King cruises in women's doubles at U.S. Open

   Vania King of the Sacramento Capitals and Yaroslava Shvedova are rolling as they defend their U.S. Open women's doubles title.
   The third seeds dispatched Eleni Daniilidou of Greece and Polona Hercog of Slovenia 6-2, 6-2 in Flushing Meadows, N.Y., in the second round for their sixth consecutive victory. 
   King, a Long Beach product living in Boynton Beach, Fla., and Shvedova, from Kazakhstan, won the women's doubles title in Cincinnati two weeks ago. They have not lost more than two games in a set in this year's U.S. Open and next face American wild cards Jessica Pegula, 17, and Taylor Townsend, 15.
   Richard Williams, the father of Venus and Serena Williams, was quoted in the New York Times last week as saying Townsend, an African-American left-hander from Stockbridge, Ga., is better than his daughters were at the same age. Pegula's father, Terrence, owns the Buffalo Sabres of the NHL.
   King, meanwhile, lost in the first round of mixed doubles with Rohan Bopanna of India. The fifth seeds fell to Barbora Zahlavova Strycova of the Czech Republic and Philipp Petzschner of Germany 7-6 (1), 4-6, 10-7 tiebreak.
   King's teammate on the Capitals, Mark Knowles of the Bahamas,  advanced in men's doubles and mixed doubles.
   Knowles and Belgium's Xavier Malisse, seeded 15th in men's doubles, advanced to the third round with a 6-3, 6-3 victory over Martin Emmrich of Germany and Andreas Siljestrom of Sweden.
   The unseeded team of Knowles and Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia beat wild cards Christina Fusano, a Sacramento native and former NCAA women's doubles champion from Cal, and ex-Stanford All-American David Martin 6-2, 7-5 in the first round of mixed doubles.
   Raquel Kops-Jones, who won the 2003 NCAA women's doubles title with Fusano, and fellow American Rajeev Ram lost in the second round of mixed doubles to Czechs Lucie Hradecka and Frantisek Cermak 7-5, 7-5.
   Wild cards Hilary Barte and Mallory Burdette, the reigning NCAA women's doubles champions from Stanford, fell to unseeded Andreja Klepac of Slovenia and Anna Tatishvili of Georgia 6-2, 3-6, 6-3.     
  

King scores upset, will face Wozniacki

   Vania King aced one test. Now comes a much bigger one.
   The Sacramento Capital reached the third round of the U.S. Open, equaling her best singles result there, by hammering 29th-seeded Jarmila Gajdosova of Australia 6-2, 6-0 Thursday in Flushing Meadows, N.Y.
   King's reward is a matchup with top-ranked Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark.
   “I’m American, so I know I’ll get some support out there,” King told reporters. “But she’s No. 1 in the
world, so she will, too.”
   Wozniacki is 2-0 against King, having won 5-7, 6-2, 6-4 (after trailing 4-1 in the third set) last year at Indian Wells and 6-1, 6-0 at the Australian Open in January.
   King, however, has something Wozniacki does not -- a Grand Slam title. King actually has two of them, the 2010 Wimbledon and U.S. Open women's doubles crowns with Yaroslava Shvedova.
   Wozniacki, much maligned for ascending to No. 1 without having won a Slam, was the singles runner-up to Kim Clijsters in the U.S. Open two years ago.
   King led a parade of victorious players with Northern California ties in the U.S. Open.
   Hilary Barte and Mallory Burdette, the NCAA women's doubles champions from Stanford, defeated Alexa Glatch and Jamie Hampton 6-4, 6-4 in a matchup of American wild cards in the first round of women's doubles.
   In mixed doubles, top-seeded Bob Bryan (Stanford) and Liezel Huber, unseeded Scott Lipsky (Stanford) and Lisa Raymond, and unseeded Raquel Kops-Jones (Cal) and Rajeev Ram advanced to the second round.
   The only player with Northern California connections to lose Thursday was Stanford sophomore Nicole Gibbs. She and Lauren Davis, the girls 18 doubles champions in the USTA National Championships last month,  fell to German veterans Julia Goerges and Andrea Petkovic 6-4, 6-1.
   Fusano to coach at UC Davis -- Professional doubles specialist Christina Fusano, a Sacramento native who lives in nearby Plymouth, will become an assistant coach for the UC Davis women's tennis team, head coach Bill Maze announced.
   Fusano, 30, played women's doubles in the U.S. Open twice and at Wimbledon once. Her best year was 2008, when she reached the second round of Wimbledon as a qualifier with Angela Haynes and climbed to a career-high No. 84 in doubles. Fusano won 13 career doubles titles on the ITF Women's Circuit.
  Fusano, a graduate of Ponderosa High School in Shingle Springs near Sacramento and 2003 NCAA doubles champion from Cal with Kops-Jones, teamed with former Stanford All-American David Martin to win the inaugural U.S. Open National Playoffs in mixed doubles last week.
   The title gave Fusano and Martin a wild card into the mixed doubles main draw at the U.S. Open. They are scheduled to face Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia and Mark Knowles of the Bahamas today in the first round. Fusano and Knowles were teammates on the Capitals for five matches in July.
  UC Davis will open its fall season Sept. 30 at, ironically, the Cal Invitational.