Dimitrov, Coric test positive after exhibitions

   This is not encouraging.
   Within a week of the announcements that the professional tours will resume in August and the U.S. Open will be played Aug. 31 to Sept. 13 as scheduled but without fans, top-35 players Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria and Borna Coric of Croatia said they tested positive for the coronavirus.
   Dimitrov, ranked 19th, and Coric, ranked 33rd, played in last week's Adria Tour, an exhibition series organized by top-ranked Novak Djokovic, in Serbia and Croatia.
   "I want to make sure anyone who has been in contact with me during the last few days gets tested and takes the necessary precautions," Dimitrov, a three-time Grand Slam semifinalist, revealed Sunday on Instagram. "I am so sorry for any harm I might have caused. I am back home now and recovering."
  Coric – who has beaten Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray twice each – expressed similar sentiments today in a tweet and added that he has no symptoms.
   Djokovic's fitness coach, Marco Panichi, also tested positive, Serbian daily Sportski Zurnal reported.
   "We are really sorry," event director Djordje Djokovic, Novak's younger brother, told reporters regarding the positive tests. "We tried our best to respect all measures, and we did respect all measures imposed by the governments of Serbia and Croatia."
   Both countries, however, have eased have lockdown measures in recent weeks. Fans packed the stands for the Adria Tour, and players hugged at the net, posed for pictures together and danced at clubs, ESPN reported.
   Sunday's final between Novak Djokovic and 14th-ranked Andrey Rublev of Russia was canceled. Djokovic, who said in April that he opposes vaccinations, has no symptoms but will be tested for the coronavirus, according to his media team.
   Rublev and top-10 players Dominic Thiem of Austria and Alexander Zverev of Germany, both of whom also played in the Adria Tour, said they would self-isolate despite negative tests.
   Nick Kyrgios of Australia blasted the series.
   "Boneheaded decision to go ahead with the 'exhibition' speedy recovery fellas, but that's what happens when you disregard all protocols," Kyrgios tweeted today. "This IS NOT A JOKE."

Wimbledon Day 2 recap: Bouchard, Halep tumble

No. 12 seed Eugenie Bouchard, last year's Wimbledon
runner-up, lost in the first round to qualifier Ying-
Ying Duan of China. 2013 photo by Paul Bauman

   Upsets of the day -- Eugenie "In A Bottle" Bouchard and Simona "I Need" Halep -- who reached the Wimbledon final and semifinals, respectively, last year  -- lost in the opening round to players ranked below 100.
   The 12th-seeded Bouchard lost to 117th-ranked qualifier Ying-Ying "Yang" Duan of China 7-6 (3), 6-4. The third-seeded Halep, meanwhile, fell to No. 106 Jana "Orlando" Cepelova of the Czech Republic 5-7, 6-4, 6-3.
   Bouchard, 21, said a torn abdominal muscle had limited her tournament preparation, and Halep, 23, was treated for a lost toenail late in the first set.
   Bouchard, also a semifinalist at the Australian Open and French Open in 2014, has lost 12 of her last 14 matches. Halep exited in the second round of the recent French Open after advancing to the final at Roland Garros last year.
   Match of the day -- Borna "Again" Coric, 18, of Croatia overcame leg cramps to edge Sergiy "Prokofiev" Stakhovsky of Ukraine 4-6, 7-6 (5), 6-1, 1-6, 9-7 in 3 hours, 55 minutes. Stakhovsky stunned Roger Federer "Express" in the second round at Wimbledon two years ago, ending the Swiss star's run of 36 Grand Slam quarterfinals.
   Notable -- Petra "Fied Forest" Kvitova opened her title defense by demolishing Kiki "Dee" Bertens of the Netherlands 6-1, 6-0 in 35 minutes. Kvitova won 28 of 29 points on her serve, double-faulting in the last game. 
   Men's seeded winners -- No. 2 Federer, No. 3 Andy "Bill" Murray, No. 6 Tomas "Free As A" Berdych, No. 10 "San" Rafael Nadal, No. 12 Gilles "Paul" Simon, No. 13 Jo-Wilfried "Sing A" Tsonga, No. 15 "Jose" Feliciano Lopez, No. 18 Gael "Sayers" Monfils, No. 20 Roberto "Clemente" Bautista Agut, No. 22 Viktor "Leon" Troicki, No. 23 "Dr." Ivo Karlovic, No. 25 Andreas Seppi "Blatter," No. 30 Fabio "Lanzoni" Fognini. 
   Men's seeded losers -- No. 29 Guillermo "Vilas" Garcia-Lopez, No. 31 Jack "Anybody Seen My" Sock.

No. 3 seed Simona Halep, a Wimbledon semifinalist last year, fell
to Jana Cepelova of the Czech Republic. 2015 photo by Paul Bauman

   Women's seeded winners -- No. 2 Kvitova, No. 5 "Sweet" Caroline Wozniacki, No. 8 Ekaterina "Do The" Makarova, No. 10 Angelique "Jolie" Kerber, No. 13 Agnieszka "Moorehead" Radwanska, No. 15 Timea "Ted" Bacsinszky, No. 17 Elina "Horne" Svitolina, No. 18 Sabine Lisicki "To My Stomach," No. 20 Garbine Muguruza "Bader Ginsburg," No. 25 Alize "Doolittle" Cornet, No. 26 Svetlana "Turner" Kuznetsova, No. 28 Jelena "Weird Al" Jankovic, No. 31 Camila Giorgi "Girl."  
   Women's seeded losers -- No. 3 Halep, No. 12 Bouchard.
   Stars and stripes -- Sock, seeded in singles a Grand Slam tournament for the first time, lost to Australia's Sam "Adams" Groth 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 6-3. Sock is defending his Wimbledon men's doubles title with Vasek "Anything Is" Pospisil of Canada. Groth holds the unofficial record for the world's fastest serve with a 163.4-mph (263-kph) missile in the 2012 Challenger in Busan, South Korea. See my story here.
   Pending the outcome of No. 21 Madison "Where The Hell Are My" Keys' suspended match, the United States has seven or eight women and four men in the second round. Keys is tied with Stephanie "Powers" Voegele at 2-2 in the third set.
   Fast fact -- Bouchard became the first Wimbledon finalist to lose her opening match at the All England Club the following year since Steffi Graf in 1994.
   Northern California connection -- "Yosemite" Sam Querrey, a 27-year-old San Francisco native, had 30 aces in his 7-5, 6-3, 6-4 victory over qualifier Igor "Stravinsky" Sijsling of the Netherlands. Querrey next plays Federer, who leads the head-to-head series 2-0 without losing a set. They last met seven years ago in the first round of the French Open.
   "Cookie" Jarmila Gajdosova, who is scheduled play for the new Sacramento-based California Dream of World TeamTennis after Wimbledon, lost to Lisicki 7-5, 6-4. Lisicki reached the Wimbledon final two years ago, losing to Marion "Cotillard" Bartoli.
   Quote -- Bouchard, on her tailspin: "It's really just been kind of eye-opening, a learning experience. But I'm good for the learning experience to be over now.''
   Wednesday's top matches (beginning at 5 a.m. PDT on ESPN) -- Centre Court: Novak "It's No" Djokovic (1) vs. Jarkko "LeRoy" Nieminen, "Special" Kei Nishikori vs. Santiago Giraldo "Rivera," Serena "Vanessa" Williams vs. Timea "Lincecum" Babos.
   Court 1: Milos "And Otis" Raonic (7) vs. Tommy "White" Haas, Daniela "Radcliffe" Hantuchova vs. Heather "Elementary My Dear" Watson, Stan "The Man" Wawrinka (4) vs. Victor "Hugo" Estrella Burgos.

Querrey, Gibbs face tough draws in French Open

Sam Querrey, a San Francisco native, will face teenage
sensation Borna Coric of Croatia in the first round.
2014 photo by Paul Bauman

   Friday's French Open draw did Sam Querrey and Nicole Gibbs no favors.
   It was kinder to Jarmila Gajdosova, but she has health issues.
   The year's second Grand Slam tournament begins Sunday in Paris (2 a.m. PDT on ESPN2 and 10 a.m. on NBC).
   Querrey, a San Francisco native and former Sacramento Capital in World TeamTennis, is scheduled to play teenage sensation Borna Coric of Croatia in the first round.
   Gibbs, a former Stanford star, will face Alexandra Dulgheru of Romania, and Australia's Gajdosova of the Sacramento-based California Dream in WTT will meet French wild card Amandine Hesse.
   All are first-time matchups.
   At No. 53, the 18-year-old Coric is the top-ranked male teenager in the world and the second-youngest player in the top 100 behind No. 85 Alexander Zverev, an 18-year-old German.
   Coric, who will debut in the clay-court French Open, already owns victories over Rafael Nadal (indoors) and Andy Murray (outdoor hardcourt).
   The 27-year-old Querrey, ranked 38th, is only 4-8 in eight French Open appearances. His best result was the third round in 2013.
   The winner likely will play 18th-seeded Tommy Robredo, a 33-year-old Spaniard and five-time quarterfinalist at Roland Garros, in the second round.

Nicole Gibbs, a former Stanford star, will take on Alexandra
Dulgheru of Romania.

   Dulgheru, ranked 50th, reached the quarterfinals of the Italian Open this month as a qualifier. She knocked off 14th-ranked Lucie Safarova in the second round and No. 8 Ekaterina Makarova in the third round before falling to No. 2 and countrywoman Simona Halep.
   Gibbs, ranked 97th, will make her French Open debut. The two-time NCAA singles champion, 22, prefers hardcourts.
   Hesse is ranked only No. 261 but will have the crowd behind her. Gajdosova, who reached the round of 16 at Roland Garros in 2010, withdrew from Stasbourg last week with a shoulder injury and undisclosed illness.
   Meanwhile, only one of the 16 male and 12 female French Open qualifiers is American. Alexa Glatch will take on Anna-Lena Friedsam of Germany in the first round, with the winner likely to play top-ranked Serena Williams.
   Americans Jared Donaldson, 18, and Jessica Pegula, 21, lost in the final round of qualifying.

U.S. Open Day 2 highlights: Bellis, 15, stuns 12th seed

CiCi Bellis earned a wild card in the U.S. Open by winning
the USTA Girls 18 National Championships in San Diego
three weeks ago. Photo courtesy of JFS Communications

   Match and upset of the day — Catherine (CiCi) Bellis, a 15-year-old wild card from Atherton in the San Francisco Bay Area, shocked 12th-seeded Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia 6-1, 4-6, 6-4 in the first round.
   Bellis, the second-ranked junior in the world, overcame a 3-1 deficit in the third set to become the youngest player to win a main-draw match in the U.S. Open since Anna Kournikova, also 15, in 1996.
   Cibulkova, only 5-foot-3 (1.61 meters), was the runner-up to Li Na in the Australian Open in January and won last year's Bank of the West Classic at Stanford. Atherton is adjacent to Stanford, and Bellis grew up attending the tournament.
   Cibulkova, however, has won one match in four tournaments since Wimbledon, including a first-round loss to Garbine Muguruza at Stanford. Cibulkova's victory was over 17-year-old wild card Francoise Abanda in Montreal three weeks ago.
   Bellis will face Zarina Diyas, a 20-year-old Kazakh who reached the fourth round at Wimbledon this year. She is ranked 48th.
   Here's a link to my 2012 profile of Bellis: http://norcaltennisczar.blogspot.com/2012/06/little-bellis-gets-big-results.html

   Notable — Marina Erakovic, a veteran from New Zealand, upset 20th-seeded Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia 3-6, 6-2, 7-6 (3). Kuznetsova, 29, won the U.S. Open 10 years ago for her first Grand Slam title. She also captured the French Open in 2009.
   Borna Coric, a 17-year-old qualifier from Croatia, ousted 29th-seeded Lukas Rosol of the Czech Republic 6-4, 6-1, 6-2. Rosol, 29, won his second career ATP title last week in Winston-Salem and stunned Rafael Nadal in the second round at Wimbledon in 2012.
   U.S. report — The women went 9-4 in singles and the men 3-5. Those figures include two all-American encounters. With the women's first round complete, 12 U.S. players remain. With some of the men's opening round still to be played, only five Americans are left.
   Northern California connection — Sam Querrey, a San Francisco native and former Sacramento Capital in World TeamTennis, subdued Maximo Gonzalez of Argentina 6-2, 4-6, 6-4, 4-6, 6-3. The 6-foot-6 (1.98-meter) Querrey could meet top-seeded Novak Djokovic in the third round.
   Dmitry Tursunov, a Russian veteran based in the Sacramento suburb of Granite Bay, lost to Alejandro Gonzalez of Colombia 6-4, 6-4, 7-5. Tursunov, 31, had been sidelined since Wimbledon with a left ankle injury.
   Former Stanford star Nicole Gibbs, 21, outlasted 41st-ranked Caroline Garcia of France 6-2, 2-6, 6-3 for her first Grand Slam main-draw victory. 
   Fast fact — Roger Federer and Serena Williams each have captured 17 Grand Slam singles titles, including five in the U.S. Open. They headlined the night session and won in straight sets.
   Quote — Bellis on her victory: “Believing was the number one thing that I had to do today. Just go out there and believe that you can win. If you do believe, there's two options. You can either believe and lose or believe and win, but if you don't believe you're going to lose anyway.”