win the award since Taylor Fritz in 2016 and the third since 2000. The other is Andy Roddick in 2001.
   "I am extremely grateful to win the ATP Newcomer of the Year award," Brooksby said on atptour.com. "Thank you to all the players who voted for me. It means a lot. It was definitely a fun season, and I would like to thank the fans for cheering me on throughout the year. Lastly, thanks to my team, who supported me through the tough times and the good times." 
   Brooksby stunningly skyrocketed from No. 307 to No. 56 in 10 months. He reached his maiden ATP Tour final in Newport, R.I., in his first tournament ever on grass, losing to two-time Grand Slam runner-up Kevin Anderson, and the round of 16 in the U.S. Open, dominating Novak Djokovic 6-1 in the first set before falling in four sets.
   Fifteen days after the Newport final, Brooksby beat the 6-foot-8 (2.03-meter) Anderson en route to the semifinals in Washington, D.C. 
   Also nominated for Newcomer of the Year were No. 67 Hugo Gaston of France, No. 68 Brandon Nakashima of San Diego and No. 90 Juan Manuel Cerundolo and No. 99 Sebastian Baez of Argentina. Gaston is 21, and the other three players are 20.
   Junior Orange Bowl — Five San Francisco Bay Area players reached the third round in Coral Gables, Fla., and Key Biscayne, Fla.
   Advancing in the singles-only tournament were qualifier Sabrina Lin of Saratoga in the girls 14s, No. 2 seed Kristina Penickova of Campbell and No. 17 seed Sephi Sheng of Palo Alto in the girls 12s, and No. 7 seed Vihaan Reddy of San Jose and No. 9 seed Tanishk Konduri of Cupertino in the boys 12s.
   Penickova won the Eddie Herr International Championships two weeks ago in Bradenton, Fla.

Wednesday, December 15, 2021

Bay Area's Lin wins opener in Junior Orange Bowl

   Qualifier Sabrina Lin of Saratoga in the San Francisco Bay Area defeated Madison McLeod of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., 6-3, 6-3 today in the first round of the girls 14s in the Junior Orange Bowl in Coral Gables, Fla.
   Many matches in the singles-only tournament were postponed by rain.
   Lin is scheduled to play No. 17 seed Alanis Hamilton of Bentonville, Ark., on Thursday. Hamilton beat JoAnna Kennedy of Denver 6-4, 6-2.
   Two other Bay Area players, No. 17 seeds Annika Penickova of Campbell and Sephi Sheng of Palo Alto, won their openers in the girls 12s. Penickova overwhelmed Fernanda Antonella Marin Gonzalez of Mexico 6-2, 6-0, and Sheng beat Aurora Lugo of Puerto Rico 5-2, retired.
   No. 2 seed Kristina Penickova, Annika's twin, is set to open on Thursday against Noor Sandhu of Memphis, Tenn. Kristina Penickova won the Eddie Herr International Championships in Bradenton, Fla., two weeks ago.
   In the first round of the Junior Orange Bowl boys 12s, No. 7 seed Vihaan Reddy of San Jose, Calif., dominated Tomas Giachero of Canada 6-2, 6-2. Seung Jun Yu of South Korea downed Connor Lin of Santa Clara in the Bay Area 6-2, 6-3.

Tuesday, December 14, 2021

Bay Area product named ATP Comeback Player of Year

Mackenzie McDonald, playing in Indian Wells in October, rebounded from
hamstring surgery to reach a career-high No. 54. Photo by Paul Bauman
   Mackenzie McDonald, who was born in Berkeley, Calif., and grew up in adjacent Piedmont, was named the ATP Comeback Player of the Year today.
   McDonald, now based in Orlando, Fla., underwent right hamstring surgery in June 2019 and fell as low as No. 272 in March 2020. This year, he reached the round of 16 in the Australian Open, advanced to his first ATP Tour final in Washington, D.C., and climbed to a career-high No. 54 on Nov. 1. The 5-foot-10 (1.78-meter), 160-pound (73-kilogram) veteran currently is No. 55.
   "It's extremely rewarding," the 26-year-old McDonald, who also reached the fourth round at Wimbledon in 2018, said on atptour.com. "For me, it's a massive accomplishment, honestly. At the end of the year, I was hoping I was going to be nominated. I got that, and then actually winning it is really cool for me.
   "It was a really big comeback, and I feel like I put in all the hard work. When I was going through the rehab process, I did everything I possibly could to get myself back."
   Players selected McDonald over Andy Murray (2019 hip surgery), Thanasi Kokkinakis (2020 right shoulder injury) and Jack Sock (2019 thumb surgery).
   Kokkinakis, who has been plagued by injuries throughout his career, won Aptos in 2018 and advanced to the 2019 Tiburon final in Northern California Challengers.
   Marcus Daniell of New Zealand was named the Arthur Ashe Humanitarian of the Year. Daniell, a doubles bronze medalist with countryman Michael Venus in the Tokyo Olympics, donates at least 10 percent of his earnings to charity.
   In November 2020, Daniell founded High Impact Athletes, which connects athletes and the general public with the most effective charities in the world.
   The ATP will announce the Newcomer of the Year this week. Nominees include Jenson Brooksby, 21, of Carmichael, Calif., in the Sacramento area. Like McDonald, Brooksby soared to the top 60, reached his first ATP final and advanced to the round of 16 in a Grand Slam tournament.
   Juniors — Kristina Penickova of Campbell in the San Francisco Bay Area is seeded second in the girls 12s in the singles-only Junior Orange Bowl, which begins Wednesday in Key Biscayne, Fla., and Coral Gables, Fla. Penickova won the Eddie Herr International Championships in Bradenton, Fla., two weeks ago.

Monday, December 13, 2021

Norrie's coach receives ATP year-end award

Cameron Norrie soared from No. 74 at the start of 2021 to
No. 12 in the year-end rankings. 2016 photo by Paul Bauman
   Facundo Lugones was voted the ATP Coach of the Year by players for helping Cameron Norrie of Great Britain soar to No. 12 in the year-end rankings. 
   Lugones, 29, of Argentina is only three years older than Norrie. They were teammates at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth in 2014-15.
   Norrie, ranked No. 74 at the beginning of 2021, won his first two ATP Tour titles in Los Cabos and Indian Wells. The left-hander played two matches as an alternate in the Nitto ATP Finals after Stefanos Tsitsipas' withdrawal, losing to No. 8 Casper Ruud and No. 1 Novak Djokovic.
    Norrie won back-to-back Northern California Challengers in Tiburon and Stockton in 2017. In Stockton, Norrie was compared to his countryman Andy Murray
   Lugones was selected over Gilles Cervara (Daniil Medvedev), Christian Ruud (Casper Ruud), Craig Boynton (Hubert Hurkacz) and Juan Carlos Ferrero (Carlos Alcaraz). 
   Medvedev, 25, won his first Grand Slam title in the U.S. Open and finished the year at No. 2.
   Ruud, 22, and Hurkacz, 24, ended 2021 at No. 8 and No. 9, respectively. Christian Ruud, Casper's father, peaked at No. 39 in 1995. 
   Alcaraz, who turned 18 in May, jumped from No. 141 to No. 32 in the year-end rankings. 
   The ATP will announce the Comeback Player of the Year and Newcomer of the Year this week. Nominees include NorCal products Mackenzie McDonald (Comeback Player) and Jenson Brooksby (Newcomer).
   Both McDonald, 26, and Brooksby, 21, skyrocketed to the top 60, reached their first ATP final and advanced to the fourth round of a Grand Slam tournament (McDonald for the second time). McDonald underwent hamstring surgery in June 2019.

Sunday, December 12, 2021

Quinn loses in Orange Bowl doubles final; Ahn honored

    No. 7 seeds Edas Butvilas of Lithuania and Abedallah Shelbayh of Jordan, beat unseeded Nicholas Godsick of Chagrin Falls, Ohio, and Ethan Quinn of Fresno, Calif., 6-2, 6-4 today to win the boys 18 doubles title in the Orange Bowl on clay in Plantation, Fla.
   Butvilas and Shelbayh, opponents in this year's Wimbledon boys doubles final, lost only one set during the week. They reached the quarterfinals of last week's Eddie Herr International Championships in Bradenton, Fla., in their first tournament together.
   Shelbayh is a freshman at the University of Florida, and Quinn has signed to play at Georgia.
   Godsick and Quinn won the Orange Bowl boys 16 doubles title last year. Shelbayh and Daniel Rincon of Spain earned the crown in 2019.
Stanford graduate Kristie Ahn won the WTA's Peachy Kellmeyer Player
Service Award for the second time. 2019 photo by Paul Bauman
   Godsick's mother, Mary Joe Fernandez, won consecutive Orange Bowl singles titles in the 12s, 14s, 16s and 18s (1982-85). A former top-five player in singles and doubles as a professional, Fernandez works as a tennis commentator for ESPN. Godsick's father, Tony Godsick, is Roger Federer's agent.
   WTA Tour — Kristie Ahn, a 29-year-old Stanford graduate, won the Peachy Kellmeyer Player Service Award for the second time.
   The award, voted on by Ahn's peers, recognizes her work supporting fellow players and wider initiatives on behalf of the WTA. Ahn serves as a player representative on the WTA Board of Directors and was a member of the WTA Players' Council.
   Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain earned the Karen Krantzcke Sportsmanship Award. Suarez Navarro overcame Hodgkin's lymphoma to play in five tournaments this year before retiring at 33.
   Ranked as high as No. 6 in singles (2016) and No. 11 in doubles (2015), Suarez Navarro won the doubles title in the 2014 Bank of the West Classic at Stanford in 2014 with compatriot GarbiƱe Muguruza.

Saturday, December 11, 2021

San Jose school wins its first NorCal girls title

   In a matchup of San Francisco Bay Area private schools, Harker of San Jose beat defending champion Menlo of Atherton 5-2 on Nov. 20 in the Sacramento, Calif., suburb of Folsom to win the CIF/USTA Northern California Girls Regional Championships for the first time.
   Harker finished 21-1, including a victory over Southern California repeat champion Westlake of Thousand Oaks in the Los Angeles region. A public school, Westlake is considered the No. 1 team in the nation.
   Leading Harker were five-star recruits Natasha Rajaram, Sophie Hernandez and Emily Novikov (no relation to professional player Dennis Novikov of San Jose).
   Rajaram and Hernandez are ranked 23rd and 39th, respectively, in the class of 2024 by tennisrecruiting.net. Novikov is rated 60th in the class of 2023.

Fresno's Quinn reaches Orange Bowl 18s doubles final

   Unseeded Nicholas Godsick of Chagrin Falls, Ohio, and Ethan Quinn, a University of Georgia signee from Fresno, Calif., edged Juan Carlos Prado Angelo of Bolivia and Cooper Williams, a Harvard commit from Greenwich, Conn., 3-6, 7-5 [11-9] today in the boys 18-and-under semifinals on clay in the Orange Bowl in Plantation, Fla.
   Godsick's mother, Mary Joe Fernandez, won consecutive Orange Bowl singles titles in the 12s, 14s, 16s and 18s (1982-85). A former top-five player in singles and doubles as a professional, Fernandez works as a tennis commentator for ESPN. Godsick's father, Tony Godsick, is Roger Federer's agent.
   Godsick and Quinn, last year's doubles champions in the 16s, are set to face seventh-seeded Edas Butvilas of Lithuania and Abedallah Shelbayh, a University of Florida freshman from Jordan.
   Butvilas and Shelbayh, opponents in this year's Wimbledon boys doubles final, topped sixth-seeded Aleksander Orlikowski and Olaf Pieczkowski of Poland 6-7 (9), 6-2 [10-3].
   Orlikowski and Pieczkowski defeated Butvilas and Shelbayh in the quarterfinals of last week's Eddie Herr International Championships in Bradenton, Fla., en route to the title.
   In the Wimbledon boys doubles final, Butvilas and Alejandro Manzaneras Pertusa of Spain beat Daniel RincĆ³n of Spain and Shelbayh 6-3, 6-4. Both teams were unseeded.

Friday, December 10, 2021

NorCal's Quinn advances to Orange Bowl doubles semis

   Nicholas Godsick of Chagrin Falls, Ohio, and Ethan Quinn of Fresno, Calif. defeated Ryan Colby of Alexandria, Va. and Dinko Dinev of Bulgaria 6-2, 7-6 (5) today in the boys 18-and-under quarterfinals on clay in the Orange Bowl in Plantation, Fla.
   Quinn, No. 1 in the national combined standings, and Colby, No. 3, have signed to play at Georgia and USC, respectively.
   Godsick's mother, Mary Joe Fernandez, won consecutive Orange Bowl singles titles in the 12s, 14s, 16s and 18s (1982-85). A former top-five player in singles and doubles as a professional, Fernandez works as a tennis commentator for ESPN. Godsick's father, Tony Godsick, is Roger Federer's agent.
   Godsick and Quinn, last year's doubles champions in the 16s, are scheduled to play Juan Carlos Prado Angelo of Bolivia and Cooper Williams, a Harvard commit from Greenwich, Conn., in another matchup of unseeded teams.
   Prado Angelo and Williams eliminated unseeded Nishesh Basavareddy, a Stanford commit from Basking Ridge, N.J., and Aidan Kim of Milford, Mich., 6-4, 6-3. Basavareddy and Kim had ousted top-seeded Bruno Kuzuhara of Coconut Creek, Fla., and Mili Poljicak of Croatia in the second round.
   In other junior news, Emon van Loben Sels of Sacramento, Calif., has verbally committed to UCLA. Van Loben Sels is ranked 14th in the class of 2023 by tennisrecruiting.net.

Thursday, December 9, 2021

Stanford commit reaches Orange Bowl doubles quarters

   Wild cards Nishesh Basavareddy, a Stanford commit from Carmel, Ind., and Aidan Kim of Milford, Mich., ousted top-seeded Bruno Kuzuhara of Coconut Creek, Fla., and Mili Poljicak of Croatia 2-6, 6-2 [11-9] today to reach the boys 18-and-under quarterfinals on clay in the Orange Bowl in Plantation, Fla.
   Also advancing in the top half of the draw was the team of Nicholas Godsick of Chagrin Falls, Ohio, and Ethan Quinn, a Georgia signee from Fresno, Calif.
   Godsick and Quinn, last year's doubles champions in the 16s, beat Gerard Campana Lee of South Korea and Dylan Dietrich of Switzerland 7-6 (4) 6-4 in a second-round matchup of unseeded teams. 
   Godsick's mother, Mary Joe Fernandez, won consecutive Orange Bowl singles titles in the 12s, 14s, 16s and 18s (1982-85). A former top-five player in singles and doubles as a professional, Fernandez now works as a tennis commentator for ESPN. Godsick's father, Tony Godsick, is Roger Federer's agent.
   All seeded teams in the top half of the Orange Bowl boys 18 doubles draw have been eliminated.
   In the bottom half, seventh-seeded Edas Butvilas of Lithuania and Abedallah Shelbayh of Jordan downed Samir Banerjee, a Stanford commit from Basking Ridge, N.J, and Braden Shick of Greensboro, N.C., 6-4, 6-4.
   In Wimbledon boys events this year, Banerjee won the singles title, and Butvilas took the doubles crown with Alejandro Manzanera Pertusa of Spain.
   In the second round of Orange Bowl girls 18 doubles, third-seeded Alexandra Eala of the Philippines and Solana Sierra of Argentina dismissed Mirra Andreeva of Russia and Katja Wiersholm, a University of California, Berkeley signee from Kirkland, Wash., 6-3, 6-2.

Wednesday, December 8, 2021

Stanford commit Zheng loses to seed in Orange Bowl

   No. 15 seed Edas Butvilas of Lithuania defeated Michael Zheng, a Stanford commit from Montville, N.J., 7-6 (8), 6-1 today in the second round of the Orange Bowl boys 18-and-unders on clay in Plantation, Fla.
   Butvilas won the Wimbledon boys doubles title this year with Alejandro Manzanera Pertusa of Spain. Zheng reached the doubles final in last week's Eddie Herr International Championships on clay in Bradenton, Fla.
   In the second round of Orange Bowl boys 16 doubles, Krish Arora of San Jose, Calif., and Ji ZhengQing of China eliminated Adhithya Ganesan of Clarksburg, Md., and Rudy Quan of Sacramento, Calif., 4-6, 7-6 (4) [10-6]. Quan won the Eddie Herr 16s singles title.

Tuesday, December 7, 2021

Barty voted Player of Year; Stanford commit ousted

Ashleigh Barty won Wimbledon and, for the third consecutive season, ended the
year at No. 1 . 2019 photo by Harjanto Sumali
   International journalists voted Ashleigh Barty as the WTA Player of the Year for the second time, the organization announced Monday.
   Barty, a 25-year-old Australian, won her second Grand Slam singles title at Wimbledon, led all players with five singles titles and ended the year at No. 1 for the third consecutive season.
   Also winning awards were Barbora Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova (Doubles Team of the Year), Krejcikova (Most Improved Player), Emma Raducanu (Newcomer of the Year) and Carla Suarez Navarro (Comeback Player of the Year). 
   Krejcikova and Siniakova, Czechs who also were voted as the Doubles Team of the Year in 2018, won their third Grand Slam crown in the French Open and triumphed in the WTA Finals. Siniakova finished the year at No. 1.
   Krejcikova won the first three singles titles of her career, including the French Open, and soared from No. 65 to No. 5 in the year-end rankings.
   Raducanu, now 19, of Great Britain became the first qualifier to win a Grand Slam tournament in the U.S. Open. She did not drop a set in her 10 matches.
   Raducanu, ranked No. 343 at the beginning of 2021, ended the year at No. 19. She lost in the first round in San Jose after, at age 18, becoming the youngest British woman to reach the fourth round at Wimbledon.
   Suarez Navarro, from Spain, overcame Hodgkin's lymphoma to play in five tournaments before retiring at 33. She won only one match, against current No. 10 Ons Jabeur in the first round of the Tokyo Olympics, but extended Sloane Stephens and Barty to three sets at the French Open and Wimbledon, respectively.
   Suarez Navarro captured the doubles title in the 2014 Bank of the West Classic at Stanford with compatriot GarbiƱe Muguruza.
   ATP Tour — Northern California products Mackenzie McDonald and Jenson Brooksby were nominated for Comeback Player of the Year and Newcomer of the Year, respectively. Results of the playing voting will be announced this month.
   Both players skyrocketed to the top 60 in the rankings, reached their first ATP final and advanced to the fourth round of a Grand Slam tournament. McDonald underwent hamstring surgery in June 2019.
   Juniors — No. 1 seed Samir Banerjee, a Stanford commit from Basking Ridge, N.J., and No. 14 seed Ethan Quinn, a Georgia signee from Fresno, Calif., lost in the first round of the Orange Bowl boys 18-and-unders on clay in Plantation, Fla.
   Switzerland's Kilian Feldbausch, the runner-up in last week's Eddie Herr International Championships in Bradenton, Fla., ousted Banerjee, the reigning Wimbledon boys singles champion, 6-3, 6-2. Henrique Rocha of Portugal edged Quinn 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (4).
   Michael Zheng, a Stanford commit from Montville, N.J., advanced with a 6-4, 6-2 victory over Alvaro Guillen Meza of Ecuador. Zheng reached the Eddie Herr doubles final with Benjamin Kittay of Potomac, Md.
   In other opening-round matches:
   —Rebecca Munk Mortensen of Denmark topped No. 16 seed Alexis Blokhina, a Stanford signee from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., 6-3, 4-6, 7-5 in the girls 18s. 
   —No. 15 seed George Lazarov of Bulgaria defeated wild card Rudy Quan of Sacramento, Calif., 7-5, 6-3 in the boys 16s. Quan won the Eddie Herr 16s.
   —Adhithya Ganesan of Clarksburg, Md., and Quan beat Gevorg Mnatsakanyan of Gaithersburg, Md., and Jonathan Soeth of Great Britain 6-2, 6-2 in the boys 16s.

Monday, December 6, 2021

Sacramentan's Orange Bowl opener suspended by rain

   Unseeded Rudy Quan of Sacramento, Calif., is tied with No. 15 seed George Lazarov of Bulgaria 5-5 in the first round of the boys 16-and-unders in the rain-delayed Orange Bowl on clay in Plantation, Fla.
   The match is scheduled to resume on Tuesday at 5:30 a.m. PST. Dry weather is forecast.
   Quan, who won the boys 16 singles title in last week's Eddie Herr International Championships on clay in Bradenton, Fla., also is set to play in the first round of doubles with Adhithya Ganesan of Clarksburg, Md. 
   Stanford commits Samir Banerjee and Michael Zheng and Cardinal signee Alexis Blokhina are slated to open Tuesday in 18s singles, along with Georgia signee Ethan Quinn of Fresno, Calif.
   Herr founded the Orange Bowl in 1947. It was played on clay until 1998, then on hardcourts until 2011. It has been contested on clay against since then.
   Past winners of the Orange Bowl 18s include Chris Evert (1969-70), Bjorn Borg (1972), John McEnroe (1976), Ivan Lendl (1977), Gabriela Sabatini (1984), Mary Joe Fernandez (1985), Jim Courier (1987) and Anna Kournikova (1995).
   Winners of the tournament on hardcourts include Roger Federer (1998), Elena Dementieva (1998), Andy Roddick (1999), Vera Zvonareva (2000-01), Marcos Baghdatis (2003) and Caroline Wozniacki (2005).

Sunday, December 5, 2021

Russians run way with Davis Cup championship

Daniil Medvedev, practicing in Indian Wells in
October, won all five of his Davis Cup singles
matches in straight sets. Photo by Paul Bauman
   Daniil Medvedev and Andrey Rublev carried the Russian Tennis Federation to its first Davis Cup championship in 15 years today.
   Medvedev and Rublev — ranked No. 2 and No. 5 in singles, respectively — won in straight sets again to clinch a victory over Croatia, the 2018 champion, in Madrid. Croatia played in its third Davis Cup final in five years.
   Rublev defeated No. 279 Borna Gojo 6-4, 7-6 (5), giving the RTF a 1-0 lead. Medvedev followed with a 7-6 (7), 6-2 win over No. 30 Marin Cilic in a matchup of U.S. Open champions. Cilic and Medvedev won at Flushing Meadows in 2014 and this year, respectively.
   The scheduled doubles match, top-ranked Nikola Mektic and Mate Pavic of Croatia against Aslan Karatsev and Rublev, was canceled.
   The RTF lost only one live match in five ties during the Davis Cup as Medvedev, 25, and Rublev, 24, went 9-1 combined in singles. Medvedev, who has a freakish combination of size (6-foot-6 or 1.98 meters) and agility, won all five of his singles matches in straight sets.
   Rublev played in the 2015 Aptos Challenger in Northern California at 17, losing to former No. 2 Tommy Haas in the first round. Rublev was 9 when Russia won the 2006 Davis Cup with Dmitry Tursunov, a Moscow native who trained in NorCal as a junior and professional.
   Croatia was missing former world No. 12 Borna Coric, who had shoulder surgery in May.

Saturday, December 4, 2021

Russians rout Germany to reach Davis Cup title match

Daniil Medvedev, practicing in Indian Wells in October,
clinched the Russian Tennis Federation's victory over
Germany today in Madrid. Photo by Paul Bauman
   Without Alexander Zverev, Germany was no match for the Russian Tennis Federation.
   Daniil Medvedev and Andrey Rublev — ranked No. 2 and No. 5, respectively — needed less than two hours combined to clinch the Russians' 2-1 victory today in the semifinals of the Davis Cup Finals in Madrid.
   Rublev overwhelmed No. 54 Dominik Koepfer 6-4, 6-0 in 48 minutes to give the RTF a 1-0 lead. Medvedev, who won his first Grand Slam title in the U.S. Open in September, followed with a 6-4, 6-4 victory over Jan-Lennard Struff in 66 minutes.
   Germany won the inconsequential doubles match. The third-ranked Zverev, the singles gold medalist in the Tokyo Olympics and recent ATP Finals champion, boycotted the Davis Cup because of the format change two years ago.
   Both Rublev and Koepfer have played in Northern California Challengers. At 17, Rublev lost in the first round in Aptos to former No. 2 Tommy Haas in 2015. Koepfer reached finals in San Francisco in 2018 and Aptos in 2019.
   The RTF, seeking its first Davis Cup title since 2006 with Dmitry Tursunov, will face 2018 champion Croatia on Sunday at 7 a.m. PST (CBSSN). The Russians likely must sweep the singles matches again versus No. 30 Marin Cilic, the 2014 U.S. Open champion, and No. 243 Nino Serdarusic or No. 279 Borna Gojo because Croatia has the top-ranked doubles pair of Nikola Mektic and Mate Pavic.
   Croatia is missing former world No. 12 Borna Coric, who had shoulder surgery in May.
   Juniors — Rudy Quan of Sacramento, Calif., and Kristina Penickova of Campbell in the San Francisco Bay Area breezed to singles titles in the Eddie Herr International Championships in Bradenton, Fla.
   Quan, a wild card, crushed unseeded Lorenzo Carboni of Italy 6-0, 6-1 in the boys 16-and-unders. Penickova, seeded No. 3, routed No. 5 seed Anita Tu of Melbourne, Fla., 6-1, 6-2 in the girls 12s.
   Quan won the 12s in the Easter Bowl, national Clay Courts, national Hardcourts and Junior Orange Bowl in 2018 but missed most of 2019 with a stress fracture in his elbow. COVID wiped out much of 2020.
   In the boys 18 doubles final, No. 4 seeds Aleksander Orlikowsky and Olaf Pieczkowski of Poland beat wild cards Benjamin Kittay of Potomac, Md., and Michael Zheng, a Stanford commit from Montville, N.J., 7-5, 6-4. 
   USTA — No. 1 seeds Tracie Currie of Ventura, Calif., and Francesca La O of San Francisco beat No. 4 seeds Colleen Clery Ferrell and Hiromi Sasano of San Diego 6-3, 6-4 to take third place in women's doubles in the National 40 Hard Court Championships in La Jolla, Calif. 

Friday, December 3, 2021

Croatia downs Djokovic, Serbia in Davis Cup semifinals

Novak Djokovic won in singles but lost in doubles today.
2019 photo by Harjanto Sumali
   The top-ranked doubles pair of Nikola Mektic and Mate Pavic lifted Croatia to a 2-1 victory over Serbia, featuring singles No. 1 Novak Djokovic, today in Madrid in the semifinals of the Davis Cup Finals.
   Mektic and Pavic, the reigning Wimbledon champions, defeated Djokovic and Filip Krajinovic 7-5, 6-1 in the deciding match.
   Borna Gojo had beaten Dusan Lajovic 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 to give Croatia a 1-0 lead. Djokovic pulled Serbia even with a 6-4, 6-2 victory over 6-foot-6 (1.98-meter) Marin Cilic, the 2014 U.S. Open winner. Djokovic saved all eight break points against him, including four while serving for the first set at 5-4, and improved to 18-2 in the head-to-head series. 
   Gojo helped Wake Forest win its first NCAA team title and reached the singles final in 2018. Later that year, Croatia captured its first Davis Cup championship.
   Croatia will face the winner of Saturday's semifinal between the Russian Tennis Federation and Germany (live stream at 4 a.m. PST on CBSSports.com and the CBS Sports App.) in Madrid on Sunday at 7 a.m. (CBSSN).
   The Russians have two of the top five singles players in the world, No. 2 Daniil Medvedev and No. 5 Andrey Rublev. Germany, meanwhile, is playing without No. 3 Alexander Zverev. The singles gold medalist in the Tokyo Olympics and recent ATP Finals champion boycotted the Davis Cup because of the format change two years ago.
   Juniors — Wild cards Benjamin Kittay of Potomac, Md., and Michael Zheng, a Stanford commit from Montville, N.J., beat unseeded Gianluca Ballotta of Peru and Leanid Boika of Delray Beach, Fla., 6-1, 6-4 in the boys 18-and-under semifinals in the Eddie Herr International Championships in Bradenton, Fla.
   Kittay and Zheng are set to face No. 4 seeds Aleksander Orlikowsky and Olaf Pieczkowski of Poland on Saturday.
   Meanwhile, Rudy Quan of Sacramento, Calif., and Kristina Penickova of Campbell in the San Francisco Bay Area reached singles finals without completing their matches.
   Quan, a wild card, advanced by walkover against No. 2 seed Rei Sakamoto of Japan in the boys 16s. Penickova, seeded No. 3, defeated No. 11 Ana Avramovic of Orlando, Fla., 6-1, 3-0, retired in the girls 12s.
   Quan is scheduled to meet unseeded Lorenzo Carboni of Italy on Saturday. Carboni, who ousted No. 1 seed Juan David of Naples, Fla., in the quarterfinals, eliminated unseeded Andrew Delgado of High Point, N.C., 6-1, 7-6 (1). 
   Penickova is set to play No. 5 seed Anita Tu of Melbourne, Fla., on Saturday. Tu ousted No. 1 seed Lia Belibova of Moldova 6-4, 6-4.