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 Garbiñe Muguruza.

Stanford grad Ahn to play Japan's Naito in Open qualies

Kristie Ahn reached the round of 16 in the 2019 U.S. Open. She was
born two miles from the tournament site. 2019 photo by Paul Bauman

   No. 25 seed Kristie Ahn, a 29-year-old Stanford graduate, is scheduled to play Yuki Naito, 20, of Japan for the first time on Tuesday in first-round qualifying for the U.S. Open at the USTA Billie Jean King Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, N.Y.

   Ahn was born at Flushing Hospital Medical Center, two miles from the tournament site, and lives in nearby Englewood Cliffs, N.J. She reached the round of 16 in the 2019 U.S. Open to pocket $280,000, almost one-quarter of her career prize money of $1,216,894. 

   Ahn has struggled since then, tumbling from a career-high No. 87 in September 2019 to No. 140. However, she qualified for Wimbledon in June and advanced to the second round to collect $101,745. Naito, ranked No. 222, is 0-6, all on clay, since winning a $25,000 clay-court tournament in Buenos Aires in March.

   Also in first-round qualifying, No. 4 seed Mayar "Who Shot The" Sherif (Fresno State, 2015-16) of Egypt is set to make her U.S. Open debut on Wednesday against Clervie Ngounoue, a 15-year-old wild card from Washington, D.C.

   Sherif, ranked No. 95, has reached the final of her last two tournaments, both on clay. She lost to No. 2 seed and former world No. 9 Andrea Petkovic of Germany in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, becoming the first Egyptian to play in a WTA singles final, and to No. 1 seed Arantxa "Sanchez-Vicario" Rus of the Netherlands in a $60,000 ITF tournament in Gran Canaria, Spain.

   WTA Tour — In the first round of doubles in Cleveland, No. 1 seeds Shuko Aoyama and Ena Shibahara of Japan defeated Anastasia Rodionova, 39, of Australia and Galina Voskoboeva of Kazakhstan 6-4, 6-3.

   Aoyama and Shibahara, a native of Mountain View in the San Francisco Bay Area, advanced to the Wimbledon semifinals last month after winning the Eastbourne title on grass.

   Rodionova and Voskoboeva hail from Russia.

   ATP Tour — In the opening round of doubles in Winston-Salem, N.C., Marcus Daniell of New Zealand and Marcelo Demoliner of Brazil took out No. 3 seeds "Baltimore" Raven Klaasen of South Africa and Ben McLachlan (University of California, Berkeley, 2011-14) of Japan 6-3, 4-6 [10-4].

   Klaasen and McLachlan fell to 0-3 since winning the Washington, D.C., title three weeks ago.

McDonald reaches quarterfinals in Germany Challenger

No. 8 seed Mackenzie McDonald, a San Francisco Bay Area product, topped
alternate Kimmer Coppejans of Belgium in three sets today in the second
round of the Heilbronn Challenger. 2016 photo by Paul Bauman 

   No. 8 seed Mackenzie McDonald, a 26-year-old product of Piedmont in the San Francisco Bay Area, defeated alternate Kimmer Coppejans of Belgium 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 today in the second round of the €88,520 ($107,527) Challenger in Heilbronn, Germany, on red clay.

   McDonald, now based in Orlando, Fla., saved all three break points against him and broke Coppejans, the 2012 French Open boys singles champion, five of 10 times. 

   McDonald, ranked No. 120, is scheduled to play lucky loser Joao Menezes of Brazil for the first time in Thursday's quarterfinals. Menezes, ranked No. 196, ousted No. 2 seed Yannick Hanfmann of Germany 6-4, 6-3.

   In the first round of doubles, Andre Goransson (University of California, Berkeley, 2014-17) and Sem Verbeek (University of the Pacific, 2013-16), topped Daniel Masur of Germany and Denys Molchanov of Ukraine 7-6 (2), 7-6 (3). Goransson won last week's €44,820 ($54,189) Challenger in Biella, Italy, with Nathaniel Lammons of Dallas.

   McDonald and Denis Kudla of Arlington, Va., eliminated wild cards Tuna Altuna and Altug Celikbilek of Turkey 6-4, 6-4.

   ITF Women's Tour — Katie Volynets, a 19-year-old wild card from Walnut Creek in the Bay Area, dispatched lucky loser Catherine Harrison, a former UCLA All-American from Germantown, Tenn., 6-3, 6-2 in the opening round of the $100,000 Challenger in Bonita Springs, Fla., on green clay. 

   No. 3 seed Maiar Sherif Ahmed Abdelaziz (Fresno State, 2015-16) of Egypt outlasted qualifier Victoria Duval of Bradenton, Fla., 6-4, 1-6, 6-3. 

   No. 4 seed Kristie Ahn, a 28-year-old Stanford graduate from Englewood Cliffs, N.J., suffered her fifth consecutive first-round loss, falling to qualifier Irina Fetecau of Romania 6-3, 7-5.

   Ahn has won only two matches in her last 11 tournaments, dating to the U.S. Open last September. The first two losses in the skid came against Serena Williams.

   ATP Tour — In the first round of doubles in the Italian Open in Rome, No. 5 seeds Rajeev Ram, a volunteer assistant coach at Cal from Carmel, Ind., and Joe Salisbury of Great Britain edged Sander Gille and Joran Vliegen of Belgium 6-3, 2-6 [12-10] on red clay. Gille and Vliegen reached the final in Munich two weeks ago and the semifinals in Madrid last week. 

   Ram and Salisbury are set to meet Raven Klaasen of South Africa and Ben McLachlan (Cal, 2011-14) of Japan on Thursday. Klaasen and McLachlan topped Maximo Gonzalez of Argentina and Fabrice Martin of France 6-7 (7), 6-4 [10-6].

   WTA Tour — In the opening round of doubles in the Italian Open, No. 4 seeds Shuko Aoyama and Ena Shibahara of Japan demolished wide cards Giulia Gatto-Monticone and Bianca Turati of Italy 6-1, 6-0 in 50 minutes. Shibahara was born in Mountain View in the Bay Area and starred at UCLA. 

Italy's Paolini routs Stanford grad Ahn in Bogota

Kristie Ahn fell to sixth-seeded Jasmine Paolini in 59 minutes today.
2019 photo by Paul Bauman

   Sixth-seeded Jasmine Paolini of Italy drubbed Kristie Ahn, a 28-year-old Stanford graduate from Englewood Cliffs, N.J., 6-3, 6-0 in 59 minutes today in the first round of the Copa Colsanitas, a WTA 250 tournament on clay in Bogota, Colombia. 

   Two years ago in Bogota, 8,660 feet (2,640 meters) above sea level, Ahn ousted top seed and 2017 French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko in the opening round as a qualifier. Ahn then lost to 17-year-old wild card Maria Camila Osorio Serrano of Colombia in the second round.

   Paolini reached the second round of the French Open last fall.

   Ahn also lost in the first round of doubles. Lara Arruabarrena of Spain and Katarzyna Piter of Poland defeated Ahn and compatriot Usue (pronounced OU-sway) Arconada 6-4, 2-6 [10-2].

Top seed Rogers averts early upset; Bellis stays hot

   Top-seeded Shelby Rogers came within two points of losing early today to a qualifier for the second consecutive week, this time in her hometown.

   Rogers, 28, edged Kyoka Okamura, 25, of Japan 6-2, 4-6, 7-6 (5) in the first round of the $100,000 LTP Tennis on clay in Charleston, S.C.

   Rogers, who fell to 17-year-old phenom Clara Tauson of Denmark in the second round of an $80,000 hardcourt tournament in Tyler, Texas, last week, served for the match against Okamura at 5-4 and 6-5 in the third set and trailed 2-5 in the tiebreaker.

   Rogers stunned Serena Williams in the quarterfinals at Lexington, Ky., in August and reached her second Grand Slam quarterfinal in September in the U.S. Open. Ranked 58th in the world and 10th in the United States, she is scheduled to meet another qualifier, Gabriela Talaba of Romania, on Thursday.

   Talaba, a 25-year-old left-hander with a one-handed backhand, won the $25,000 Redding (Calif.) Challenger last fall. 

   CiCi Bellis, a 21-year-old wild card who was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, beat fifth-seeded Aliona Bolsova Zadoinov, a 22-year-old Spanish citizen from Moldova, for the second time in two weeks, 7-6 (0), 6-0. 

   Bellis has won nine of her last 10 matches, including the title on hardcourts in Macon, Ga., two weeks ago. She withdrew from the Tyler semifinals after playing six sets the previous day in the rain-delayed tournament.

   Bellis is set to play Katarzyna Kawa, a 27-year-old Pole, for the first time. Kawa reached the Tyler quarterfinals and teamed with compatriot Magdalena Frech to win the Macon doubles title and oust top-seeded Coco Gauff and Caty McNally of the United States 7-5 3-6 [10-3] in the first round in Charleston. 

   Caroline Dolehide, a 22-year-old native of Hinsdale, Ill., overwhelmed sixth-seeded Kristie Ahn, a 28-year-old Stanford graduate from Englewood Cliffs, N.J., 6-1, 6-0 in 47 minutes.

   Ahn, who advanced to the round of 16 in last year's U.S. Open, has won only five games in her last two matches.

   Dolehide, who won a $60,000 clay-court tournament in Charleston last October, will meet qualifier Maiar Sherif Ahmed Abdelaziz of Egypt. Abdelaziz, a 24-year-old former Fresno State All-American who transferred to Pepperdine, routed Kristina Kucova, 30, of Slovakia 6-2, 6-1. Kucova, 5-foot-4 (1.63 meters), won a $125,000 clay-court tournament in Prague in early September.

   In the first round of Charleston doubles, wild cards Allura and Maribella Zamarripa, 18-year-old identical twins from St. Helena in the Napa Valley, dispatched Naomi Broady, a 6-foot-2 (1.89-meter) Briton, and New Zealand's Erin Routliffe, a former two-time NCAA doubles champion from the University of Alabama, 6-4, 6-3.

   The Zamarripas won the Tyler crown as alternates, saving two championship points. They are scheduled to meet third-seeded Dolehide and Rogers at about 11 a.m. PST in the Charleston quarterfinals. Live streaming will be available.

McDonald reaches ATP QF; Ahn ousted in $80K Tyler

Mackenzie McDonald beat former top-20 player Andreas Seppi
3-6, 6-3, 6-3 to reach the quarterfinals of the Astana Open in
Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan. 2017 photo by Paul Bauman

   Unseeded Mackenzie McDonald, a 25-year-old San Francisco Bay Area product, defeated Andreas Seppi, a 36-year-old wild card from Italy, 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 today in the second round of the Astana Open in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan.

   McDonald, who was born and raised in Piedmont in the East Bay, reached his first ATP quarterfinal since Acapulco in February 2019. He underwent right hamstring surgery the following June and missed the rest of the season.

   Seppi climbed to career-high No. 18 in 2013 and defeated Roger Federer in the third round of the 2015 Australian Open for his only victory over the Swiss star in 15 matches. 

  McDonald, who reached a career-high No. 57 in April 2019, will jump at least 18 places to No. 191 in Monday's new rankings. Now based at the USTA National Campus near Orlando, Fla., he is set to face third-seeded Adrian Mannarino, a 32-year-old French left-hander, for the first time on Friday. 

   Mannarino, ranked No. 39, routed qualifier Yuichi Sugita of Japan 6-1, 6-1.

   In the other quarterfinal in the top half of the draw, unseeded Mikhail Kukushkin, a 32-year-old Russia native who plays for Kazakhstan, will play Emil Ruusuvuori, a 21-year-old qualifier from Finland.

   Kukushkin, the runner-up to Marcos Baghdatis in the 2014 Aptos (Calif.) Challenger, ousted top-seeded Benoit Paire of France 6-7 (4), 7-6 (2), 6-1. Kukushkin trailed 1-4 in the second set.

   Ruusuvuori outlasted eighth-seeded Jordan Thompson of Australia 6-2, 3-6, 6-4. Thompson reached the semifinals of the 2018 Stockton (Calif.) Challenger.  

   In the first round of Astana doubles, fourth-seeded Ben McLachlan (University of California, Berkeley, 2011-14), a New Zealand product who plays for his mother's native Japan, and Franko Skugor of Croatia edged Matwe Middelkoop of the Netherlands and Hugo Nys of Monaco 7-6 (4), 6-7 (8) [12-10].

   McLachlan, 28, won the Cologne title last week with Raven Klaasen, 38, of South Africa in their first tournament together.

   Top-seeded Sander Gille and Joran Vliegen of Belgium beat McDonald and compatriot Tommy Paul 6-3, 6-4. Paul won the singles title in last year's Tiburon (Calif.) Challenger.

   Erste Bank Open — Jamie Murray, Andy's older brother, and Neal Skupski of Great Britain beat second seeds and defending champions Rajeev Ram, a volunteer assistant coach at Cal from Carmel, Ind., and Joe Salisbury of Great Britain by walkover in the Vienna quarterfinals. 

   Salisbury and Skupski won the Vienna doubles title in 2018. Skupski played World TeamTennis for the California Dream, based in the Sacramento area, in 2015.

   USTA Pro Circuit — Hailey Baptiste, an 18-year-old wild card from Washington, D.C., overpowered fifth-seeded Kristie Ahn, a 28-year-old Stanford graduate from Englewood Cliffs, N.J., 6-2, 6-2 on a cold, windy day in the first round of the $80,000 Bellatorum Resources Pro Classic on hardcourts in Tyler, Texas. 

   Baptiste, bundled up in sweatpants and long-sleeved and short-sleeved shirts, blasted eight aces, including four straight (the last one on her second serve) to hold at love for 5-2 in the first set, and dominated with her powerful forehand.

   Baptiste stunned second-seeded Madison Keys, the U.S. Open runner-up in 2017, in the opening round in Washington, D.C., last year but had been 0-3 since the pro tours resumed from the five-month COVID-19 hiatus in August.

   CiCi Bellis, a 21-year-old Bay Area product, extended her winning streak to six matches with a 6-3, 6-3 victory over sixth-seeded Anna-Lena Friedsam, 26, of Germany in a clash of former top-50 players. Bellis, also now based at the USTA National Campus, won last week's $80,000 Mercer Tennis Classic on hardcourts in Macon, Ga.

   Lucky loser Veronica Cepede Royg of Paraguay beat Katie Volynets, an 18-year-old wild card from Walnut Creek in the Bay Area, 7-6 (6), 6-3.

   Top-seeded Shelby Rogers of Charleston, S.C., dismissed 18-year-old Whitney Osuigwe of Bradenton, Fla., 6-3, 6-3. Rogers, who reached her second Grand Slam quarterfinal last month in the U.S. Open, wrapped herself in a blanket while Osuigwe (pronounced Oh-SIG-way), formerly the top-ranked junior in the world, took a bathroom break between sets. 

   In the first round of doubles, alternates Allura and Maribella Zamarripa, 18-year-old identical twins from St. Helena, Calif., in the Napa area, routed wild cards Fernanda Contreras Gomez of Mexico and Felicity Maltby, a former Texas Tech All-American from Sunnyvale in the Bay Area, 6-2, 6-1.

   The Zamarripas, who are headed to the University of Texas in Austin next year, are scheduled to face top-seeded Caroline Dolehide and Caty McNally of the United States in the quarterfinals.

   Ahn and Naomi Broady, a 6-foot-2 (1.89-meter) Briton with an unorthodox one-handed backhand, defeated alternates Maria Camila Osorio Serrano of Colombia and Renata Zarazua, a 5-foot-3 (1.60-meter) Mexican, by walkover.

   In the recent French Open, Zarazua became the first Mexican woman to reach the second round of singles in a Grand Slam tournament in 20 years.

   ATP Challenger Tour — Marc-Andrea Huesler of Switzerland and Kamil Majchrzak of Poland beat third-seeded Andre Goransson (Cal, 2014-17) of Sweden and Jan Zielinski of Poland by walkover in the semifinals of the €44,820 ($52,759) Hamburg Challenger.

   Goransson won his first ATP title in February in Pune, India, with Christopher Rungkat of Indonesia.

Ex-Cal star Goransson advances in Hamburg doubles

Andre Goransson won his first ATP doubles title in February.
File photo by Paul Bauman

   Third-seeded Andre Goransson (University of California, Berkeley, 2014-17) of Sweden and Jan Zielinski of Poland topped Sadio Doumbia and Fabien Reboul of France 6-7 (3), 7-5 [10-3] in the first round of the €44,820 ($52,759) Hamburg Challenger. 

   Goransson and Zielinski are scheduled to play another French team, Hugo Gaston and Arthur Rinderknech, in the quarterfinals on Thursday. The 5-foot-8 (1.73-meter) Gaston, 20, reached the fourth round of singles in the recent French Open, ousting 2015 champion Stan Wawrinka. 

   Goransson won his first ATP title in February in Pune, India, with Christopher Rungkat of Indonesia. 

   Both Goransson and Rungkat have won a Challenger doubles title in Northern California, Goransson in Tiburon in 2017 with former Cal teammate Florian Lakat of France and Rungkat in Fairfield in 2018 with Sanchai Ratiwatana of Thailand.

   USTA Pro Circuit — Rain is forecast in Tyler, Texas, on Wednesday, when main-draw singles matches are scheduled to begin in the $80,000 Bellatorum Resources Pro Classic on outdoor hardcourts.

   Fifth-seeded Kristie Ahn, a 28-year-old Stanford graduate, is set to meet Hailey Baptiste, an 18-year-old wild card, for the first time at about noon PDT in an all-American encounter. Live streaming will be available.

   Baptiste, playing in her hometown, stunned second-seeded Madison Keys, the U.S. Open runner-up in 2017, in the first round in Washington, D.C., last year. Baptiste, however, is 0-3 since the pro tours resumed from the five-month COVID-19 hiatus in August.

   CiCi Bellis, a 21-year-old San Francisco native who grew up down the peninsula in Atherton, is scheduled to play sixth-seeded Anna-Lena Friedsam of Germany, at about 4 p.m. in a clash of former top-50 players. Bellis won last week's $80,000 Mercer Tennis Classic on hardcourts in Macon, Ga.

   Friedsam defeated Bellis 1-6, 7-6 (1), 6-3 in the second round of a $125,000 hardcourt tournament in San Antonio in 2016 in their only previous meeting.

   Katie Volynets, an 18-year-old wild card from Walnut Creek in the San Francisco Bay Area, is set to face a qualifier to be determined on Thursday in the opening round. 

Bay Area products gain quarters, continuing comebacks

CiCi Bellis routed Romanian qualifier Gabriela Talaba 6-1, 6-3
in Macon, Ga. 2016 photo by Paul Bauman

   Almost 6,000 miles apart, San Francisco Bay Area products CiCi Bellis and Mackenzie McDonald reached the quarterfinals of minor-league hardcourt tournaments as they continued comebacks from surgery.

   Bellis, a 21-year-old wild card who was born in San Francisco and grew up down the peninsula in Atherton, routed qualifier Gabriela Talaba, a 25-year-old Romanian left-hander, 6-1, 6-3 today in the $80,000 Mercer Tennis Classic in Macon, Ga.

   Bellis saved eight of nine break points against her. She double-faulted twice while serving for the match at 5-0 in the second set. Talaba, one of the few women with a one-handed backhand, won last year's $25,000 Redding, Calif., Challenger. 

   Mackenzie McDonald, who was born and raised in Piedmont, defeated Nino Serdarusic of Croatia 7-6 (9), 6-3 in a matchup of qualifiers in the $104,160 Istanbul Challenger.

   Bellis, a petite 5-foot-7 (1.68 meters), was named the WTA Newcomer of the Year in 2017 after attaining a career-high No. 35 ranking at age 18. Then the nightmare began. She underwent three operations on her right wrist and one on her right elbow in 2018-19 and missed 19 months.

   McDonald, only 5-foot-10 (1.77 meters) and 160 pounds (72 kilograms), advanced to the fourth round at Wimbledon in 2018 and climbed as high as No. 57 in April last year. However, he tore a right hamstring tendon during a doubles match the following month in the French Open, had surgery in June and sat out for the rest of the season. 

   Both Bellis, ranked No. 173, and McDonald, ranked No. 223, are now based at the USTA National Campus near Orlando, Fla., and both face big quarterfinal challenges.

   Bellis will meet unseeded Sara Errani, formerly ranked No. 5 in singles and No. 1 in doubles, for the first time on Friday not before 10:45 a.m PDT. Live streaming is available.

   Errani, a 33-year-old Italian, outplayed fourth-seeded Kristie Ahn, a 28-year-old Stanford graduate from Englewood Cliffs, N.J., 6-3, 6-4. Errani, now ranked No. 137, broke serve in the final game.

Mackenzie McDonald beat Nino Serdarusic of Croatia
7-6 (9), 6-3 in a matchup of qualifiers in Istanbul.
2016 photo by Paul Bauman

   McDonald will play Martin Klizan, the 2006 French Open boys champion who reached No. 24 in 2015 before battling injuries, for the first time. Klizan, a 31-year-old left-hander from Slovakia now ranked No. 168, defeated Roberto Marcora of Italy 7-6 (3), 6-1.

   Another Bay Area product, 18-year-old Katie Volynets, lost to Varvara Lepchenko, a 34-year-old American left-hander from Uzbekistan formerly ranked No. 19, by the deceptive score of 6-0, 6-1 in a clash of qualifiers.

   "This is the best 6-0, 6-1 match I've ever seen," veteran commentator Ken Thomas crowed during the final game of the 1-hour, 20-minute match that featured many long, hard-hitting rallies. 

   Volynets, who was born and still lives in Walnut Creek, fought hard throughout the match and never appeared frustrated.

   "She's not complaining; she's not quitting," Thomas said during the second set. "A lot of big-name players who will go unnamed would quit if they were getting rolled 6-0, 3-0. It's nice to see Katie Volynets dig deep."

   Thomas concluded that Volynets, who won the USTA 18 national championship in August 2019 and turned pro in December, "is the real deal even though she got hammered today."

   Lepchenko has played in the main draw of 44 Grand Slam tournaments, reaching the fourth round of the 2012 French Open and 2015 U.S. Open. She advanced to two semifinals (2014 and 2015) and one quarterfinal (2013) in the now-defunct Bank of the West Classic at Stanford.

   Lepchenko, now ranked No. 186, had no trouble rebounding from her grueling 6-7 (5), 6-2, 7-6 (6) victory over second-seeded Nina Stojanovic, ranked No. 91, on Wednesday in the opening round. 

   Top-seeded Misaki Doi of Japan narrowly avoided an upset, topping qualifier Veronica Cepede Royg of Paraguay 6-7 (5), 7-6 (3), 6-1. Cepede Royg, who lost in the second round of the 2012 Redding Challenger as the second seed, served for the match at 6-5 in the second set against the 5-foot-3 (1.59-meter) left-hander.

   Doi held a match point against left-hander Angelique Kerber in the opening round of the 2016 Australian Open. Kerber survived and went on to win the first of her three Grand Slam singles titles.

   Doi, ranked No. 86, is scheduled to face sixth-seeded Marta Kostyuk, an 18-year-old Ukrainian ranked No. 113, at 9 a.m. in a matchup of the only remaining singles seeds.

   In the Istanbul doubles quarterfinals, Americans Robert Galloway and Nathaniel Lammons downed second-seeded Andre Goransson (University of California, Berkeley, 2014-17) of Sweden and Artem Sitak, a Russia native who plays for New Zealand, 7-5, 7-6 (1). 

   ATP Tour — Unseeded Raven Klaasen, 38, of South Africa and Ben McLachlan (Cal, 2011-14), a 28-year-old New Zealand native who plays for his mother's native Japan, beat fourth-seeded Jurgen Melzer, 39, of Austria and Edouard Roger-Vasselin, 36, of France 7-5, 6-4 to reach the semifinals in Cologne, Germany.

   Klaasen and McLachlan will play unseeded Australians Max Purcell and Luke Saville, who edged second-seeded Oliver Marach of Austria and Mate Pavic of Croatia 2-6, 6-3 [11-9]. 

   Purcell and Saville, the 2011 Wimbledon boys singles champion, reached the Australian Open final early this year, losing to American Rajeev Ram, now a volunteer assistant coach at Cal, and Great Britain's Joe Salisbury. 

   Saville and Hans Hach Verdugo of Mexico won the 2018 Tiburon (Calif.) Challenger as qualifiers in their first tournament together. 

After two losses to Serena, Ahn advances in Macon

Fourth-seeded Kristie Ahn will face former
world No. 5 Sara Errani. 2018 photo by
Paul Bauman

   Kristie Ahn didn't have to play Serena Williams for a change.

   After losing to the American icon in straight sets twice in a row in Grand Slam tournaments, the fourth-seeded Ahn dispatched qualifier Tessah Andrianjafitrimo of France 6-3, 6-3 today in the first round of the $80,000 Mercer Tennis Classic on hardcourts in Macon, Ga.

   Joining Ahn, a 28-year-old Stanford graduate based in Englewood Cliffs, N.J., in the second round were CiCi Bellis, a 21-year-old wild card who was born in San Francisco and grew up in nearby Atherton, and Katie Volynets, an 18-year-old qualifier from Walnut Creek in the San Francisco Bay Area.

   Bellis, continuing her comeback from three operations on her right wrist and one on her right elbow, defeated Lara Arruabarrena of Spain 6-3, 7-5.

   Volynets, who turned pro in December, eliminated Caroline Dolehide 7-6 (3), 6-3 after losing to the American 5-7, 6-2, 7-6 (3) in the opening round of last year's $60,000 Berkeley, Calif., Challenger.  

   Ahn is scheduled to face former world No. 5 Sara Errani, a 33-year-old Italian who dominated Katarzyna Kawa of Poland 6-3, 6-0, in a matchup of 5-foot-5 (1.64-meter) players on Thursday not before 9:30 a.m. PDT. Live streaming is available. 

   Errani, the 2012 French Open runner-up to Maria Sharapova, beat Ahn 6-4, 6-0 in the second round of the $125,000 Indian Wells (Calif.) Challenger in 2018 in their only previous meeting.

   Bellis, who climbed as high as No. 35 at age 18 in 2017, is set to play qualifier Gabriela Talaba, a 25-year-old left-hander from Romania with a one-handed backhand, for the first time at 7 a.m.

   Talaba, who won last year's $25,000 Redding, Calif., Challenger, ousted seventh-seeded Greet Minnen of Belgium 1-6, 6-3, 6-1 after winning three consecutive sets 6-0 in qualifying. 

   After the Bellis-Talaba match, Volynets will take on qualifier Varvara Lepchenko, a 34-year-old U.S. left-hander from Uzbekistan, for the first time. 

   Lepchenko, who has tumbled from a career-high No. 19 in 2012 to No. 186, edged second-seeded Nina Stojanovic of Serbia 6-7 (5), 6-2, 7-6 (6). Stojanovic, ranked No. 98, has lost in the first round of her last four tournaments, including two Grand Slams.

   Lepchenko reached two semifinals (2014 and 2015) and one quarterfinal (2013) in the now-defunct Bank of the West Classic at Stanford. 

McDonald breaks through, braces for Nadal

Mackenzie McDonald, a San Francisco Bay Area product,
defeated qualifier Steven Diez of Canada in the first round
of the French Open. File photo by Paul Bauman

    The good news for Mackenzie McDonald is that he won a main-draw match in the French Open for the first time.

   The bad news is he plays Rafael Nadal next.

   McDonald, a 25-year-old product Piedmont in the San Francisco Bay Area, defeated qualifier Steven Diez, a 29-year-old Canadian based in Spain, 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, 6-4 today in a matchup of undersized players in chilly Paris.

   Diez, 5-foot-9 (1.75 meters) and 167 pounds (75 kilograms), broke with McDonald serving for the match at 5-3 in the fourth set, but McDonald broke right back to advance.

   McDonald, 5-foot-10 (1.77 meters) and 160 pounds (72 kilograms), pounded 11 aces and committed two double faults in the first-time meeting.

   McDonald played at UCLA for three years (2014-16), turning pro after winning the NCAA singles and doubles titles in 2016 as a junior. He won his first Challenger title in Fairfield, Calif., 40 miles (64.4 kilometers) north of Piedmont, in 2017 and advanced to the fourth round at Wimbledon in 2018.

   Last year, McDonald reached a career-high No. 57 in April but underwent right hamstring surgery in June and sat out the rest of the season. Now ranked No. 236, he is playing with a protected ranking.

   Nadal, seeking his fourth consecutive French Open title and 13th overall, beat Belarus' Egor Gerasimov, a semifinalist in last year's Aptos (Calif.) Challenger, 6-4, 6-4, 6-2. Nadal and McDonald, now based at the USTA National Campus near Orlando, Fla., are set to meet for the first time on Wednesday. 

   Like McDonald, CiCi Bellis was born and raised in the Bay Area, trains at the USTA National Campus and is rebounding from surgery. She lost to left-hander Bernarda Pera, a 25-year-old American born in Croatia, 7-6 (3), 6-1.

   Bellis, a right-hander who had three operations on her right wrist and one on her right elbow in 2018-19, played in the French Open for the first time since reaching the third round in 2017.

   Sixth-seeded Serena Williams, a three-time champion at Roland Garros, eliminated Kristie Ahn, a 28-year-old Stanford graduate, in straight sets in the first round for the second consecutive Grand Slam tournament. Williams triumphed 7-6 (2), 6-0 after beating Ahn 7-5, 6-3 in the U.S. Open.

   Meanwhile, fourth-seeded Daniil Medvedev of Russia and eighth-seeded Gael Monfils, a 34-year-old Frenchman, lost in the opening round. 

   Marton Fucsovics of Hungary ousted Medvedev, the U.S. Open runner-up in 2019 and a semifinalist at Flushing Meadows this month, 6-4, 7-6 (3), 2-6, 6-1. Fucsovics, ranked No. 63, had been 0-14 against top-10 players. Medvedev, 24, fell to 0-4 in the French Open.

   Kazakhstan's Alexander Bublik, the champion of the 2017 Aptos Challenger, downed Monfils 6-4, 7-5, 3-6, 6-3. The 23-year-old Bublik, ranked No. 49, had been 0-5 against top-10 players. Monfils, a Roland Garros semifinalist in 2008, committed 12 double faults.

   Third-seeded Dominic Thiem, the runner-up in the last two French Opens, outclassed Marin Cilic, the 2014 U.S. Open champion playing on his 32nd birthday, 6-4, 6-3, 6-3.

   Thiem, 27, played for the first time since winning his maiden Grand Slam title in the U.S. Open. He defeated Cilic in four sets in the third round at Flushing Meadows.

   Lorenzo Giustino, a 29-year-old Italian qualifier, topped Corentin Moutet, a 21-year-old left-hander from France, 0-6, 7-6 (7), 7-6 (3), 2-6, 18-16 in 6 hours, 5 minutes for his first Grand Slam victory. The fifth set lasted 3 hours. 

   The match fell 28 minutes short of the Roland Garros record, Fabrice Santoro's victory over fellow Frenchman Arnaud Clement in the first round in 2004.

   Iga Swiatek, 19, of Poland eliminated 15th-seeded Marketa Vondrousova, last year's runner-up to Ashleigh Barty at 19, 6-1, 6-2 in 63 minutes. Vondrousova, a 21-year-old left-hander, had left-wrist surgery last summer and sat out for the rest of the year.

   In 2018, Swiatek won the Wimbledon girls singles title and the French Open girls doubles crown with American Caty McNally.

Stanford grad Ahn draws Serena again in French Open

Stanford graduate Kristie Ahn will meet Serena
Williams in the first round for the second consecutive
Grand Slam tournament. 2019 photo by Paul Bauman

   Until Sept. 1, Kristie Ahn had never played Serena Williams.

   Now, the Americans will meet in a Grand Slam tournament for the second time within one month.

   Three weeks after Williams, a three-time winner of the now-defunct Bank of the West Classic at Stanford, defeated Ahn, a 28-year-old Stanford graduate, 7-5, 6-3 in the first round of the U.S. Open, they drew each other in the French Open.

   Williams, who will turn 39 on Saturday, is seeded sixth at Roland Garros, which begins Sunday. Ranked ninth, she seeks her fourth singles title in the French Open and record-tying 24th in a Grand Slam tournament. Williams has not reached the quarterfinals at Roland Garros since falling to Garbine Muguruza in the 2016 final.

   Williams withdrew from last week's Italian Open with an Achilles tendon injury suffered during her three-set loss to Victoria Azarenka in the U.S. Open semifinals two weeks ago. Ahn, ranked No. 102, will play in the main draw of the French Open for the first time.

   The winner of the match could face the 10th-seeded Azarenka, the U.S. Open runner-up to Naomi Osaka, in the fourth round. Osaka withdrew from the French Open with a hamstring injury.

   Fresno, Calif., product Sloane Stephens, the 29th seed and 2018 French Open runner-up to Simona Halep, is scheduled to play Vitalia Diatchenko, a 30-year-old Russian ranked No. 115, for the first time. 

   Stephens is 3-10 this year with eight first-round losses in 10 tournaments. Ranked a career-high No. 3 in 2018, she has plunged to No. 34.

   Diatchenko reached the third round at Wimbledon in 2018 as a qualifier, ousting 2004 champion Maria Sharapova in the first round.

   Stephens or Diatchenko could play second-seeded Karolina Pliskova in the third round. Pliskova retired from Monday's Italian Open final against Halep with a left-thigh problem.

   CiCi Bellis, a 21-year-old San Francisco native who grew up down the peninsula in Atherton, is set to meet left-hander Bernarda Pera, a 25-year-old American born in Croatia, for the first time. 

   Bellis will play in the French Open for the first time since reaching the third round in 2017. She underwent three operations on her right wrist and one on her right elbow in 2018-19, 

   The survivor of the Bellis-Pera match likely will play 25th-seeded Amanda Anisimova, an American who advanced to last year's French Open semifinals at 17, in the second round. Anisimova won her first professional title in the 2017 Sacramento (Calif.) Challenger at 15.

   In the men's draw, Sam Querrey, a 32-year-old San Francisco native now based in Las Vegas, will take on 13th-seeded Andrey Rublev, 22, of Russia.

   Rublev, who reached his second U.S. Open quarterfinal this month, seeks his first main-draw victory at the French Open.

   Querrey, who became a father in February, is 0-3 since the ATP and WTA tours resumed in early August. He has never advanced past the third round at Roland Garros in 12 appearances.

   Mackenzie McDonald, a 25-year-old product of Piedmont in the San Francisco Bay Area, drew a qualifier to be determined. McDonald reached the fourth round at Wimbledon in 2017 but underwent hamstring surgery in June 2019 and missed the rest of the season.

   McDonald or the qualifier will face either second-seeded Rafael Nadal, seeking his 13th French Open crown, or Belarus' Egor Gerasimov, a semifinalist in the $81,240 Aptos (Calif.) Challenger last year.

   Other intriguing first-round matchups in the French Open are:

   —No. 16 seed Stan Wawrinka, the 2015 champion and 2017 runner-up, versus Andy Murray, the 2016 runner-up, in a matchup of three-time Grand Slam singles winners rebounding from multiple surgeries.

   —Third-seeded Dominic Thiem, the runner-up to Nadal in the last two French Opens and reigning U.S. Open champion, against Marin Cilic, the 2014 U.S. Open titlist.

   —Ninth-seeded Johanna Konta, a semifinalist last year at Roland Garros and the 2016 Bank of the West champion, versus 16-year-old Coco Gauff. 

Serena stops Stanford grad; Murray wins marathon

Andy Murray rallied from two sets down and saved a match point in
a 4-hour, 39-minute victory over Yoshihito Nishioka in the first round
of the U.S. Open. File photo by Paul Bauman

   Serena Williams finally won in straight sets.

   Launching her quest for a record-tying 24th Grand Slam singles title, the third-seeded Williams beat Kristie Ahn, a 28-year-old Stanford graduate, 7-5, 6-3 today in the first round of the U.S. Open in Flushing Meadows, N.Y.

   Williams, a part-time Silicon Valley resident who will turn 39 on Sept. 26, improved to 4-2 since the WTA Tour resumed last month after a five-month hiatus caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Each of the previous five matches went to three sets.

   "It's been years, since the '90s, since I won a match in straight sets," Williams, who broke Chris Evert's women's record with her 102nd U.S. Open victory, cracked in a post-match interview. "It felt really good. I was like, 'Serena, just be Serena and close it out.' I know I can do that, so it felt really good."

   Ahn, ranked No. 96, was playing two miles (3.2 kilometers) from the hospital where she was born and a 30-minute drive from her residence in Englewood Cliffs, N.J. She reached the fourth round of last year's U.S. Open.

   Next for Williams, seeking her seventh U.S. Open title, is Margarita Gasparyan, a 26-year-old Russian. The 6-foot (1.83-meter) Gasparyan, ranked 117th, beat Monica Puig, the 2016 Olympic gold medalist in women's singles, 6-3, 6-7 (0), 6-0. 

   Williams is 2-0, surrendering only eight games, against Gasparyan. This will be their first meeting since Williams' 6-2, 6-1 victory in the fourth round of the 2016 Australian Open.

   Sloane Stephens, a Fresno, Calif., product seeded 26th, dismissed Mihaela Buzarnescu of Romania 6-3, 6-3. Stephens, the 2017 U.S. Open champion, improved to 1-2 since the restart and 2-7 this year.

   Buzarnescu, a 32-year-old left-hander, claimed her only career WTA singles title in the inaugural Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic in San Jose, Calif., in 2018.

   Andy Murray, who won the first of his three Grand Slam singles titles in the 2012 U.S. Open, outlasted Yoshihito Nishioka of Japan 4-6, 4-6, 7-6 (5), 7-6 (4), 6-4 in 4 hours, 39 minutes. Murray saved a match point in the fourth set of his first victory in a major since the 2018 U.S. Open.

   Murray, 33, is playing in his second tournament of the year as he continues his comeback from hip operations in 2018 and 2019. He won the first of his 46 singles titles in the now-defunct SAP Open in San Jose in 2006 at 18 years old and repeating the following year. 

   Nishioka, a 24-year-old left-hander, had surgery for a torn anterior cruciate ligament in April 2017 and missed the rest of the season.      

   Andrey Kuznetsov has had a lifelong hip problem but has avoided surgery. Playing his first tour-level match in almost three years, the 29-year-old Russian defeated Sam Querrey, a 32-year-old San Francisco native, 6-4, 7-6 (2), 6-2.

   Kuznetsov, ranked as high as No. 39 in 2016, became the first unranked player to win a Grand Slam match since Nicolas Kiefer of Germany at Wimbledon in 2007. 

   Querrey, now based in Las Vegas, lost in the first round of the U.S. Open for the third consecutive year and fifth time in six years. He reached the quarterfinals, his best result at Flushing Meadows, in 2017. 

   Sumit Nagal, 23, of India beat Bradley Klahn, a 30-year-old Stanford graduate, 6-1, 6-3, 3-6, 6-1 for his first Grand Slam main-draw victory.

   Nagal, only 5-foot-10 (1.78 meters) and 152 pounds (69 kilograms), made his Grand Slam main-draw debut as a qualifier in last year's U.S. Open, extending Roger Federer to four sets in a first-round loss. Klahn was playing his first official match since March.

   Norway's Casper Ruud, seeded 30th, defeated Mackenzie McDonald, a 25-year-old product of Piedmont in the San Francisco Bay Area, 4-6, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3, 6-2.

   McDonald fell to 0-3 in the main draw of the U.S. Open. He reached the fourth round at Wimbledon in 2017 but underwent hamstring surgery in June 2019 and missed the rest of the season.

   Both McDonald and Ruud, the 21-year-old son of former top-40 player Christian Ruud, starred in the Fairfield (Calif.) Challenger, 40 miles (64.4 kilometers) north of Piedmont. McDonald won his first Challenger singles title there in 2017. Ruud advanced to the 2018 semifinals, losing to eventual champion Bjorn Fratangelo.

   Russia's Ekaternia Alexandrova eliminated 37-year-old Kim Clijsters, an International Tennis Hall of Famer playing her first Grand Slam match in eight years, 3-6, 7-5, 6-1. Clijsters, a three-time U.S. Open champion and four-time Bank of the West winner, ended her retirement in February.

   Suarez Navarro has cancer — Carla Suarez Navarro, who climbed to a career-high No. 6 in 2016, revealed that she has been diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma.

   The 31-year-old Spaniard said she will undergo six months of chemotherapy. She announced in December that she would retire after the 2020 season.

   Five-foot-4 (1.62 meters) with a spectacular one-handed backhand, Suarez Navarro reached seven Grand Slam quarterfinals in singles — three in the Australian Open, two in the French Open and two in the U.S. Open. She won the doubles title in the 2014 Bank of the West Classic at Stanford with compatriot Garbine Muguruza.

Bay Area products advance to W&S main draw

Mackenzie McDonald edged Dominik Koepfer in three
tough sets in the first ATP tournament since the men's
and women's tours shut down in March because of the
coronavirus pandemic. File photo by Paul Bauman 

Mackenzie McDonald and CiCi Bellis, wild cards from the San Francisco Bay Area who are rebounding from surgery, won their final-round qualifying matches today in the Western & Southern Open in Flushing Meadows, N.Y.

The 25-year-old McDonald, who was born and raised in the East Bay enclave of Piedmont, edged Dominik Koepfer of Germany 6-7 (0), 7-5, 7-6 (5) in 2 hours, 35 minute in the first ATP tournament since the men's and women's tours shut down in March because of the coronavirus pandemic. Both players have reached the fourth round of singles in a Grand Slam tournament.

Bellis, a 21-year-old San Francisco native who grew up down the peninsula in Atherton, defeated Ysaline Bonaventure of Belgium 4-6, 6-4, 6-1.

Losing today were 24th-seeded Kristie Ahn, a 28-year-old Stanford graduate from Englewood Cliffs, N.J., in the New York area, and wild card Katie Volynets, 18, of Walnut Creek in the Bay Area. 

The Western & Southern Open moved from the Cincinnati area for this year to form a three-week bubble with the U.S. Open, Aug. 31 to Sept. 13, at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.

CiCi Bellis defeated Ysaline Bonaventure in three sets in
the Western & Southern Open, which moved from the Cin-
cinnati area to the site of the U.S. Open because of the
pandemic. File photo by Paul Bauman

Both McDonald and Bellis are now based at the USTA National Campus in Orlando, Fla. Also, both will rise at least 28 places in the world rankings, Bellis to No. 221 and McDonald to No. 243. 

McDonald evened his record against Koepfer, a 26-year-old left-hander ranked No. 92, at 1-1. Koepfer, a former All-American at Tulane in New Orleans, won 5-7, 6-3, 6-2 in the quarterfinals of the $108,320 Dallas Challenger in February.

McDonald made his ATP Tour debut at 18 in the 2013 Western & Southern Open, shocking No. 79 Nicolas Mahut and No. 128 Steve Johnson in qualifying before losing in the first round of the  main draw.

McDonald won his first Challenger title in Fairfield (Calif.), 40 miles (64.4 kilometers) north of Piedmont, in 2017. He advanced to the fourth round at Wimbledon in 2018 and climbed to a career-high No. 57 in April last year. 

Koepfer reached Northern California Challenger finals in 2018 and 2019. As a qualifier, he advanced to the fourth round of the U.S. Open last summer.

McDonald will face Marcos Giron, a qualifier ranked No. 102, for the second time. McDonald won 6-7 (4), 6-1, 6-2 in the second round of a $25,000 Futures tournament in Los Angeles in 2017.

McDonald and Giron, 27, are virtual clones of each other. Both:

–Are California natives. Giron is from the Los Angeles suburb of Thousand Oaks.

–Are small. McDonald is 5-foot-10 (1.78 meters) and 160 pounds (73 kilograms); Giron is 5-11 (1.78) and 170 (77). 

–Won NCAA singles titles while playing for UCLA, Giron in 2014 and McDonald two years later. They were Bruins teammates in 2014.

–Have undergone surgery, McDonald in June last year (hamstring tendon) and Giron in 2015 (right hip) and 2016 (left hip).

Bellis was named the WTA Newcomer of the Year in 2017 after ascending to a career-high No. 35. But she sat out for almost two years, from March 2018 to November 2019, while undergoing three operations on her right wrist and one on her right elbow.

Bellis will face qualifier Oceane Dodin, a 23-year-old Frenchwoman ranked No. 118, for the first time. Dodin has had health issues of her own. After climbing as high as No. 46 in June 2017, she sat out from July 2018 to April 2019 because of vertigo.

The 97th-ranked Ahn, playing two miles (3.2 kilometers) from the hospital where she was born, fell to Leylah Fernandez, a 17-year-old Canadian ranked No. 111, 6-4, 6-1.

Fernandez, a 5-foot-4 (1.62-meter) left-hander, reached the Acapulco final in February, losing to Heather Watson of Great Britain.

Volynets, who won the USTA 18 National Championships last August and turned pro in December, succumbed to Belgium's Kirsten Flipkens, seeded 12th at No. 79, 6-1, 2-0, retired (apparent muscle strain). Flipkens advanced to the Wimbledon semifinals in 2013, vaulting her to a career-high No. 13. 

Volynets scored her first top-100 win on Thursday, shocking No. 91 Monica Puig, a 2016 Olympic gold medalist in singles rebounding from elbow surgery in December. 

Volynets, 18, shocks Olympic gold medalist Puig

Katie Volynets, from Walnut Creek in the San
Francisco Bay Area, beat 19th-seeded Monica
Puig 4-6, 7-6 (4), 6-3 in the first round of quali-
fying for the Western & Southern Open in Flush-
 ing Meadows, N.Y. 2019 photo by Paul Bauman 

Katie Volynets scored her first victory over a top-100 player today.

The 18-year-old wild card from Walnut Creek in the San Francisco Bay Area stunned Puerto Rico's Monica Puig, seeded 19th at No. 91 in the world, 4-6, 7-6 (4), 6-3 in the first round of qualifying for the Western & Southern Open in Flushing Meadows, N.Y. 

The tournament moved from the Cincinnati area this year to form a bubble with the U.S. Open, Aug. 31 to Sept. 13, at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.

Volynets, who won the USTA 18 National Championships last August and turned pro in December, pounded three aces and committed 11 double faults in the 2-hour, 24-minute battle. Puig had zero and six, respectively.

Puig, a singles gold medalist in the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, was competing in her first tournament since reaching the quarterfinals in Luxembourg last October, although she played World TeamTennis for the Las Vegas Rollers last month. Puig underwent elbow surgery in December.

Volynets also defeated Shelby Rogers, a 2016 French Open quarterfinalist, in Acapulco in February for her first win on the WTA Tour. Rogers had knee surgery in May 2018 and missed the rest of the season.

Volynets, who will rise at least 23 places in the world rankings to a career-high No. 328 on Monday, is scheduled to meet 12th-seeded Kirsten Flipkens, 34, of Belgium for the first time on Friday at 8 a.m. PDT in the final round of qualifying.

The 79th-ranked Flipkens, a Wimbledon semifinalist in 2013, outlasted Katarina Zavatska of Ukraine 5-7, 7-5, 7-6 (2) in 3 hours, 13 minutes.

Also advancing today were 24th-seeded Kristie Ahn, a 28-year-old Stanford graduate from Englewood Cliffs, N.J., in the New York area, and wild card CiCi Bellis, a 21-year-old San Francisco native who grew up in nearby Atherton.

The 97th-ranked Ahn, who reached the fourth round of the U.S. Open last year, defeated Anna-Lena Friedsam of Germany 7-5, 6-0. 

Ahn, playing two miles (3.2 kilometers) from the hospital where she was born, is set to face Leyla Fernandez, a 17-year-old Canadian left-hander, for the first time on Friday at about 10 a.m.

Fernandez, the Acapulco runner-up to Heather Watson of Great Britain as a qualifier, ousted second-seeded Anna Blinkova of Russia 6-1, 6-4.

Bellis outplayed 13th-seeded Madison Brengle, 30, of Bradenton, Fla., 6-3, 7-6 (4). Brengle won Northern California Challengers in Stockton (2018) and Berkeley (2019). She has beaten Serena Williams once and two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova three times, including at the All England Lawn Tennis Club.

Both Bellis, ranked No. 249, and Brengle, ranked No. 82, own career highs of No. 35. 

Bellis is playing in her sixth tournament since undergoing three operations on her right wrist and one on her right elbow. She is scheduled to play Ysaline Bonaventure, a 25-year-old left-hander from Belgium at about 10 a.m.

 Bonaventure, ranked No. 121, eliminated eighth-seeded Nao Hibino, a Japanese player who won the 2015 Stockton title, 6-7 (3), 6-3, 6-3. 

Bellis and Bonaventure have met once. At age 15 in 2014, Bellis coasted to a 6-2, 6-1 victory in the final of a $25,000 tournament in Florence, S.C.

In the first ATP tournament since the tours shut down in March, wild card Mackenzie McDonald, a 25-year-old product of Piedmont in the Bay Area, topped 24th-seeded Yuichi Sugita of Japan 7-6 (3), 6-3 at Flushing Meadows.

McDonald won his first Challenger title in Fairfield (Calif.) in 2017, advanced to the fourth round at Wimbledon in 2018 and climbed to a career-high No. 57 in April last year. He had hamstring tendon surgery in June 2019 and missed the rest of the year.

McDonald, who will improve at least 14 spots to No. 257, will meet Dominik Koepfer, a 26-year-old German left-hander. Koepfer, ranked No. 92, beat fifth-seeded Juan Ignacio Londero of Argentina 6-4, 7-6 (0).

Koepfer reached NorCal Challenger finals in 2018 and 2019. As a qualifier, he advanced to the fourth round of the U.S. Open last summer. 

Koepfer defeated McDonald 5-7, 6-3, 6-2 in the quarterfinals of the $108,320 Dallas Challenger in February in their only previous meeting.

Bouzkova ousts third-seeded Konta in Lexington

Johanna Konta lost to Marie Bouzkova for the
second consecutive tournament. File photo
by Paul Bauman

   So far, little has changed for Marie Bouzkova and Johanna Konta since the WTA Tour shut down in March because of the coronavirus pandemic.

   Bouzkova, a 22-year-old Czech, dismissed the third-seeded Konta, 29, of Great Britain, in straight sets for the second consecutive tournament today.

   Bouzkova defeated the 15th-ranked Konta, who won the 2016 Bank of the West Classic at Stanford, 6-4, 6-4 in the first round of the rain-delayed inaugural Top Seed Open in Lexington, Ky., the first WTA tournament in North America in almost one year. 

   In the last tournament before the shutdown, Bouzkova beat the second-seeded Konta 6-3, 6-4 in the semifinals on hardcourts in Monterrey, Mexico, before losing to top-seeded Elina Svitolina, ranked seventh, 7-5, 4-6, 6-4 in Bouzkova's only WTA final.

   The 48th-ranked Bouzkova, a semifinalist as a qualifier in Toronto last August in her first Premier 5 appearance, will play either Anna Blinkova, a 21-year-old Russian ranked No. 61, or qualifier Kristie Ahn, a 28-year-old Stanford graduate who reached the round of 16 in last year's U.S. Open.

   In a late match, second-seeded Aryna Sabalenka, the runner-up to Zheng Saisai in San Jose, Calif., last August, overpowered American Madison Brengle, who won Northern California Challengers in 2018 and 2019, 6-1, 6-7 (5), 6-1.

   Brengle, who has dropped from a career-high No. 35 in 2015 to No. 80, has had success against powerful players. She is 1-1 against Serena Williams and 3-1 against two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova, including a second-round victory there in 2017.

   The 11th-ranked Sabalenka, 22, of Belarus will meet either 16-year-old U.S. sensation Coco Gauff or U.S. qualifier Caroline Dolehide.

   Also today, unseeded American Jessica Pegula outlasted Vera Zvonareva, a 35-year-old wild card from Russia, 6-1 5-7, 6-4. Zvonareva, the Wimbledon and U.S. Open runner-up in 2010, has plunged from a career-high No. 2 that year to No. 267.

   Pegula, the 26-year-old daughter of Buffalo Bills and Sabres owners Terry and Kim Pegula, will play either fourth-seeded Amanda Anisimova, an 18-year-old rising star from Aventura, Fla., or CiCi Bellis, a 21-year-old San Francisco native who grew up in nearby Atherton.

  Anisimova won her first professional title in the 2017 Sacramento, Calif., Challenger at 15. Bellis, the 2017 WTA Newcomer of the Year, will continue her comeback from three operations on her right wrist and one on her right elbow. 

   In the final round of qualifying, the top-seeded Ahn defeated Jovana Jovic (born Jaksic), a 26-year-old Serb living in Sacramento, Calif., 2-6, 6-4, 6-2. 

   Tuesday's blockbuster schedule (Tennis Channel) features the top-seeded Williams. Times are EDT.

Vegas routs Orlando to even WTT record at 1-1

   Sam Querrey lost the opening set again, but the Vegas Rollers dominated the rest of today's World TeamTennis match.
   Vegas defeated the Orlando Storm 24-15 at The Greenbrier resort in White Sulphur Springs, W.V., to even its record at 1-1.
   Querrey, a 32-year-old San Francisco native, lost to Tennys Sandgren 5-4 (5-3) after falling to 18-year-old Brandon Nakashima of the expansion Chicago Smash 5-3 on Sunday at The Greenbrier.
   But Monica Puig, the women's singles gold medalist in the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, kick-started Vegas' victory with a 5-3 decision over Danielle Collins, a semifinalist in the 2019 Australian Open and inaugural Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic at San Jose State University in 2018.
   Puig rebounded from a 5-1 loss to Fresno product Sloane Stephens in Sunday's second set. It was Puig's first competitive match since she had elbow surgery in December.
   Collins missed Orlando's 21-18 win over the two-time defending champion Springfield (Mo.) Lasers on Sunday with an undisclosed illness. She beat three top-20 players – No. 5 Elina Svitolina, No. 7 Belinda Bencic and No. 15 Sofia Kenin – in January.
   Vegas swept today's three doubles sets behind Asia Muhammad and ex-Stanford stars Bob Bryan, Mike Bryan and Kristie Ahn.
   The Rollers will return to the court on Tuesday at 8 a.m. (ESPN2) against the San Diego Aviators (1-0).

   VEGAS ROLLERS 24, ORLANDO STORM 15 

   Men's singles – Tennys Sandgren (Orl) def. Sam Querrey 5-4 (5-3).
   Women's singles – Monica Puig (LV) def. Danielle Collins (Orl) 5-3.
   Mixed doubles – Asia Muhammad and Mike Bryan (LV) def. Darija Jurak and Sandgren 5-3.
   Women's doubles – Kristie Ahn and Muhammad (LV) def. Jurak and Jessica Pegula 5-3.
   Men's doubles – Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan (LV) def. Sandgren and James Ward 5-1.

Vegas, with NorCal stars, loses TeamTennis opener

Sam Querrey, a 32-year-old San Francisco native, lost to
18-year-old Brandon Nakashima of the Chicago Smash
5-3 in men's singles today. File photo by Paul Bauman 

   The Vegas Rollers, featuring four players with strong Northern California ties, were unable to overcome a dismal start in their World TeamTennis season opener today.
    Vegas trailed 10-4 after the first two sets, accounting for the difference in its 24-18 (1-0 extended play) loss to the expansion Chicago Smash at The Greenbrier resort in White Sulphur Springs, W.V. The match was televised on the CBS Sports Network while the ATP and WTA tours are shut down until next month because of the coronavirus pandemic.
   Chicago's Brandon Nakashima, 18, of San Diego upset Sam Querrey, a 32-year-old San Francisco native, 5-3 in the first set. The 6-foot-6 (1.98-meter) Querrey, who ranks eighth in aces since ATP Match Stats began in 1991, double-faulted on break point at 3-3.
   Fresno, Calif., product Sloane Stephens, the 2017 U.S. Open champion and 2018 French Open runner-up, then routed Monica Puig, the singles gold medalist in the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, 5-1 to give Chicago a 10-4 lead. Puig, who underwent elbow surgery in December, has not played on the WTA tour since October.
   Each of the three doubles sets went to a tiebreaker, with Vegas winning two. Competing for the Rollers were former Stanford stars Bob Bryan, Mike Bryan (both 1997-98) and Kristie Ahn (2011-14). Playing for the Smash was Rajeev Ram, a 36-year-old volunteer assistant coach at the University of California, Berkeley during breaks from the pro tour.
   Players and coaches replaced ballkids, and fans, wearing masks, were separated in the 2,500-seat stadium at The Greenbrier, which is hosting the entire three-week season. A chair umpire officiated, but there were no line judges.
   Vegas will play the Orlando Storm (1-0), led by two-time Australian Open quarterfinalist Tennys Sandgren, on Monday at 10 a.m. PDT on ESPN2. Orlando beat the two-time defending champion Springfield (Mo.) Lasers 21-18 (1-0 extended play) today.

CHICAGO SMASH 24, VEGAS ROLLERS 18 (1-0 EXTENDED PLAY)

   Men's singles – Brandon Nakashima (Chi) def. Sam Querrey 5-3.
   Women's singles – Sloane Stephens (Chi) def. Monica Puig 5-1.
   Mixed doubles – Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Rajeev Ram (Chi) def. Asia Muhammad and Mike Bryan 5-4 (5-3).
   Women's doubles – Kristie Ahn and Muhammad (LV) def. Eugenie Bouchard and Mattek-Sands 5-4 (5-3).
   Men's doubles – Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan (LV) def. Nakashima and Ram 5-4 (5-2).
   Extended play – Nakashima and Ram (Chi) def. Bryan and Bryan 1-0.

Querrey ousts 25th-seeded Coric in Australian Open

Sam Querrey, a 32-year-old San Francisco native,
has a good chance to reach the third round of the
Australian Open. That would equal his best result
in Melbourne. File photo by Paul Bauman

   Sam Querrey, a 32-year-old San Francisco native, surprised 25th-seeded Borna Coric of Croatia 6-3 6-4, 6-4 today in the first round of the Australian Open in Melbourne.
   The 6-foot-6 (1.98-meter) Querrey had 18 aces and only one double fault. He won 82 percent of the points on his first serve (41 of 50) and 65 percent on his second (17 of 26).
   Coric, 23, shocked No. 4 Dominic Thiem two weeks ago in the round-robin phase of the inaugural ATP Cup in Sydney.
   Querrey has a good chance to reach the third round in Melbourne, which would equal his best result in 14 career appearances there. He will play 5-foot-9 (1.75-meter) Ricardas Berankis, a 29-year-old Lithuanian, in the second round. Berankis defeated Roberto Carballes Baena of Spain 6-4, 6-2, 6-2.
   Querrey, who now lives in Las Vegas, has not lost more than four games in a set in two matches against Berankis. They will meet for the first time since 2013. The winner likely will face eighth-seeded Matteo Berrettini, a U.S. Open semifinalist last September.
   Also today, 30th-seeded Daniel Evans of Great Britain topped Mackenzie McDonald, a 24-year-old product of Piedmont in the San Francisco Bay Area, 3-6, 4-6, 6-1, 6-2, 6-3 in a matchup of undersized players. Evans is 5-foot-9 (1.75 meters) and 165 pounds (75 kilograms); McDonald is 5-foot-10 (1.78 meters) and 160 pounds (73 kilograms).
   McDonald had right hamstring surgery in June and missed the rest of the year. He reached the fourth round at Wimbledon in 2018.
   On the women's side, eighth-seeded Serena Williams began her quest for a record-tying 24th Grand Slam singles title with a 6-0, 6-3 victory over Anastasia Potapova, 18, of Russia in 58 minutes.   
   Williams, a 38-year-old part-time Silicon Valley resident, next will meet Tamara Zidansek, a 22-year-old Slovenian, for the first time. Zidansek, ranked 64th, beat wild card Na-Lae Han of South Korea 6-3, 6-3.
   Kristie Ahn, a 27-year-old Stanford graduate from Englewood Cliffs, N.J., lost to former world No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki 6-1, 6-3.
   Ahn reached the fourth round of last year's U.S. Open. Wozniacki, who won her only Grand Slam title in the 2018 Australian Open, announced last month that she will retire after this year's tournament in Melbourne.
   No. 24 seed Sloane Stephens, a 26-year-old Fresno, Calif., product, is scheduled to play Zhang Shuai of China early Friday. Both players broke through in the Australian Open, with Stephens reaching the 2013 semifinals at 19 and Zhang advancing to the 2016 quarterfinals at 27.
   Zhang lost in the singles and doubles finals in Hobart last week. Stephens is 0-2 this year, falling to No. 129 Liudmila Samsonova of Russia in three sets in Brisbane and to No. 201 Arina Rodionova of Australia 6-2, 6-2 in Adelaide.

Serena could face Osaka in Australian Open showdown

Serena Williams will try again to tie Margaret Court's record of 24 Grand Slam
singles titles. 2018 photo by Mal Taam

   Eighth-seeded Serena Williams, a part-time Silicon Valley resident, could face third seed and defending champion Naomi Osaka in the quarterfinals of the Australian Open.
   The winner could play top-ranked Ashleigh Barty in the semifinals.
   The singles draws for the year's first Grand Slam tournament, which will begin Sunday (California time) in Melbourne, was held late Thursday night.
   Osaka, 22, is 2-1 against Williams, 38. Osaka stunned Williams 6-2, 6-4 in the tumultuous 2018 U.S. Open final, but Williams gained revenge with a 6-3, 6-4 victory in the Toronto quarterfinals last August.
   Williams drew Anastasia Potapova, an 18-year-old Russian ranked 90th, in the first round of the Australian Open. Potapova made her French Open debut last year, ousting former world No. 1 Angelique Kerber 6-4, 6-2 in the opening round before losing to eventual runner-up Marketa Vondrousova in the second round.
   Williams still seeks her 24th Grand Slam singles title, which would tie Margaret Court's record. Williams won her last major title in the 2017 Australian Open, had her first child in September that year and suffered life-threatening complications. She has played in four Grand Slam finals since then, losing each in straight sets.
   Osaka, meanwhile, has not reached a Grand Slam quarterfinal since winning her second consecutive major title last year in Melbourne.
   In other first-round Australian Open matchups:
   –No. 24 seed Sloane Stephens, who grew up in Fresno, Calif., will meet Zhang Shuai. Both players broke through in the Australian Open, with Stephens reaching the 2013 semifinals at 19 and Zhang advancing to the 2016 quarterfinals at 27. Zhang will play in Friday's singles and doubles finals in Hobart.
   –Kristie Ahn, a 27-year-old Stanford graduate, will try to end the singles career of former world No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki. Wozniacki, who won her only Grand Slam title in the 2018 Australian Open, announced last month that she will retire after this year's tournament in Melbourne.
   –CiCi Bellis, a 20-year-old San Francisco native who grew up in nearby Atherton, will play Tatjana Maria, 32, of Germany. It will be Bellis' first Grand Slam match since she lost to 30th-seeded Kiki Bertens in the first round of the 2018 Australian Open. Bellis had three operations on her right wrist and one on her right elbow during a 19-month layoff that ended last November.
   –Another San Francisco native, 32-year-old Sam Querrey, will take on 25th-seeded Borna Coric of Croatia. Coric, 23, shocked then-No. 4 Dominic Thiem last week in the round-robin phase of the inaugural ATP Cup in Sydney.
   –Mackenzie McDonald, a 24-year-old product of Piedmont in the San Francisco Bay Area, will face 30th-seeded Daniel Evans of Great Britain for the first time in a matchup of undersized players. McDonald is 5-foot-10 (1.78 meters) and 160 pounds (73 kilograms); Evans is 5-foot-9 (1.75 meters) and 165 pounds (75 kilograms). McDonald had right hamstring surgery in June and missed the rest of the year.
   Australian Open qualifying – Harriet Dart of Great Britain beat 15th-seeded Nicole Gibbs (Stanford, 2011-13) 6-2, 6-3 early today in the second round.