Ahn loses battle against top seed in $100K Midland

Kristie Ahn, a 26-year-old Stanford graduate, saved three match points be-
fore falling to top-seeded Rebecca Peterson of Sweden 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 today
in the quarterfinals of the $100,000 Dow Tennis Classic in Midland, Mich.
2018 photo by Paul Bauman

   Kristie Ahn fought hard but came up short against the top seed in a $100,000 tournament in Midland, Mich.
   The 26-year-old Stanford graduate and New Jersey resident saved three match points before falling to Rebecca Peterson, a 23-year-old Swede, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 in 2 hours, 31 minutes today in the quarterfinals of the Dow Tennis Classic.
   Peterson, ranked No. 57, broke serve to lead 3-2 in the third set and held for 4-2. Ahn, ranked No. 220, escaped a break point to hold for 3-4. After Peterson held for 5-3, Ahn survived two match points and pulled within 4-5.
   Peterson, who reached the third round of last year's U.S. Open and the second round of last month's Australian Open, trailed 0-30 in the next game but won three consecutive points to earn her third match point. Ahn again stayed alive and then earned a break point, but Peterson won the following three points to improve to 3-0 lifetime against Ahn.
   It was Peterson's second victory over Ahn in two weeks. Peterson triumphed 6-4, 6-4 in the second round of the $162,480 Newport Beach Challenger.
   Peterson will face Caty McNally, a 17-year-old wild card from Cincinnati, on Saturday. McNally ousted third seed and defending champion Madison Brengle of Dover, Del., 6-3, 6-4. Brengle won the $60,000 Stockton (Calif.) Challenger last October.
   In Saturday's other semifinal, fourth-seeded Jessica Pegula will meet qualifier and fellow American Robin Anderson.
   Pegula, the 24-year-old daughter of Buffalo Bills and Sabres owners Terrence and Kim Pegula, topped American Christina McHale, a former top-25 player, 1-6, 6-3, 6-4.
   Pegula advanced to the final of the $50,000 Sacramento Challenger in 2012, losing to Modesto (Calif.) product Maria Sanchez, and the semifinals of last year's Stockton Challenger.
   The 5-foot-3 (1.61-meter) Anderson, who won the $25,000 Redding (Calif.) Challenger in 2017, beat sixth-seeded Yanina Wickmayer, a 29-year-old Belgian who reached the semifinals of the 2009 U.S. Open, 6-3, 6-4.
   In Saturday's doubles final, U.S. wild cards Cori (Coco) Gauff, 14, and Ann Li, 18, will meet unseeded Olga Govortsova, 30, of Belarus and Valeria Savinykh, 27, of Russia.
   Li reached the singles quarterfinals of last year's Stockton Challenger, and Govortsova advanced to the singles quarters of the Bank of the West Classic at Stanford in 2007 and 2013.
   The Bank of the West Classic ended in 2017 after 21 years at Stanford and was replaced by the Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic in nearby San Jose.

Ex-Wimbledon girls champ reaches Stockton semis

Third-seeded Sofya Zhuk, a Russian who won the Wimbledon girls
singles title three years ago at 15, overcame a big deficit to beat
unseeded American Robin Anderson today in the quarterfinals of
the Stockton (Calif.) Women's $60K. Photo by Paul Bauman

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   STOCKTON, Calif. — For Sofya Zhuk, winning the Wimbledon girls singles title three years ago at 15 was a bonus.
   "I was dreaming to go to the Wimbledon ball," Zhuk, a Russian based in Bradenton, Fla., who speaks English with no accent, said today. "After I won in the semifinals, I didn't care what's going to happen in the final. I knew I was already in the Wimbledon ball because both finalists go."
   The third-seeded Zhuk spoke after holding off unseeded American Robin Anderson 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 in 2 hours, 27 minutes in the quarterfinals of the Stockton Women's $60K at the University of the Pacific's Eve Zimmerman Tennis Center.
   Zhuk trailed 0-3 in the second set. When asked how she won the match, the 137th-ranked Zhuk said: "That's a very good question. I really don't have an answer for that one."
   Actually, she did.
   "I knew I was really down, and I decided to just try to put every ball in the court," added Zhuk, who has punishing flat groundstrokes. "I didn't even count the score after that. ... I kind of slowed down the pace. I figured out after 0-3 that she didn't like it. That helped me a lot."
   Zhuyk bolted to a 4-0 lead in the third set as the 5-foot-3 (1.61-meter) Anderson, ranked No. 336, hardly could put a ball in the court. But Anderson suddenly found her game again, and Zhuk admittedly got nervous.

Robin Anderson led Sofya Zhuk by a set and 3-0.
Anderson's rally in the third set fell short. Photo by
Paul Bauman

   Anderson, a 25-year-old former UCLA star, broke serve for 4-5 but then netted a backhand for 30-40. Zhuk finally closed out the match with a backhand passing shot down the line.

   So how was the Wimbledon ball?
   "I almost fell asleep because it was kind of boring," Zhuk admitted.

   Still, she wasn't disappointed.
   "The food was really good, and I got to see Serena (Williams) and (Novak) Djokovic," crowed Zhuk, adding that she did not dance. "It was fun, but I was really tired. I left early because I had an early flight in the morning."
   Zhuk didn't have to buy a dress for the ball.
   "In the locker room, they bring so many new dresses, and you can choose, and they do makeup and hair," she noted. "I chose a black dress that was long in the back with a long cut on the side. Then I had some curls in the hair and the smoky eye makeup. I planned it all out."
   Maybe someday Zhuk will go to the Wimbledon ball as a women's finalist. She's off to a good start on the pro tour.
  Zhuk reached the final of a $140,000 tournament in Newport Beach, Calif., in January and the third round of the prestigious BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells in March. In the BNP, she defeated France's Alize Cornet, who beat Serena Williams three times in 2014 (including a third-round win at Wimbledon and a retirement), and Slovakia's Magdalena Rybarikova, a Wimbledon semifinalist last year.
   Zhuk is scheduled to face top-seeded Madison Brengle, 28, for the first time on Saturday at 11 a.m. Brengle, ranked No. 95 after climbing to a career-high No. 35 in 2015, routed fellow American Ann Li, the Wimbledon girls runner-up last year, 6-2, 6-1 in 63 minutes.
   Also on Saturday at 11, second-seeded Jessica Pegula will play unseeded Danielle Lao in an all-American matchup.

Top-seeded Jordan Thompson of Australia beat another
former Wimbledon junior champion, sixth-seeded Noah
Rubin of Long Island, N.Y., 6-7 (4), 7-6 (2), 6-3. Photo
by Paul Bauman

   Pegula, the 24-year-old daughter of Buffalo Bills and Sabres owners Terrence and Kim Pegula, defeated qualifier Amra Sadikovic of Switzerland 6-4, 6-0.
   Lao, 5-foot-3 (1.61 meters) and slightly built, outclassed Whitney Osuigwe, a 16-year-old phenom from Bradenton, 6-2, 6-0 in 90 minutes. Osuigwe (pronounced (Oh-SIG-way) last year became the first American to win the French Open girls singles title since Jennifer Capriati in 1989.
   Pegula reached the final of the inaugural $50,000 Sacramento Challenger in 2012, before injuries derailed her career, and her first WTA final in Quebec City as a qualifier three weeks ago.
   Lao, a 27-year-old former USC All-American, has qualified for the last two U.S. Opens, losing in the first round each time.
   Pegula, who has played all week with left thigh wrapped, is 2-1 against Lao. They have not met in more than two years. In their first encounter, Lao won 6-3, 6-1 in the opening round of the inaugural Stockton Challenger in 2015.
   Another former Wimbledon junior champion, Noah Rubin of Long Island, N.Y., did not fare as well as Zhuk. Then again, the sixth-seeded Rubin faced the top seed in the $100,000 men's tournament. Jordan Thompson of Australia defeated the 5-foot-9 (1.75-meter) Rubin 6-7 (4), 7-6 (2), 6-3 in 2 hours, 35 minutes.
   Thompson reached a career-high No. 63 in February 2017 and stunned top-ranked Andy Murray in the first round of a Wimbledon tune-up tournament in London last year. Thompson has dropped to No. 106 after having his tonsils removed late last year.
    Rubin, a product of the John McEnroe Tennis Academy in New York, won the Wimbledon boys singles title in 2014 and advanced to the Stockton final two years ago.

Unseeded Maxime Janvier of France saved four match points in his
7-5, 5-7, 7-6 (3) victory over Barbados' Darian King, last year's
runner-up in Stockton. Photo by Paul Bauman

   The 6-foot (1.83-meter) Thompson, 24, will face 6-foot-5 (1.96-meter) South African Lloyd Harris, 21, for the first time at 11 a.m. Harris, seeded fourth and ranked No. 121, eliminated 6-foot-7 (2.01-meter) Christopher Eubanks, an unseeded American, 6-7 (6), 6-4, 6-3.
   Harris advanced to the final of the $100,000 Aptos (Calif.) Challenger in August and won an ATP match for the first time last week. As a qualifier in Chengdu, China, Harris ousted 38th-ranked Gael Monfils, who attained a career high of No. 6 in November 2016, in the first round before losing to eventual champion Bernard Tomic of Australia in a third-set tiebreaker.
   In Saturday's second men's semifinal, eighth-seeded Marc Polmans of Australia will meet unseeded Maxime Janvier of France for the first time in a matchup of 21-year-olds.
   Polmans, ranked No. 161, topped Liam Broady of Great Britain 4-6, 6-4, 6-2. The 6-foot-4 (1.93-meter) Janvier, ranked No. 272, saved four match points in a 7-5, 5-7, 7-6 (3) victory over Barbados' Darian King, last year's runner-up in Stockton, in 2 hours, 38 minutes.
   "I'm very happy because I played very well at the end of the third set," said Janvier, who survived 32 aces by second-seeded Reilly Opelka, a 6-foot-11 (2.11-meter) American, in the opening round.
   Janvier took a medical timeout at 3-3 in the second set for a left foot injury.
   Daily ticket prices are $25 for courtside/VIP, $20 for general admission and $10 for children 5-12.
   Here are the Stockton men's singles and doubles draws and Saturday's schedule, plus the women's singles and doubles draws and Saturday's schedule. The men's tournament is being streamed live.
   Here are the singles qualifying draw and Saturday's schedule in the $100,000 Northbay Healthcare Men's Pro Championship at Solano Community College in Fairfield, Calif.

Barbados' King thanks 'best friend' Stephens for help

Barbados' Darian King, last year's runner-up, cele-
brates after beating seventh-seeded Alex Bolt of
Australia in the $100,000 Stockton (Calif.) Pro
Open. King is a close friend of 2017 U.S. Open
champion Sloane Stephens. Photo by Paul Bauman

   STOCKTON, Calif. — While Sloane Stephens was defending her U.S. Open title recently, Darian King cheered from her box.
   No, they are not an item, even though they are close in age (King is 26 and Stephens 25).
   "We're good friends, kind of best friends," King, the runner-up in last year's $100,000 Stockton Challenger and champion of the $100,000 Tiburon (Calif.) Challenger two years ago, said today. "She brought me up pretty much. I really thank her for all she's done for me."
   King, from Barbados, spoke after beating seventh-seeded Alex Bolt, a 25-year-old Australian left-hander, 6-4, 6-3 to reach the quarterfinals of the $100,000 Stockton Pro Open at the University of the Pacific's Eve Zimmerman Tennis Center.
   King and Stephens -- who was born in Plantation, Fla., grew up in Fresno and lives in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. -- met in the U.S. Open juniors. 
   "She knew my difficulties coming from a Caribbean island and took me in to come practice with her," King said. "I lived with her and got really close to her and her family."
   King was unable to attend Stephens' matches at last year's U.S. Open but said he watched all of them on television.
   That tournament also marked King's only appearance in a Grand Slam main draw. After winning three qualifying matches, he lost to fourth-seeded Alexander Zverev of Germany 7-6 (9), 7-5, 6-4 in the first round.
   Stephens, seeded third in this year's U.S. Open, fell to 19th-seeded Anastasija Sevastova of Latvia in the quarterfinals.   
   King, ranked No. 189 in the world, will meet France's Maxime Janvier, ranked No. 272, for the first time on Friday after the 10 a.m. match between eighth-seeded Marc Polmans of Australia and Liam Broady of Great Britain.
   Janvier, 21, defeated qualifier Alexander Sarkissian of Glendale in the Los Angeles area 7-6 (1), 6-0 after ousting second-seeded Reilly Opelka, a 6-foot-11 (2.11-meter) American, on Tuesday in the first round.
   In Friday's other men's quarterfinals, fourth-seeded Lloyd Harris of South Africa will face 6-foot-7 (2.01-meter) Christopher Eubanks of Atlanta at 10 a.m., followed by top-seeded Jordan Thompson of Australian against sixth seed and 2016 runner-up Noah Rubin of Long Island, N.Y.

Whitney Osuigwe, a 16-year-old U.S. phenom, serves
during her 6-3, 6-1 victory over sixth-seeded Jamie Loeb.
Photo by Paul Bauman

   Eubanks, 22, eliminated fifth-seeded Casper Ruud, 19, of Norway 6-1, 7-6 (8) in the completion of a match suspended by rain on Wednesday. Eubanks pounded 15 aces, won 83 percent of the points on his first serve (40 of 48) and saved all three break points against him.
   Harris, 21, defeated Eubanks 6-2, 6-2 in the semifinals of the $100,000 Aptos (Calif.) Challenger in August in their only other meeting. Harris, coming off his first Challenger singles title the previous week in $75,000 Lexington, Ky., then lost to Thanasi Kokkinakis of Australia.
   In the Stockton women's $60,000 tournament, three players knocked out seeds to move into the quarterfinals.
   Danielle Lao, a 5-foot-3 (1.61-meter) American, beat fourth-seeded Marie Bouzkova of the Czech Republic 6-3, 6-3 in the late afternoon after edging U.S. qualifier Sanaz Marand 6-0, 2-6, 7-6 (4) in 3 hours, 1 minute in a morning match postponed from Wednesday.
   Lao will face Whitney Osuigwe, a 16-year-old phenom from Bradenton, Fla., on Friday after the 10 a.m. match between third-seeded Sofya Zhuk of Russia and Robin Anderson of the United States.
   Osuigwe dominated sixth-seeded Jamie Loeb of Ossining, N.Y., 6-3, 6-1 to reach the quarterfinals of a $60,000 tournament or higher for the second time.
   "She played much better as the match went on, but I also just missed a lot of balls," said Loeb, a 23-year-old product of the John McEnroe Tennis Academy in New York who turned pro after winning the 2015 NCAA singles title as a North Carolina sophomore. "I started off well, but then I just made too many unforced errors and kind of gave her more confidence."
   Said Osuigwe (pronounced Oh-SIG-way), who last year became the first American to win the French Open girls singles title since Jennifer Capriati in 1989: "I think I caused her to make the errors. I hit out of her strike zone. She loves low backhands down the line, so getting it up high to her forehand was really a key."
   Osuigwe, who played with a blister on her left foot, hadn't faced Loeb before but said she has "seen her play a lot because we play all the same tournaments."
   Ann Li, 18, topped eighth seed and fellow American Lauren Davis 6-2, 7-5 after beating Jovana Jaksic, a 25-year-old Serbian living in Sacramento, 4-1, retired (mononucleosis) in the morning.

Japan's Mari Osaka, the older sister of reigning U.S. Open champion
Naomi Osaka, lost to Robin Anderson, a former UCLA star, 7-5, 6-4
in the second round. Photo by Paul Bauman 

   Davis, only 5-foot-2 (1.57 meters), has plunged from a career-high No. 26 in May 2017 to No. 249.
   Li, who advanced to the finals of junior Wimbledon last year and a $60,000 tournament in Lexington in August, is scheduled to take on top-seeded Madison Brengle of Dover, Del., at 10 a.m.
   Brengle, who has dropped from a career-high No. 35 in 2015 to No. 95, dismissed her doubles partner, 19-year-old left-hander and 2017 runner-up Ashley Kratzer of Newport Beach, Calif., 6-3, 6-1.
   Zhuk, who won the Wimbledon girls singles title three years ago at 15, defeated qualifier Maegan Manasse, a 23-year-old former Cal All-American from Redondo Beach in the Los Angeles region, 6-4, 6-3.
   Anderson, a 5-foot-3 (1.61-meter) former UCLA star, beat Japan's Mari Osaka, the older sister of reigning U.S. Open champion Naomi Osaka, 7-5, 6-4. Mari Osaka had dispatched Maria Sanchez, who grew up 30 minutes south of Stockton in Modesto, 6-1, 6-3 in the morning.
   In the other women's quarterfinal, second-seeded Jessica Pegula of Charleston, S.C., will play 29-year-old qualifier Amra Sadikovic of Switzerland.
   Pegula reached the final of the inaugural $50,000 Sacramento Challenger in 2012, before injuries derailed her career, and her first WTA final in Quebec City as a qualifier three weeks ago. Her parents, Terrence and Kim Pegula, own the Buffalo Bills of the NFL and Buffalo Sabres of the NHL.
   Daily ticket prices for the Stockton Pro Open through Sunday are $25 for courtside/VIP, $20 for general admission and $10 for children 5-12. Tournament passes are $70 for courtside/VIP, $50 for general admission and $25 for children 5-12.
   Here are the Stockton men's singles and doubles draws and Friday's schedule, plus the women's singles and doubles draws and Friday's schedule. The men's tournament is being streamed live.