USC assistant Kwinta named Cal men's head coach

   USC associate head coach Kris Kwinta was named the director of men's tennis at the University of California, Berkeley, the school announced Friday.

   Kwinta, 41, replaces Peter Wright, who announced his retirement in August after 29 years as the head coach.

   After earning All-America honors at UCLA, Kwinta served as a Bruins assistant coach for four years before moving across town to archrival USC. 

   A native of Poznan, Poland, Kwinta began playing tennis at the advanced age of 13. He earned a bachelor of science degree in political science from UCLA in 2008.

   WTA Tour — Simona Halep and Anett Kontaveit — seeded first and second, respectively — are set to meet in the Transylvania Open final in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, after 62-minute victories.

   Halep, playing in her home country, demolished sixth-seeded Marta Kostyuk, 19, of Ukraine 6-0, 6-1. Estonia's Kontaveit dispatched unseeded Rebecca Peterson of Sweden 6-3, 6-2.

   "I think I know Rebecca since we're like 8 years old," Kontaveit said in on-court interview. "We grew up playing together, similar tournaments. Her parents are actually Estonian, so I know her family pretty well. We've always been pretty close."

   Kontaveit, 25, has won nine consecutive matches and 25 of her last 27 with three titles under her new coach, Dmitry Tursunov, a 38-year-old Moscow native who trained in Northern California as a junior and professional.

   Halep, formerly ranked No. 1, has lost only three games total in her last two matches. Neither finalist has dropped a set this week.

   A victory in Sunday's final (Tennis Channel), which follows the 5:30 a.m. PDT doubles final, would give Kontaveit the eighth and final spot in the WTA Finals, Nov. 10-17 in Guadalajara, surpassing Ons Jabeur. However, Kontaveit has not won a set in three career matches against Halep. 

   Neither Kontaveit nor Jabeur has qualified for the WTA Finals.

   ATP Tour — Americans Frances Tiafoe and Taylor Fritz, who combined for three singles titles in Northern California Challengers, will seek their second career ATP singles titles on Sunday. Tiafoe, a qualifier, will face No. 2 seed Alexander Zverev in Vienna, and Fritz, seeded fifth, will play unseeded Marin Cilic in St. Petersburg.

   USTA Pro Circuit — No. 4 seed Misaki Doi of Japan beat unseeded Marcela Zacarias of Mexico 7-5, 6-0 in the semifinals of the $80,000 Christus Health Pro Challenge in Tyler, Texas. Zacarias reached the final of the $60,000 Berkeley (Calif.) Challenger early this month.

   In the doubles final, No. 2 seeds Giuliana Olmos, a product of Fremont in the San Francisco Bay Area who represents Mexico, and Zacarias nipped No. 1 seeds Doi and Katarzyna Kawa of Poland 7-5, 1-6 [10-5].

   Meanwhile, Elysia Bolton, a UCLA senior from Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y., and Maegan Manasse, a Cal assistant coach and former Bears All-American, defeated Americans Rasheeda McAdoo and Chanelle Van Nguyen 6-1, 7-5 to win a $25,000 tournament in Austin, Texas. Both teams were unseeded.

    In the singles semifinals of the $25,000 USTA Men's Pro Tennis Championship of Calabasas in the L.A. region, unseeded Tristan Boyer, a Stanford sophomore from Altadena in the Los Angeles area, outlasted No. 4 seed Govind Nanda of Sacramento, Calif., 7-5, 4-6, 6-3.

   Boyer is set to face No. 1 seed Rinky Hijikata, a University of North Carolina junior from Australia, on Sunday.