Brooksby breakthrough highlights top stories of 2021

Jenson Brooksby waits to return serve during practice at the BNP Paribas Open
in Indian Wells in October. Photo by Paul Bauman

   Amid the ongoing pandemic, it was a banner year in Northern California tennis.

   Two players won prestigious ATP awards, and a former Sacramento Capital in World TeamTennis reached the French Open final.

   A coach with strong NorCal ties helped a WTA player soar into the top 10 and reach the title match in the WTA Finals, and two doubles stars qualified for the season-ending tournament for the first time.

   A Sacramento native helped his team win the NCAA team championship, then snagged the singles title.

   And more.

   Here are my picks for the top 10 stories of 2020 with 10 honorable mentions:

   1. Brooksby voted ATP Newcomer of Year — Jenson Brooksby, a lifelong Sacramento-area resident who turned 21 in October, skyrocketed from No. 307 to No. 56 in 10 months. He reached his maiden ATP Tour final in Newport, R.I., in his first tournament ever on grass, losing to two-time Grand Slam runner-up Kevin Anderson, and the round of 16 in the U.S. Open, steamrolling Novak Djokovic 6-1 in the first set before falling in four sets.

   Fifteen days after the Newport final, Brooksby beat the 6-foot-8 (2.03-meter) Anderson en route to the semifinals in Washington, D.C. Brooksby also advanced to the Antwerp semis in October as a qualifier.

Mackenzie McDonald lines up a forehand during his first-
round victory over James Duckworth in the BNP Paribas
Open. Photo by Paul Bauman

   2. McDonald voted ATP Comeback Player of Year — Mackenzie McDonald, a 26-year-old product of Piedmont in the San Francisco Bay Area, underwent right hamstring surgery in June 2019 and fell as low as No. 272 in March 2020.

   This year, McDonald reached the round of 16 in the Australian Open, advanced to his first ATP final in Washington, D.C., and climbed to a career-high No. 54 on Nov. 1.

   3. Ex-Capital reaches French Open final — Unseeded Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic outlasted No. 31 seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia 6-1, 3-6, 6-4 in the first Grand Slam final for both players.

   Pavlyuchenkova, who played for the Sacramento Capitals of World TeamTennis as the world's top junior at 15 in 2006, hurt her left leg late in the second set.

   4. Kontaveit cracks top 10, reaches WTA Finals title match under Tursunov — After hiring coach Dmitry Tursunov in August, Anett Kontaveit of Estonia won four titles, jumped from No. 30 to No. 7 and advanced to the WTA Finals for the first time.  

   Garbiñe Muguruza, seeded sixth, defeated Kontaveit, seeded eighth, 6-3, 7-5 in the final of the season-ending tournament in Guadalajara, Mexico. Tursunov, a 39-year-old Moscow native, trained in Northern California as a junior and professional. 

   5. Shibahara, Olmos qualify for WTA Finals — Doubles specialists Ena Shibahara, who was born in the Bay Area, and Giuliana Olmos, who grew up there, qualified for the season-ending tournament for the first time separately. Second-seeded Shuko Aoyama and Shibahara advanced to the semifinals, while eighth-seeded Sharon Fichman and Olmos were eliminated in round-robin play. 

   Aoyama and Shibahara won a tour-leading five titles, including the Miami Open, in 2021. They also reached the Wimbledon semifinals and Australian Open quarterfinals. Fichman and Olmos won the Italian Open, gained the Australian Open quarterfinals and advanced to the round of 16 at Wimbledon.

Sam Riffice, far left, poses 10 years ago at age 12 with Roger
Federer at the La Quinta Resort in the Palm Springs area. Also
shown are Riffice's coach, Amine Khaldi (second from left), and
Khaldi's friend Steve Mohibi. Photo courtesy of Amine Khaldi

   6. Riffice helps Florida win NCAA title, adds singles crown — Sam Riffice, who was born in Sacramento and grew up in suburban Roseville, won at No. 2 singles and doubles as the top-seeded Gators beat second-seeded Baylor 4-1 in Orlando, Fla., for the NCAA championship. 

   The sixth-seeded Riffice then topped second-seeded Daniel Rodrigues of South Carolina 3-6, 6-1, 6-4 for the singles title.

   7. Wimbledon champ commits to Stanford — Samir Banerjee, who won the Wimbledon boys singles title in July, verbally committed to Stanford.

   Banerjee, from Basking Ridge, N.J., defeated Victor Lilov of Raleigh, N.C., 7-5, 6-3 in the Wimbledon final. Both players were unseeded.

   8. Cal men's coach retires after 29 years — Peter Wright, a Berkeley native who turned 58 on Dec. 8, amassed a 383-256 record at Cal. He guided the Bears to the NCAA Championships 25 times, including a semifinal berth in 2016, and four appearances in the top 10.

   USC associate head coach Kris Kwinta, a 41-year-old Poland native, was chosen as Wright's replacement.

Fiery Danielle Collins exults after winning a point during the final of the
Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic in San Jose, Calif. Photo by Mal Taam

   9. Collins claims crown in San Jose — No. 7 seed Danielle Collins of St. Petersburg, Fla., defeated No. 4 seed Daria Kasatkina of Russia 6-3, 6-7 (10), 6-1 to win the Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic in San Jose, Calif.

   Collins, who turned 28 on Dec. 13, won her second consecutive title and the second of her career. She had surgery for endometriosis, a painful disorder in which tissue inside the uterus grows outside of it, in early April. Doctors removed a cyst the size of a tennis ball from her ovary.

Emon van Loben Sels poses with his trophy
at the USTA Level 1 Spring Individual Cham-
pionships in Mobile, Ala. Photo courtesy of
Emon van Loben Sels

   10. van Loben Sels ranked No. 1 nationally in 16s — The pandemic gave Emon van Loben Sels of Sacramento a needed break last year. He won a USTA Level 2 tournament in Newport Beach, Calif., in February and the Level 1 Spring Individual Championships in March in Mobile, Ala.

   Van Loben Sels' biggest asset is his passion for tennis, according to Kiryl Harbatsiuk, one of his coaches. The high school junior has verbally committed to UCLA.

   Honorable mention — Cameron Norrie, who won back-to-back Northern California Challengers in Tiburon and Stockton in 2017, won the prestigious BNP Paribas Open as the No. 21 seed.

   —Qualifier Mariia Kozyreva, a fifth-year senior at Saint Mary's College in Moraga in the Bay Area, shocked top-seeded Zheng Saisai, ranked No. 75, in the first round of the $60,000 Berkeley (Calif.) Challenger.

   —Katie Volynets, a resident of Walnut Creek in the Bay Area who turned 20 today, won her first professional title to crack the top 200.

   —Former Stanford star Nicole Gibbs retired at 27. The three-time NCAA champion (twice in singles and once in doubles) reached a career-high No. 68 in the world in 2016.

   —Johanna Konta, who won the 2016 Bank of the West Classic at Stanford, retired at 30.

   —Unseeded Usue Arconada won the Berkeley Challenger.

   —The Stanford women ended their longest losing streak in 40 years, three matches, with a 6-1 victory over USC in Los Angeles. 

   —Ethan Quinn of Fresno, Calif., reached the doubles final in the USTA Boys 18 National Championships in Kalamazoo, Mich., with Sebastian Gorzny and in the Orange Bowl in Plantation, Fla., with Nicholas Godsick.

   —Van Loben Sels advanced to the singles quarterfinals and doubles semifinals (with Dylan Tsoi of El Dorado Hills in the Sacramento area) in the USTA Boys 16 National Championships in Kalamazoo.

   —Wayne Thiebaud, a world-renowned artist from Sacramento who played tennis until just after his 100th birthday, died on Christmas at 101.

Pegula ends Collins' win streak at 12 matches in thriller

Jessica Pegula needed six match points to subdue
Danielle Collins in the third round in Montreal.
2018 photo by Paul Bauman

   Danielle Collins' winning streak ended at 12 matches in a late-night thriller between two hard-hitting Americans.

   Collins saved five match points before falling 6-4, 3-6, 7-5 to Jessica "Count" Pegula tonight in the third round of the National Bank Open on hardcourts in Montreal. The 2-hour, 28-minute match concluded at 1:32 a.m. EDT.

   Collins, 27, won Palermo on clay three weeks ago and San Jose on hardcourts last week for her first two WTA titles. She had surgery for endometriosis, in which tissue inside the uterus grows outside of it, in early April and returned less than two months later for the French Open. Doctors removed a cyst the size of a tennis ball from her ovary, as well as material from her bowel and bladder.

   Collins and Pegula are ranked 28th and 30th (sixth and seventh in the United States), respectively.

   Pegula, whose parents own the NFL's Buffalo Bills and NHL's Buffalo Sabres, reached a Northern California Challenger final in 2012 at 18 and semifinal in 2018.

   ATP Tour — In the second round of doubles in Toronto, No. 3 seeds Rajeev "Los Angeles" Ram, a volunteer assistant coach at the University of California, Berkeley from Carmel, Ind., and Joe Salisbury "Steak" of Great Britain dismissed Andrey Golubev of Kazakhstan and Andreas Mies of Germany 6-3, 6-2.

   Juniors — No. 7 seed Dali "Lama" Blanch of Deerfield Beach, Fla., outlasted No. 10 seed Aidan "Pass The" Mayo, who grew up in the Sacramento suburb of Roseville, 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 in the round of 16 in the USTA Boys 18 National Championships in Kalamazoo, Mich.

   No. 2 doubles seeds Sebastian Gorzny of Fountain Valley in the Los Angeles region and Ethan Quinn of Fresno, Calif., routed No. 16 seeds Brayden Michna of Taylor, Texas, and Nathan Cox of Lake Charles, La., 6-1, 6-2 in the quarterfinals.

   In the boys 16s in Kalamazoo, No. 2 seed Emon van Loben Sels of Sacramento beat unseeded Cayden Wang of Irvine, Calif., 6-4, 6-3 on Wednesday to reach Friday's quarterfinals.

   No. 4 seeds Dylan Tsoi of El Dorado Hills in the Sacramento area and van Loben Sels topped No. 4 seeds Kaylan Bigun and Meecah Bigun of Phoenix 6-4, 2-6 [10-4] today in the doubles quarterfinals.

   Meanwhile, No. 33 seed Valencia Xu of Livingston, N.J., dominated unseeded Gayathri Krishnan of Cupertino in the San Francisco Bay Area 6-2, 6-1 in the round of 16 in the girls 18s in San Diego. 

   In girls 18 doubles, No. 17 seeds Tsehay Driscoll of La Canada Flintridge in the Los Angeles area and Vivian Ovrootsky of San Jose, Calif., beat No. 16 seeds Emma Sun of Newbury Park in the L.A. region and Kathryn Treiber of Hinsdale, Ill., 6-2, 7-6 (5) in the round of 16.

Collins makes it 12 in row with win over returning Halep

Danielle Collins, shown during last week's Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic in
San Jose, Calif., is set to play fellow Floridian Jessica Pegula for a quarterfinal
berth in the National Bank Open in Montreal. Photo by Mal Taam

   Danielle Collins extended her winning streak to 12 matches with a 2-6, 6-4, 6-4 victory over No. 6 seed Simona Halep in 2 hours, 55 minutes tonight in the second round of the National Bank Open on hardcourts in Montreal.

   Collins, 27, of St. Petersburg, Fla., won Palermo on clay three weeks ago and San Jose on hardcourts last week for her first two WTA titles. She had surgery for endometriosis, in which tissue inside the uterus grows outside of it, in early April and returned less than two months later for the French Open. Doctors removed a cyst the size of a tennis ball from her ovary, as well as material from her bowel and bladder.

   Halep, the Montreal champion in 2016 and 2018, returned after missing three months with a calf tear. She dropped to No. 13 in the rankings this week to end her streak of 373 weeks (more than seven years) in the top 10, eighth-best in WTA history. Halep climbed to No. 1 in 2017.

   Collins is scheduled to play Jessica "Count" Pegula of Boca Raton, Fla., on Thursday for a quarterfinal berth after the 4 p.m. PDT match between No. 2 seed Bianca Andreescu of Canada and No. 13 seed Ons "Kareem-Abdul" Jabeur of Tunisia (Tennis Channel). Pegula eliminated No. 10 seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, the French Open runner-up in June, 1-6, 6-3, 6-2. 

   Collins and Pegula — ranked No. 28 and No. 30, respectively — will meet for the first time since 2016. Pegula has not lost a set in two matches in the head-to-head series.

   Top-seeded Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus outlasted Sloane Stephens, who grew up in Fresno, Calif., 7-6 (4), 4-6, 6-4. Stephens, the 2018 runner-up, led 4-1 in the last set.

   Sabalenka reached the San Jose final in 2019, losing to Zheng Saisai of China, and advanced to her first Grand Slam semifinal last month at Wimbledon.

   In the second round of doubles, Magda Linette of Poland and Bernarda Pera of the United States ousted No. 2 seeds Shuko Aoyama and Ena Shibahara of Japan 6-4, 7-6 (3).

   Aoyama, 33, and Shibahara, a 23-year-old native of Mountain View in the San Francisco Bay Area, reached the Wimbledon semifinals last month.

   No. 4 seeds Alexa Guarachi of Chile and Desirae Krawczyk of the United States beat Canadian wild cards Melodie Collard, 18, and Carol Zhao (Stanford, 2014-16) 6-3, 6-4.

   Guarachi and Krawczyk advanced to the French Open final last October, falling to defending champions Timea Babos of Hungary and Kristina Mladenovic of France.

   ATP Tour — In the first round of doubles in the National Bank Open in Toronto, Wesley Koolhof of the Netherlands and Austin Krajicek of Plano, Texas, defeated "Baltimore" Raven Klaasen of South Africa and Ben McLachlan (University of California, Berkeley, 2011-14) of Japan 6-4, 7-6 (4).

   Klaasen and McLachlan won last week's Citi Open in Washington, D.C.

   Juniors — No. 10 seed Aidan Mayo, who grew up in Roseville, Calif., in the Sacramento area, defeated No. 29 seed Eric Li of Skillman, N.J., 6-1, 6-4 to reach the round of 16 in the USTA Boys 18 National Championships in Kalamazoo, Mich.

   No. 28 seed Colton Smith of Tenino, Wash., beat No. 33 seed Luke Casper of Santa Cruz, Calif., 6-2, 4-6, 6-2. 

   In the boys 16s in Kalamazoo, No. 2 seed Emon van Loben Sels of Sacramento advanced to the round of 16 with a 6-4, 6-2 victory over No. 19 seed Owen Megargee of Washington, D.C.

   No. 3 seed Learner Tien of Irvine, Calif., eliminated No. 24 seed Dylan Tsoi of El Dorado Hills, Calif., in the Sacramento region 6-3, 6-0.

   In the girls 18s in San Diego, No. 4 seed Alexandra Yepifanova, an incoming freshman at Stanford from Lake Worth, Fla., and No. 17 seed Vivian Ovrootsky of San Jose, Calif., lost in the fourth round.

   No. 17 seed Meera Jesudason of Berwyn, Pa., topped Yepifanova 3-6, 7-5, 6-1, and No. 10 seed Sarah Hamner of Boca Raton beat Ovrootsky 6-1, 7-5.

Collins tops Teichmann in Montreal for 11th straight win

Danielle Collins, shown in last week's Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic in San Jose,
Calif., is set to face No. 6 seed Simona Halep on Wednesday. Photo by Mal Taam

   American Danielle Collins extended her winning streak to 11 matches with a 4-6, 6-1, 6-3 victory over Jil Teichmann of Switzerland today in the first round of the National Bank Open on hardcourts in Montreal.

   Collins, 27, of St. Petersburg, Fla., won Palermo, Italy, on clay three weeks ago and San Jose, Calif., on hardcourts last week for her first two WTA titles.

   Collins is scheduled to face No. 6 seed Simona Halep, the 2016 and 2018 champion, on Wednesday at 4 p.m. PDT (Tennis Channel). In their only previous meeting, Halep won 6-7 (2), 6-1, 6-2 in the opening round of the 2014 U.S. Open.

   Halep, who received a first-round bye, has been out for three months with a calf tear. She dropped to No. 13 in the rankings this week to end her streak of 373 weeks (more than seven years) in the top 10, eighth-best in WTA history. Halep ascended to No. 1 in 2017.

   Earlier today, wild card Sloane Stephens, a 28-year-old product of Fresno, Calif., outlasted Dayana "Carl" Yastremska of Ukraine 6-4, 1-6, 6-4.

   Stephens, the 2018 runner-up, faced four points to trail 2-5 in the third set. Yasteremska, 21, of Ukraine returned to the tour last month after being cleared of doping and serving a provisional six-month suspension.

   Stephens, who lost to Collins in the second round in San Jose, is set to play 23-year-old Aryna Sabalenka, seeded second and ranked third, on Wednesday after the 8 a.m. PDT match between Paula Badosa of Spain and wild card Rebecca "Dan" Marino of Canada.

   Sabalenka won her only previous match against Stephens, 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 on a hardcourt in the 2017 Fed Cup final in Sabalenka's hometown of Minsk, Belarus.

   Sabalenka reached the San Jose final in 2019, losing to Zheng Saisai of China, and advanced to her first Grand Slam semifinal last month at Wimbledon.

   Sara Sorribes "Mel" Tormo of Spain defeated Carol Zhao (Stanford, 2014-16) of Canada 6-2, 6-3. Sorribes Tormo stunned top-ranked Ashleigh Barty in the first round of the Tokyo Olympics before losing to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the third round.

   ATP Tour — No. 2 seed Rafael Nadal withdrew from the National Bank Open in Toronto with a left foot injury. He has won the last two titles and five overall.

   Northern California natives Mackenzie McDonald and Jenson Brooksby — who reached the final and semifinals, respectively, last week in Washington, D.C. — lost in the opening round.

   Benoit Paire of France eliminated McDonald, now based in Orlando, Fla., 6-3, 6-4 in a clash of unseeded players. Nikoloz Basilashvili of Georgia topped Brooksby, a 20-year-old wild card from the Sacramento area making his ATP Masters 1000 debut, 2-6, 6-0, 6-4. 

   Basilashvili, who has won titles on hardcourts in Doha and clay in Munich this year, improved to 2-0 against Brooksby. Basilashvili triumphed in four sets in the second round of the 2019 U.S. Open after  Brooksby came within a tiebreaker of leading two sets to none. 

After unexpected drama, Collins wins second title in row

Fiery Danielle Collins exults after winning a point during her three-set victory
over Daria Kasatkina today in San Jose, Calif. Photo by Mal Taam

Daria Kasatkina gathers her thoughts during today's final. Photo by Mal Taam

   SAN JOSE, Calif. — It easily could have been over in 75 minutes.

   Instead, today's final in the Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic went to three sets that included a nerve-wracking tiebreaker, which was practically a match in itself.

   In the end, No. 7 seed Danielle Collins of St. Petersburg, Fla., defeated No. 4 seed Daria Kasatkina of Russia 6-3, 6-7 (10), 6-1 in 2 hours, 18 minutes for her second consecutive title. 

   Collins had two championship points with Kasatkina serving at 3-5 in the second set, three in the tiebreaker and two in the final game, finally capitalizing when Kasatkina netted a runaround forehand.

   Kasatkina led 4-0 in the tiebreaker and converted her third set point when Collins netted a forehand.

   "Toward the end of the second set, I became a little bit too much of my own critic," Collins told reporters. "I was being really hard on myself. I had to have a reality check after losing that tiebreak and just say, Let's keep the positive energy going here. Let's not let this get me down.

   "I was actually in a similar situation a couple years ago. I played here against Maria Sakkari. I was up a set and by a lot in the second set, and I ended up losing that match in three sets. It was a heartbreaker because I was in control the whole way through. I feel like that experience gave me so much confidence today. Losing the tiebreak wasn't going to define me as a player. I just had to come back and be stronger."

   Collins did, jumping to a 2-0 lead in the third set. After Kasatkina broke for 1-2, Collins reeled off the last four games.

   "She started 2-0 up and 3-1 (in the third set), and it would be different story if it were 2-all or something," said the 24-year-old Kasatkina, who ousted top-seeded Elise Mertens in the semifinals. "But when the opponent is winning game by game in the third set and you're already pretty tired, it's like the life is leaving your body."

   The 27-year-old Collins, meanwhile, prides herself on her fitness. She extended her winning streak to 10 matches, including her first career title two weeks ago on clay in Palermo.
   Collins will rise eight notches to No. 28 in the world, five spots off her career high in January 2019.

   The first American to reach the Mubadala final in the three editions of the tournament, Collins ultimately overpowered Kasatkina with her serve, return of serve and groundstrokes. The aggressive, fiery Collins pounded 12 aces to Kasatkina's two and won 61.5 percent of the points on her second serve (32 of 52) to Kasatkina's 37.8 percent (17 of 45).

   Both finalists carried scars onto the court at San Jose State University as the tournament marked the record 50th anniversary of women's tour tennis in the San Francisco Bay Area. Collins' are literal, while Kasatkina's are figurative.

   Collins had surgery for endometriosis, a painful disorder in which tissue inside the uterus grows outside of it, in early April and returned less than two months later for the French Open. Doctors removed a cyst the size of a tennis ball from her ovary, as well as material from her bowel and bladder.

   "Before having the surgery, I was just not able to perform consistently tournament after tournament after tournament and have the stamina because I was constantly dealing with many, many issues in that area," Collins, an Australian Open semifinalist in 2019 and French Open quarterfinalist last October, said Saturday. "Now, it's giving me so much confidence knowing that my body is going to be able to show up consistently and I'm not going to be in physical agony or having to pull out of matches because of that issue."

   Collins has gone 14-2 since Wimbledon, reaching (in order) a quarterfinal and a semifinal before her  two titles.

   "It's been so rewarding to feel healthy," she said. "This is the best I've felt in a long, long time. For so many years, I got used to dealing with that. It got slowly and progressively worse, and I thought, Oh, this is a normal thing to be dealing with, and it really wasn't. The surgery has helped me so much. You couldn't pay me millions of dollars to go back to what I was dealing with. 

   "I know that things can change very quickly, so I'm trying to ride out this great period of good health. I'm very fortunate." 

   Collins now can focus on her matches instead of her body.

   "One of the biggest challenges for me in my career was the physical, and it became mental as well because it was like, I just can't do this," said Collins, who won two NCAA singles titles at the University of Virginia. "It's physically impossible. I have to pull out of the match today because I'm throwing up and I have flu-like symptoms and I have a fever and I have fallen over and I can't feel anything in my foot because of sciatic nerve pain."
   Kasatkina reached the quarterfinals of the French Open and Wimbledon in 2018, soaring to No. 10 in the world at age 21. One year later, she had plunged to No. 69. 

   "Mostly, it was a mental thing," Kasatkina candidly said Saturday. "I put too much pressure on myself after the success from the 2018 season. I was expecting too much from myself, and that was obviously too much to handle.

   "I had a mental breakdown for a few months. Then it's always difficult to come back because you're competing on the highest level. Just to come back, I needed twice more effort, and that was tough. Actually, the pandemic helped me a little bit because there (were) no tournaments, and I had time to work on it."

    Ranked No. 71 at the end of last year, Kasatkina will improve four places to No. 27. 

    "I've been working a lot, not just a lot but in the right way," she said. "Last year, when the pandemic starts, I spend a lot of time on the court and in the gym. Also, I was doing a lot of work with my mental coach.

   "Hard work pays off, and I was just waiting for the moment when the puzzle (will) be completed. Now I'm happy (with) the way I'm doing, and I will just keep going this way."   

   Kasatkina added that she's trying to focus more on herself.

   "Before, I was studying the matches of my opponents and trying to play more from the opponent," she said, "but now I'm trying to go more from myself, to be dependent on my game, not on the game of the other girl." 

   In today's doubles final, second-seeded Darija Jurak of Croatia and Andreja Klepac of Slovenia beat top-seeded Gabriela Dabrowski of Canada and Luisa Stefani of Brazil 6-1, 7-5.

   Jurak, 37, won her eighth WTA doubles title and first with Klepac, 35, who has nine WTA doubles crowns overall.

   Stefani, a former Pepperdine All-American, won the bronze medal in women's doubles with Laura Pigossi in the Tokyo Olympics last week.

   Dabrowski reached the women's doubles final at Wimbledon in 2019 with Xu Yifan of China and won the mixed doubles title in the 2017 French Open with Rohan Bopanna of India and in the 2018 Australian Open with Mate Pavic of Croatia.

   Here are the complete singles and doubles draws.

   WTA Tour in Cluj-Napoca, Romania — No. 2 seed Andrea Petkovic of Germany won her first singles title in over six years, routing unseeded Mayar Sherif (Fresno State, 2015-16) of Egypt 6-1, 6-1 in 61 minutes on clay. Sherif, who ousted top-seeded Alize Cornet of France in the first round, became the first Egyptian to reach a WTA singles final.

   ATP Tour — No. 5 seed Jannik Sinner, 19, of Italy outlasted unseeded Mackenzie McDonald, a 26-year-old product of Piedmont in the Bay Area, 7-5, 4-6, 7-5 in Washington, D.C., to become the youngest ATP 500 champion since the category was created in 2009.

   McDonald, who eliminated reigning champion Nick Kyrgios in the opening round, saved 10 set points in the first set and 16 break points in the match.

   McDonald, now based in Orlando, Fla., will soar 43 notches to No. 64 after his first ATP final. He climbed to a career-high No. 57 in April 2019 but had right hamstring surgery the following June and missed seven months.

   In the doubles final, No. 4 seeds Raven Klaasen of South Africa and Ben McLachlan (University of California, Berkeley, 2011-14) of Japan beat No. 2 seeds Neal Skupski of Great Britain and Michael Venus of New Zealand 7-6 (4), 6-4.

   McLachlan, a New Zealand product who represents his mother's native country, won his seventh ATP doubles title overall and second with Klaasen.

   Venus won the bronze medal in men's doubles in Tokyo with Marcus Daniell. Skupski played for the California Dream of World TeamTennis in 2015, the squad's only year of existence.

Top seed falls in San Jose; McDonald in first ATP final

No. 4 seed Daria Kasatkina ousted No. 1 seed Elise Mertens 6-3, 6-2 today
in the semifinals in San Jose, Calif. Photo by Mal Taam

No. 7 seed Danielle Collins routed qualifier Ana Konjuh 6-0, 6-2 in 52 minutes
for her ninth consecutive victory. Photo by Mal Taam

   SAN JOSE, Calif. — Second-seeded Elena Rybakina exited the Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic on Friday night, followed by top-seeded Elise Mertens this afternoon.

   Not coincidentally, both played in the Tokyo Olympics last week.

   The 16-hour time change and short turnaround proved to be too much for Belgium's Mertens, who lost in the first round of Olympic singles and doubles, and Kazakhstan's Rybakina, who fell in the bronze-medal match.

   "It was definitely a tough schedule, but to skip the Olympics, that would be a bit tough," Mertens, ranked No. 17 in singles and No. 1 in doubles, told the media with a chuckle after falling to resurgent Daria Kasatkina 6-3, 6-2 on a hot, hazy day as smoke from Northern California wildfires drifts to the San Francisco Bay Area. "It was my first time, and it was a nice experience. But yeah, in 17 days, I think I was in the U.K., Belgium, Tokyo and then here."

   Meanwhile, the fourth-seeded Kasatkina and the other Mubadala finalist, seventh-seeded Danielle Collins, were off last week. Kasatkina, in fact, is playing in her first tournament since narrowly losing in the second round at Wimbledon five weeks ago.

   Kasatkina, a 24-year-old Russian, scored the only break of the first set today on a backhand error by Mertens to lead 5-3 and reeled off the last five games of the match.

   Mertens committed seven double faults in the match, put in only 52.8 percent of her first serves (38 of 72) and faced 14 break points to Kasatkina's one.

   "My energy was a little bit lower," Mertens conceded. "I had a tough one yesterday [6-3, 7-6 (8) over eighth-seeded Yulia Putintseva]. My legs were a little bit heavier."

   Kasatkina, a former top-10 player, has jumped 40 places to No. 31 this year. She said the heat didn't bother her.

   "I spent here already 10 days, and I got used to the heat," said Kasatkina, who was coming off two three-set matches. "At the beginning, it was really tough, but also with the years playing in the U.S., Asia and Australia, where it's super hot, you are getting used to it. It has become easier and easier to play in the heat." 

   Collins, 27, of St. Petersburg, Fla., crushed qualifier Ana Konjuh of Croatia 6-0, 6-2 in 52 minutes to improve to 13-2 since Wimbledon with a nine-match winning streak. She won her first WTA title two weeks ago on clay in Palermo and became the first American to reach the Mubadala final in the three editions of the tournament. 

  Collins put in 70 percent of her first serves (28 of 40) today and won 16 of 17 points on Konjuh's second serve.

   "I don't want to take a lot of credit for the match because my opponent didn't have her best day, so in some ways I feel a little lucky," said Collins, who won the first nine games. "But I made some improvements along the way in this tournament. Today was probably the highest first-serve percentage that I've had, so I'm proud of that. 

    "Part of the reason I was hitting my shots so well today is all the tough opponents I've had to play over the last couple days (Sloane Stephens and Rybakina) and how hard I've had to work for every point. I've played so many hard-hitting opponents who run down ball after ball, so I came out really feeling like I was hitting the ball clean and just played with a lot of confidence the entire way through."  

   Ironically, Konjuh surrendered only two games in the last two sets of her quarterfinal victory over Zhang Shuai. 

   "Overall, (Collins) was too aggressive for me today," said Konjuh, a former top-20 player who has had four right elbow operations. 

   Kasatkina seeks her fifth WTA singles title and third this year in Sunday's 4 p.m. final (Tennis Channel). She is 2-0 against Collins. In their only hardcourt encounter, Kasatkina prevailed 6-2, 6-7 (6), 6-1 in the semifinals of the Phillip Island Trophy in Melbourne in February en route to the title. 

   In doubles, 46-year-old Kveta Peschke's reign in the tournament ended in the semifinals. Top-seeded Gabriela Dabrowski of Canada and Luisa Stefani, a former Pepperdine All-American from Brazil, edged Ellen Perez of Australia and Peschke, a Czech who won the first two Mubadala doubles crowns with other partners, 6-3, 4-6 [10-8].

   Dabrowski and Stefani, the bronze medalist in women's doubles in Tokyo, won the last five points. They are set to play second-seeded Darija Jurak of Croatia and Andreja Klepac of Slovenia on Sunday at 2 p.m.

   Here are the updated Mubadala singles and doubles draws.

   WTA Tour in Cluj-Napoca, Romania — Mayar Sherif (Fresno State, 2015-16) became the first Egyptian to reach a WTA final, defeating Mihaela Buzarnescu of Romania 7-6 (1), 6-4 on clay in a clash of unseeded players. Buzarnescu won the inaugural (2018) Silicon Valley Classic.

   Sherif, 25, saved a set point in the first set and led 4-0 in the second set. She is slated to play second-seeded Andrea Petkovic of Germany on Sunday. Petkovic eliminated qualifier Aleksandra Krunic of Serbia 6-4, 6-2.

   In the doubles final, Natela Dzalamidze of Russia and Kaja Juvan of Slovenia beat Katarzyna Piter of Poland and Sherif 6-3, 6-4 on Sunday at 2 p.m. Both teams were unseeded.

   ATP Tour — Bay Area product Mackenzie McDonald reached his first ATP final, topping his idol, Kei Nishikori of Japan, 6-4, 3-6, 7-5 in a battle of 5-foot-10 (1.78-meter) unseeded players in the Citi Open in Washington, D.C.

   Nishikori advanced to the final of the 2014 U.S. Open and won the Washington title in 2015.

   The 26-year-old McDonald, now based in Orlando, Fla., is scheduled to face rising star Jannik Sinner, a 19-year-old Italian, for the first time on Sunday at 2 p.m. PDT (Tennis Channel).

   Sinner, seeded fifth and ranked 24th, defeated Jenson Brooksby, a 20-year-old wild card from Carmichael, Calif., in the Sacramento area, 7-6 (2), 6-1. The turning point came with Sinner serving at 5-6 in the first set and facing three set points at 0-40. He won the next five points to force a tiebreaker and dominated from there with his powerful serve and groundstrokes.

   Still, Brooksby will crack the top 100 for the first time at No. 99 just over seven months after turning pro. 

   Future Hall of Famer Andy Murray tweeted Friday: "Jenson Brooksby is the sort of player I love to watch...lots of variety..high tennis IQ....great in defence..(fire emoji)"

   No. 4 doubles seeds Raven Klaasen of South Africa and Ben McLachlan (University of California, Berkeley, 2011-14) of Japan advanced to the final with a 6-4, 7-5 victory over unseeded Marcus Daniell of New Zealand and Marcelo Melo of Brazil. 

   Klaasen and McLachlan, a New Zealand product who represents his mother's native country, are set to play No. 2 seeds Neal Skupski of Great Britain and Michael Venus of New Zealand. Skupski played for the Sacramento-based California Dream of World TeamTennis in 2015, the squad's only year of existence.

   Daniell and Venus won the bronze medal in men's doubles in Tokyo.

Brooksby upsets No. 15 Auger-Aliassime; Mertens wins

Jenson Brooksby is approaching the top 100 just over
seven months after turning pro. 2021 photo courtesy
of USTA

   Jenson Brooksby continued his meteoric rise today, ousting Felix Auger-Aliassime, seeded second and ranked 15th, 6-3, 6-4 to reach the quarterfinals of the Citi Open in Washington, D.C.

   Brooksby, a wild card from Carmichael, Calif., in the Sacramento area playing in his first ATP 500 tournament, dominated Auger-Aliassime on the baseline and confounded the Canadian with deft drop shots in a matchup of 20-year-olds.

   Auger-Aliassime defeated Roger Federer en route to the semifinals on grass in Halle, Germany, in June and reached his first Grand Slam quarterfinal at Wimbledon last month.

   Brooksby turned pro in late December and advanced to the final of the Hall of Fame Open in Newport, R.I., last month in the first grass-court tournament of his life. He will rise at least 15 places to a career-high No. 115 after this week.

   Brooksby is scheduled to play No. 11 seed John Millman of Australia on Friday at 11 a.m. PDT (Tennis Channel). Millman, ranked No. 43, beat 6-foot-11 (2.11-meter) Reilly Opelka of Delray Beach, Fla., 6-3, 7-6 (4).

   Millman stunned Federer to reach the quarterfinals of the 2018 U.S. Open and won Northern California Challengers in 2010 and 2015.

   Also today, No. 14 seed Lloyd Harris of South Africa stunned top-seeded Rafael Nadal 6-4, 1-6, 6-4. Harris won the 2018 Stockton (Calif.) Challenger.

   Mackenzie McDonald, a 26-year-old product of Piedmont in the San Francisco Bay Area, defeated Ilya Ivashka of Belarus 6-4, 6-4 in their third meeting since late April.

   McDonald beat reigning champion Nick Kyrgios and No. 13 seed Benoit Paire of France in the first two  rounds. Ivashka knocked off No. 4 seed Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria in the second round.

   Ivashka, 27, defeated McDonald in two European clay-court tournaments in the spring. 

   WTA Tour in San Jose, Calif. — Top-seeded Elise Mertens of Belgium outlasted Kristina Mladenovic of France 6-2, 4-6, 6-4 in the second round of the Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic at San Jose State University.

   In her first quarterfinal in her last seven tournaments, Mertens will play eighth-seeded Yulia Putintseva, a Moscow native who represents Kazakhstan.

   Putintseva, a three-time Grand Slam quarterfinalist, eliminated Ajla Tomljanovic of Australia 3-6, 7-5, 6-3. Tomljanovic reached her first major quarterfinal at Wimbledon last month and the final of the last (2017) Sacramento Challenger.

   Second-seeded Elena Rybakina, another Moscow native who plays for Kazakhstan, topped Claire Liu, a 21-year-old wild card from Thousand Oaks in the Los Angeles region, 2-6, 6-0, 6-2. Rybakina advanced to her first Grand Slam quarterfinal in this year's French Open.

No. 7 seed Danielle Collins, above, beat Sloane Stephens, below, in three sets
to reach the quarterfinals in San Jose, Calif. Photos by Mal Taam

   In tonight's featured match (Tennis Channel), seventh-seeded Danielle Collins of St. Petersburg, Fla., defeated Sloane Stephens, a 28-year-old product of Fresno, Calif., 3-6, 6-4, 6-3.

   Collins has won her last seven matches, including her first career WTA title two weeks ago on clay in Palermo. Stephens, the 2017 U.S. Open champion and 2018 French Open runner-up, played in her first tournament in Northern California in nine years.

   Mertens and Collins reached the semifinals of the inaugural (2018) Silicon Valley Classic but did not play each other.

   Here is Friday's schedule.

   WTA Tour in Cluj-Napoca, Romania — Mayar Sherif (Fresno State, 2015-16) became the first Eygptian to reach a WTA quarterfinal, dismissing wild card Alexandra Eala, a 16-year-old left-hander from the Philippines, 6-2, 6-2 on clay.

   Sherif also advanced to the doubles semifinals, teaming with Katarzyna Piter of Poland to beat Katarzyna Kawa of Poland and Renata Voracova of the Czech Republic 6-2, 6-4.

Kenin, Tsitsipas avenge losses to reach semis in Paris

Sofia Kenin, playing in the 2018 Berkeley (Calif.) Challenger, beat
fellow American Danielle Collins 6-4, 4-6, 6-0 today in the French
Open. Kenin had been 0-3 against Collins. Photo by Paul Bauman

   Sofia Kenin and Stefanos Tsitsipas gained revenge today to reach the French Open semifinals.

   The fourth-seeded Kenin beat unseeded Danielle Collins 6-4, 4-6, 6-0 in an all-American matchup in Paris. Collins, an Australian Open semifinalist last year, suffered from an apparent stomach ailment in the third set.

   Kenin, who won her first Grand Slam title in this year's Australian Open, had never won a set against Collins in three career meetings. 

   The fifth-seeded Tsitsipas, from Greece, outclassed 13th-seeded Andrey Rublev of Russia 7-5, 6-2, 6-3 in a clash of 22-year-old rising stars. Rublev defeated Tsitsipas 6-4, 3-6, 7-5 10 days ago in the Hamburg final.

   Both Kenin, 21, and Collins, 26, have excelled in Northern California. Kenin won Challengers in Sacramento in 2016 at 17, Stockton in 2017 and Berkeley in 2018. Collins reached the final of the inaugural (2018) Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic in San Jose, Calif., on the WTA Tour.

   Rublev also is no stranger to NorCal. He lost to former world No. 2 Tommy Haas in the first round of the 2015 Aptos (Calif.) Challenger at 17.

   Kenin will face seventh-seeded Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic on Thursday after the 6 a.m. (PDT) semifinal between unseeded Iga Swiatek, 19, of Poland and qualifier Nadia Podoroska of Argentina (Tennis Channel).

   Kvitova, a two-time Wimbledon champion and a French Open semifinalist in 2012, dismissed unseeded Laura Siegemund, who won the U.S. Open doubles crown with Vera Zvonareva last month, 6-3, 6-3. 

   Kvitova, a 30-year-old left-hander, is 2-0 (1-0 on clay) against Kenin. Kvitova suffered career-threatening cuts to her left hand in a December 2016 attack at her home in the Czech Republic and missed more than four months.

   Tsitsipas, a semifinalist in last year's Australian Open, will take on top-ranked Novak Djokovic, who won the 2016 French Open to complete a career Grand Slam, on Friday. 

   Djokovic defeated 17th-seeded Pablo Carreno Busta of Spain 4-6, 6-2, 6-3, 6-4 in a rematch of their infamous fourth-round encounter in the U.S. Open last month. Djokovic was defaulted after losing his serve to trail 5-6 in the first set and accidentally hitting a line judge in the throat with a ball in anger. It's the 33-year-old Serb's only loss in 37 matches this year.

   Djokovic, who's right-handed with a two-handed backhand, played today with tape on his neck to address a nagging problem and took a medical timeout for a left-arm issue after losing the first set.

   "I definitely didn't feel great coming onto the court today," Djokovic said on atptour.com. "I don't want to take away anything from his good performance. Especially for a set and a half, he was the better player, dictating play. I was very neutral.

   "I didn't have much energy really ... in my legs or movement or game itself. It took me about a set and a half to really get comfortable and start really playing the way I should."

   Countered Carreno Busta: "Every time the (match) gets complicated, he asks for medical assistance. He has been doing this for a long time. I knew what would happen at the U.S. Open, what would happen here and what will continue to happen."

   Djokovic is 3-2 (1-0 on clay) against Tsitsipas with straight-set victories in their last two meetings, both on hardcourts.

   In the women's doubles quarterfinals, 14th-seeded Alexa Guarachi of Chile and Desirae Krawczyk of the United States eliminated seventh-seeded Shuko Aoyama and Ena Shibahara of Japan 6-0, 6-4.

   Each player except Aoyama was born in the U.S. and played in her first Grand Slam quarterfinal. Shibahara, 22, was born in Mountain View in the San Francisco Bay Area and starred at UCLA. 

   Guarachi and Krawczyk — former standouts at Alabama and Arizona State, respectively — were coming off a straight-set victory over top-seeded Hsieh Su-Wei of Chinese Taipei and Barbora Strycova of the Czech Republic.

   Krawczyk won the doubles title in the 2017 Sacramento (Calif.) Challenger with Giuliana Olmos, a product of Fremont in the Bay Area who plays for Mexico.

   In the third round of boys singles, seventh-seeded Dominic Stephan Stricker of Switzerland beat ninth-seeded Arthur Fery, a Stanford freshman from Great Britain, 6-4, 6-3.

   Fery and compatriot Felix Gill outplayed Dev Javia of India and Li Hanwen of China 7-5, 6-2 in the second round of doubles.

Qualifier Altmaier ousts No. 7 seed to reach last 16

   Daniel Altmaier had never played in a Grand Slam tournament before the French Open, and he wasn't sure he was going to enter qualifying at Roland Garros.

   That was six victories ago. The 22-year-old German shocked Italy's Matteo Berrettini, the seventh seed and a U.S. Open semifinalist last year, 6-2, 7-6 (5), 6-4 today on Court Philippe Chatrier to reach the fourth round in Paris.

   Altmaier, ranked No. 186, became just the fifth qualifier since 2000 to reach the last 16 in a major. Four accomplished the feat in the French Open: David Goffin of Belgium in 2012, Juan Ignacio Londero of Argentina in 2019 and Sebastian Korda and Altmaier this year. The exception is Hyung-Taik Lee of South Korea in the 2000 U.S. Open.

   It's the first time since 1998 that two male qualifiers reached the fourth round of the French Open. Russia's Marat Safin, who was inducted in the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 2016, and Germany's Jens Knippschild previously achieved that distinction.

   "It's my first time on this court and playing in Paris," Altmaier said in an on-court interview. "I'm delighted to be in the fourth round. My coach (Francisco Yunis) and I have been working so hard to be here, and while I've struggled with a few injuries, I am super-pleased (to break through) at Roland Garros.

   "Before qualifying, I was struggling with an injury, so I wasn't sure I was going to play. I hope the crowd and the TV audience enjoyed watching, as I want to entertain."

   Altmaier will face 17th-seeded Pablo Carreno Busta, who reached his second U.S. Open semifinal last month, on Monday for a quarterfinal berth. Carreno Busta eliminated fellow Spaniard Roberto Bautista Agut, seeded 10th, 6-4, 6-3, 5-7, 6-4.

   Later on Court Philippe Chatrier, top-ranked Novak Djokovic dominated lucky loser Daniel Elahi Galan of Colombia 6-0, 6-3, 6-2 to improve to 34-1 this year.

   Djokovic, who was defaulted in his fourth-round match against Carreno Busta in the U.S. Open, has lost only five games in each of his three matches at Roland Garros this year. He will play 15th-seeded Karen Khachanov of Russia in the fourth round.

   Fifth-seeded Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece led 6-1, 6-2, 3-1 when Aljaz Bedene of Slovenia retired with a foot injury.

   On the women's side, 30th-seeded Ons Jabeur of Tunisia topped eighth-seeded Aryna Sabalenka, the San Jose (Calif.) runner-up last year, 7-6 (7), 2-6, 6-3 to become the first Arab woman to reach the fourth round of a Grand Slam tournament. 

   Jabeur, the 2011 French Open girls champion, reached her first career Grand Slam quarterfinal in this year's Australian Open. She will meet unseeded American Danielle Collins, who ousted 11th seeded Garbine Muguruza, the 2016 French Open champion, 7-5, 2-6, 6-4.

   Collins, a semifinalist in the 2019 Australian Open and inaugural (2018) San Jose tournament, overcame a double-break deficit in the third set against Muguruza, a semifinalist in the last Bank of the West Classic at Stanford in 2017.

   Another American, fourth-seeded Sofia Kenin, dismissed qualifier Irina Bara of Romania 6-2, 6-0 in 72 minutes. Kenin — the reigning Australian Open champion who won Northern California Challengers in 2016 at age 17, 2017 and 2018 — will meet unseeded Fiona Ferro of France.

   Seventh-seeded Petra Kvitova, a two-time Wimbledon champion and a French Open semifinalist in 2012, beat 18-year-old Canadian left-hander Leylah Fernandez, last year's girls champion at Roland Garros, 7-5, 6-3. Kvitova trailed 1-5 and saved two set points in the first set.

   Germany's Laura Siegemund, who won the U.S. Open doubles title with Russia's Vera Zvonareva last month, surprised 13th-seeded Petra Martic, a Croat who advanced to the quarterfinals at Roland Garros last year, 6-7 (5), 6-3, 6-0.

   In doubles:

   —Third-seeded Rajeev Ram, a volunteer assistant coach at the University of California, Berkeley, and Joe Salisbury of Great Britain advanced to the quarterfinals with a 6-3, 6-2 victory over 14th-seeded Jeremy Chardy and Fabrice Martin of France. 

   Ram, 36, and Salisbury, 28, won their first major men's doubles title in this year's Australian Open.

   —Second seeds and defending champions Timea Babos of Hungary and Kristina Mladenovic of France beat former USC teammates Kaitlyn Christian from Orange, Calif., and Giuliana Olmos, a product of Fremont in the San Francisco Bay Area who plays for Mexico, 2-6, 6-4, 6-2.

Orlando's Collins dismissed after breaking protocols

Danielle Collins broke World TeamTennis' COVID-19 protocol by leaving
The Greenbrier resort in White Sulphur Springs, W.V., and the state. 2018
photo by Mal Taam

   Danielle Collins of the Orlando Storm was dismissed for the rest of the World TeamTennis season after breaking the league's COVID-19 protocols by leaving The Greenbrier resort in White Sulphur Springs, W.V., and the state, WTT CEO Carlos Silva announced today.
   "The protocols have been put in place and communicated numerous times to protect the health and safety of our players, coach and staff, which (is) of utmost important to WTT," Silva said in a statement.
   Collins reached the semifinals of the 2019 Australian Open, catapulting her to a career-high No. 23, and the inaugural Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic at San Jose State University in 2018.
   No replacement for Collins, a two-time NCAA singles champion (2014 and 2016) at Virginia who has fallen to No. 51, has been named. Orlando (3-4) has another 26-year-old American, Jessica Pegula, and doubles specialist Darija Jurak, 36, of Croatia.
   Pegula, the daughter of Buffalo Bills and Sabres owners Terry and Kim Pegula, is ranked No. 80.

Fed Cup woes, Novikov doubles title, Stanford thriller

Danielle Collins, shown in the 2017 Sacramento Challenger, and Nicole Melichar
of the United States lost to Ashleigh Barty and Priscilla Hon of Australia 6-4, 7-5
today in the deciding match in the first round of the Fed Cup in Asheville, N.C.
Australia won 3-2. Photo by Rob Vomund

   Wondering why the International Tennis Federation changed the Davis Cup format, beginning this year, from four weekends throughout the year to one week in November?
   Look no further than the first round of the Fed Cup. Only three of the top-10 singles players in the world competed this weekend.
   Romania had No. 3 Simona Halep, while the Czech Republic, the defending champion, was missing No. 2 Petra Kvitova. Guess which team won 3-2 on the road. Correct, Romania.
   Belarus had No. 9 Aryna Sabalenka, while Germany was missing No. 6 Angelique Kerber. Guess which team won 4-0 on the road. Right, Belarus.
   Australia does not have a top-10 singles player. But Ashleigh Barty -- the nation's top singles and doubles player at No. 13 and No. 6, respectively -- played against the United States, last year's runner-up. The U.S., meanwhile, was missing its top two singles players, No. 4 Sloane Stephens and No. 11 Serena Williams. Guess which team won 3-2 on the road. Yes, Australia.
   By the way, Halep, Sabalenka and Barty went a combined 7-0 in their matches.
   Halep dominated Katerina Siniakova 6-4, 6-0 and pulled out a 6-4, 5-7, 6-4 victory over No. 5 Karolina Pliskova in 2 hours, 37 minutes.
   Sabalenka, coached by former Northern California resident Dmitry Tursunov of Russia, lost five games total in her two singles matches.
   Barty did not lose a set in her three matches (two singles and one doubles).
   In the April 20-21 semifinals, France will host Romania, and Australia will host Belarus. The United States will face an opponent to be determined on the same weekend for the right to play in the World Group next year.
   The ITF has no plans to change the Fed Cup format -- yet.
   ATP Challenger Tour -- One former UCLA star from NorCal won a title in the $135,400 RBC Tennis Championships of Dallas, at least.
   Wild cards and ex-Bruins teammates Marcos Giron and Dennis Novikov, a 25-year-old San Jose product, defeated unseeded Ante Pavic of Croatia and Ruan Roelofse of South Africa 6-4, 7-6 (3).
   It was Novikov's fifth Challenger doubles title and first since 2016.
   In the singles final, 14th-seeded Mitchell Krueger, playing in his hometown, beat top-seeded Mackenzie McDonald, a 23-year-old product of Piedmont in the San Francisco Bay Area, 4-6, 7-6 (3), 6-1.
    McDonald, who swept the NCAA singles and doubles titles as a UCLA junior in 2016, had been 4-1 against Krueger, 25. But Krueger, in addition to having the home-court advantage, was more rested physically and mentally than McDonald.
   Krueger advanced by walkover in Saturday's semifinals, while the 5-foot-10 (1.78-meter) McDonald beat 6-foot-11 (2.11-meter) Reilly Opelka, seeded third, 6-4, 7-6 (13) in a night match. McDonald converted his fourth match point and saved four set points in the tiebreaker.
   ITA National Women's Team Indoors -- No. 14 Emily Arbuthnott defeated Fernanda Labrana 6-4, 4-6, 6-1 on Court 4 to give top-ranked Stanford, the defending NCAA champion, a 4-3 victory over No. 6 Texas in the quarterfinals of the ITA National Team Indoor Championships in Seattle.
   No. 23 Michaela Gordon, a Stanford sophomore from Saratoga in the Bay Area, defeated Bianca Turati 6-4, 6-3 on Court 1. No. 13 Arbuthnott and Gordon were tied 5-5 with twins Anna and Bianca Turati when their match was abandoned.
   No. 13 Melissa Lord and Niluka Madurawe, a Cardinal freshman from Sunnyvale in the Bay Area, topped Katie Poluta and Tijana Spasojevic 7-5 on Court 3 to clinch the doubles point for Stanford.
   The Cardinal (5-0) will face No. 5 Georgia (5-0), which edged No. 2 Vanderbilt 4-3.

Fed Cup, Dallas Challenger, college women's tourney

Madison Keys, shown in 2017, beat Kimberly Birrell
6-2, 6-2 today in Asheville, N.C., to even the United
States' series against Australia at 1-1 in the first round
of the Fed Cup. Photo by Mal Taam

   The first day of the Fed Cup tie between the United States and Australia went according to form.
   Ashleigh Barty, ranked 13th, held off 37th-ranked Sofia Kenin, 6-1, 7-6 (2) in 79 minutes today to give Australia a 1-0 lead in the first round of the best-of-five-match competition on an indoor hard court in Asheville, N.C.
   Madison Keys, ranked 17th, pulled the United States even with a 6-2, 6-2 victory over Kimberly Birrell, ranked 157th, in 63 minutes.
   Absent from the tie are the United States' top two singles players, No. 4 Sloane Stephens and No. 11 Serena Williams, and Australia's second-highest-ranked singles competitor, No. 41 Ajla Tomljanovic.
   The United States leads all nations with 18 Fed Cup titles. The Czech Republic is second with 11, followed by Australia with seven.
   The U.S. has reached the last two Fed Cup finals, beating host Belarus in 2017 and losing at the Czech Republic last November. Australia seeks its first title since 1974 and first berth in the finals since 1993.
   The 5-foot-5 (1.66-meter) Barty, a quarterfinalist in last month's Australian Open, pounded 10 aces to Kenin's one and won 91 percent of the points on her first serve (29 of 32).
   With Barty serving for the match at 5-4 in the second set, Kenin saved two match points and broke on a double fault.
   Kenin, a Moscow native who moved to Florida as a young child, has excelled in Northern California Challengers, winning titles in 2016 (Sacramento), 2017 (Stockton) and last year (Berkeley).
   Kenin won her first WTA title in Hobart in early January and lost to then-No. 1 Simona Halep in the second round of the Australian Open after leading 4-2 in the third set.
   Keys, who won the last Bank of the West Classic at Stanford in 2017, never faced a break point against Burrell, who underwent elbow surgery in 2016 and lost in the first round of the Berkeley Challenger last July to Modesto product Maria Sanchez.
   Kenin and Birrell, both 20, were chosen over higher-ranked, older players.
   Danielle Collins, an Australian Open singles semifinalist ranked 23rd at age 25, is scheduled to play doubles only for the United States on Sunday in her Fed Cup debut. Kenin fell to 0-3 in the Fed Cup, including two close singles losses in last year's final.
   Birrell stunned then-No. 10 Daria Kasatkina in the first round in Brisbane in the first week of January and reached the third round of the Australian Open. Meanwhile, 47th-ranked Daria Gavrilova is 0-4 this year.
   Gavrilova, a 24-year-old Moscow native, won the doubles title in the 2014 Sacramento Challenger with compatriot Storm Sanders. It was Gavrilova's first tournament since undergoing surgery for a torn ACL only eight months beforehand.
   In Sunday's reverse singles, Keys is scheduled to face Barty at 10 a.m. PST (Tennis Channel), followed by Kenin against Birrell.
   Keys defeated Barty 6-3, 6-2 in the first round of the 2017 French Open in their only career meeting. Kenin and Birrell have not played each other.
   In the fifth rubber, Collins and Nicole Melichar are set to take on Barty and Gavrilova.
   ATP Challenger Tour -- No. 14 seed Mitchell Krueger, playing in his hometown, reached the final of the $135,400 RBC Tennis Championships of Dallas when No. 6 seed Bjorn Fratangelo of Orlando, Fla., withdrew because of a quadriceps injury.
   Fratangelo won the $100,000 Fairfield (Calif.) Challenger last October.
   Krueger, 25, will face top-seeded Mackenzie McDonald, a 23-year-old product of Piedmont in the San Francisco Bay Area.
   McDonald, who's featured in Tennis Channel's "My Tennis Life" this year, beat third-seeded Reilly Opelka, 21, of Palm Coast, Fla., 6-4, 7-6 (13) in a late match. McDonald converted his fourth match point and saved four set points in the tiebreaker.
   At 6-foot-11 (2.11 meters), Opelka towers over the 5-foot-10 (1.78-meter) McDonald, a former UCLA star who won the 2017 Fairfield Challenger.
   McDonald, ranked No. 91, is 4-1 against Krueger, ranked No. 209. They met two weeks ago in the second round of the $162,480 Newport Beach Challenger, with McDonald winning 6-3, 6-4.
   In the doubles semifinals, U.S. wild cards and former UCLA teammates Marcos Giron and Dennis Novikov nipped second-seeded Romain Arneodo of Monaco and Andrei Vasilevski of Belarus 6-7 (4), 6-4 [11-9].
   Giron and Novikov, a 25-year-old San Jose product, will meet unseeded Ante Pavic of Croatia and Ruan Roelofse of South Africa. They edged unseeded Ruben Gonzales of the Philippines and Alex Lawson of Tempe, Ariz., 6-4, 5-7 [10-8].
   McDonald and Giron won three NCAA individual championships combined. McDonald swept the singles and doubles titles in 2016, and Giron took the singles crown in 2014.
   ITA National Women's Team Indoors -- Today's quarterfinals in the ITA National Team Indoor Championships in Seattle were postponed because of dangerous road conditions. The Seattle area received more than six inches of snow on Friday.
   Top-ranked Stanford (4-0), the defending NCAA champion, is scheduled to play No. 6 Texas (4-1) on Sunday at 10 a.m. The Cardinal routed No. 18 LSU 4-0 on Friday in the opening round.

Kvitova, Osaka advance to Aussie final; so does Nadal

Petra Kvitova reached her first Grand Slam
final since 2014. Photo by Paul Bauman

   Petra Kvitova, who was severely injured in a 2016 knife attack, today reached her first Grand Slam final since 2014.
   Seeded eighth, Kvitova outslugged unseeded Danielle Collins of St. Petersburg, Fla., 7-6 (2), 6-0 and became the first Czech woman to advance to the Australian Open final since Jana Novotna lost to Monica Seles in 1991.
   The roof on Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne was closed at 4-4 in the first set because of 104-degree (40.0 Celsius) heat.
   Kvitova, who captured the Sydney title two weeks ago, extended her winning streak to 11 matches. She has not lost a set in six Australian Open matches.
   Collins crushed second-seeded Angelique Kerber, who won the first of her three Grand Slam singles titles in the 2016 Australian Open, 6-0, 6-2 in the fourth round.
   Kvitova, the 2011 and 2014 Wimbledon champion, suffered career-threatening cuts to her left (playing) hand in the December 2016 attack at her home in the Czech Republic.
   In her only Northern California appearance, Kvitova reached the quarterfinals of the 2017 and last Bank of the West Classic at Stanford.
   Collins, a two-time NCAA singles champion from the University of Virginia, advanced to the quarterfinals of the 2017 Sacramento Challenger and the semifinals of last year's inaugural Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic in San Jose.

Naomi Osaka will try to win her second consecutive
major title. Photo by Paul Bauman

   Fourth-seeded Naomi Osaka of Japan prevented an all-Czech final, beating seventh-seeded Karolina Pliskova 6-2, 4-6, 6-4.
   Pliskova ousted Serena Williams in the quarterfinals, overcoming a 5-1 deficit in the third set and saving four match points. Williams rolled her left ankle on the first match point.
   Osaka, 21, will seek her second consecutive Grand Slam singles title when she meets Kvitova for the first time on Saturday at 12:30 a.m. California time (ESPN).
   Osaka's first big win came in the 2014 Bank of the West Classic. As a 16-year-old qualifier playing her first main-draw match on the WTA tour, Osaka saved a match point and ousted 2011 U.S. Open champion Samantha Stosur. Pliskova reached the Stanford final the following year, losing to Kerber.
   Second-seeded Rafael Nadal, the 2009 Australian Open champion and a three-time runner-up in Melbourne, outclassed 14th-seeded Stefanos Tsitsipas, a 20-year-old Greek, 6-2, 6-4, 6-0 in a men's semifinal.
   "It felt like a different dimension of tennis completely," Tsitsipas told reporters. "He gives you no rhythm. He plays just a different game style than the rest of the players. He has this, I don't know, talent that no other player has. I've never seen a player have this. He makes you play bad."
   Nadal will face either top-ranked Novak Djokovic, a six-time Australian Open champion, or 28th-seeded Lucas Pouille of France for the title on Sunday at 12:30 a.m. (ESPN).
   In the men's doubles semifinals, fifth-seeded Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut of France outclassed unseeded Ryan Harrison of Austin, Texas, and Sam Querrey, a 31-year-old San Francisco native, 6-4, 6-2.
   Herbert and Mahut, who are trying to complete a career Grand Slam in men's doubles, will meet 12th seeds and 2017 champions Henri Kontinen of Finland and John Peers of Australia for the title.

Tsitsipas becomes first Greek to reach major semifinal

   It's hard to say what's most impressive about Stefanos Tsitsipas.
   His powerful serve? His flowing one-handed backhand? His poise? His soulfulness?
   The 20-year-old phenom avoided a letdown after ousting Roger Federer, beating 22nd-seeded Roberto Bautista Agut of Spain 7-5, 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (2) today to reach the Australian Open semifinals in Melbourne.
   "I'm just living the dream, living what I've been working hard for," Tsitsipas, seeded 14th, said in an on-court interview. "I feel a bit emotional but not too much because I really worked hard to get here, the semis of a Grand Slam."
   Tsitsipas blasted 22 aces and won 84 percent of the points on his first serve (62 of 74). He became the first Greek and youngest man since Novak Djokovic in the 2007 U.S. Open to reach a Grand Slam semifinal.
   Tsitsipas will face second-seeded Rafael Nadal, who dismantled unseeded Frances Tiafoe 6-3, 6-4, 6-2. Tiafoe, who turned 21 on Sunday, won the $100,000 Stockton Challenger in 2016 at age 18.
   Danielle Collins also backed up a big upset to reach her first major semifinal. In a matchup of unseeded players, the 25-year-old American defeated Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia 2-6, 7-5, 6-1.
   Collins was coming off a 6-0, 6-2 victory over second-seeded Angelique Kerber, who won the first of her three Grand Slam singles titles in the 2016 Australian Open.
   Pavlyuchenkova played for the Sacramento Capitals of World TeamTennis in 2006 at age 15.
   Collins will play eighth-seeded Petra Kvitova, who eliminated 15th-seeded Ashleigh Barty of Australia 6-1, 6-4 to reach her first major semifinal since winning her second Wimbledon title in 2014. Kvitova suffered career-threatening cuts to her left (playing) hand in a knife attack at her home in the Czech Republic in December 2016.
   Kvitova's victory ensures that Simona Halep will be deposed as the world No. 1, wtatennis.com reported. Either Kvitova, Naomi Osaka, Elina Svitolina or Karolina Pliskova will replace Halep. Only Pliskova has been ranked No. 1.
   In the women's doubles quarters, second seeds and defending champions Timea Babos of Hungary and Kristina Mladenovic of France beat ninth-seeded Raquel Atawo (Cal, 2001-04) of Sacramento and Katarina Srebotnik of Slovenia 6-4, 7-5.