Goransson in doubles final; Murray out of Aussie Open

Andre Goransson seeks his sixth Challenger doubles title. The
26-year-old Swede owns one ATP doubles crown. File photo by
Paul Bauman

   Second-seeded Andre Goransson (University of California, Berkeley, 2014-17) of Sweden and David Pel of the Netherlands beat unseeded Americans Robert Galloway and Alex Lawson 7-6 (4), 6-1 on an indoor hardcourt today in the semifinals of the €132,280 ($160,632) Istanbul Challenger.

   Goransson and Pel, a 6-foot-6 (1.98-meter) left-hander, are scheduled to meet unseeded Lloyd Glasspool of Great Britain and Harri Heliovaara of Finland on Saturday. 

   Glasspool and Heliovaara eliminated top-seeded Jonathan Erlich, 43, of Israel and Andrei Vasilevski of Belarus 7-6 (5), 6-3. Erlich won the 2008 Australian Open doubles title with countryman Andy Ram.

   Goransson, 26, seeks his sixth Challenger doubles title and first with Pel. Goransson owns one ATP doubles crown; he and Christopher Rungkat of Indonesia edged Erlich and Vasilevski 6-2, 3-6 [10-8] in the Pune (India) final last February.

   Australian Open — Former world No. 1 Andy Murray, who won the first two of his 46 tour-level singles titles in San Jose, Calif., withdrew from the year's first Grand Slam tournament after recently testing positive for COVID-19.

   Murray, a three-time Grand Slam singles champion, is 0-5 in Australian Open finals. The tournament is scheduled for Feb. 8-21 in Melbourne.

   UTR Pro Tennis Series — Cal All-American Haley Giavara, a sophomore from San Diego, withdrew from the semifinals of the second-place playoff in Newport Beach, Calif. 

   Madison Weekley, a high school junior from Alamo in the San Francisco Bay Area, is slated to play Skyler Grishuk of Newport Beach in the semifinals of the fourth-place playoff on Sunday in the $25,000 singles-only tournament.

   Weekley, who has verbally committed to Saint Mary's in the Bay Area, lost to Rebecca Lynn, a high school junior from Newport Beach, 7-6 (4), 6-1 today to finish 1-3 in round-robin play.

   Colleges — The Cal men (1-0) and women (1-0) are slated to face UCLA on Saturday in Los Angeles on ITA Kickoff Weekend.

   The men's match against the No. 18 Bruins at USC will be streamed live at 1 p.m. The No. 19 women's contest at No. 2 UCLA will be streamed live at 4 p.m.