Defending champ beats top seed in $60K Sacramento

   GOLD RIVER, Calif. — The dream quarterfinal was turning into a nightmare for Sofia Kenin.
   Top-seeded Jennifer Brady, who has a big serve and powerful whipping forehand, steamrolled the defending champion in the first set on Friday night in the $60,000 FSP Gold River Women's Challenger.
   But Kenin, 18, rallied to defeat her fellow Floridian 1-6, 6-1, 6-3 at the Gold River Racquet Club in the Sacramento area and extend her winning streak to eight matches.
   Kenin, who swept the singles and doubles titles in last week's $60,000 Stockton (Calif.) Challenger, won the last three games in her first meeting against Brady.
   "She was obviously playing really well (in the first set), and I just told myself to keep fighting because I was right there. The games were close," said Kenin, seeded eighth and ranked No. 165. "I just told myself to fight for every point."
   That's more than you can say for Brady, who didn't try for two balls late in the match, including Kenin's forehand cross-court passing shot on her first match point.
   Kenin also became more aggressive, hitting harder and taking time away from Brady, after dropping the first set.
   "I started going for my shots," she said. "I already lost the first set, so I just tried to play my best."
   Brady, 22, reached the fourth round of the Australian Open as a qualifier in January and the second round at Wimbledon early this month. At No. 77, she is the highest-ranked player Kenin has beaten.
   Kenin's only other victory over a top-100 player came last month against No. 85 Aliaksandra Sasnovich of Belarus in the first round of qualifying on grass in Mallorca.
   Brady will head to Stanford, where she is scheduled to play wild card Maria Sharapova in the first round in next week's Bank of the West Classic.
   Kenin, meanwhile, will meet unseeded Ajla Tomljanovic (pronounced EYE-la Tom-lee-on-o-vich), a 24-year-old Croatian based in Boca Raton, Fla., in a semifinal for the second consecutive week tonight.
   Kenin won 7-6 (3), 7-5 in Stockton to even her record against the 5-foot-11 (1.80-meter) Tomljanovic at 1-1. Tomljanovic won on clay in the first round of a $60,000 tournament in Charlottesville, Va., in April en route to the semifinals.
   Tomljanovic, ranked No. 270, beat Irina Falconi of Orlando, Fla., in the quarterfinals for the second straight week in a matchup of former top-100 players rebounding from surgery. After prevailing in three sets in the $60,000 Stockton Challenger, Tomljanovic won 6-1, 7-6 (2).
   Tomljanovic advanced to the fourth round of the 2014 French Open, had shoulder surgery in February 2016 and missed the rest of the year.
   In the other Gold River semifinal, second-seeded Kristie Ahn of Orlando will face 15-year-old phenom Amanda Anisimova of Hallandale Beach, Fla., after a 4 p.m. doubles semifinal.
   Ahn outlasted seventh-seeded Danielle Collins of St. Petersburg, Fla., 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 in 2 hours, 21 minutes in a match that began at noon on another scorching day in the San Joaquin Valley.
   Anisimova, the most promising American with the initials "AA" since Andre Agassi, topped qualifier Chanel Simmonds, a 24-year-old left-hander from South Africa, 2-6, 6-2, 6-1 as the temperature soared to 103 degrees (39.4 Celsius) early in the second set at 5:15 p.m.
   In May, the 5-foot-10 (1.83-meter) Anisimova became the youngest player to compete in the women's main draw of the French Open since Alize Cornet, also 15, in 2005. Before the tournament, Anisimova was profiled in The New York Times.
   Ahn and Anisimova will meet for the second time. Ahn triumphed 1-6, 6-2, 6-2 on clay in the final of a $60,000 tournament in Dothan, Ala., in April. Anisimova pulled a groin muscle early in the second set. Still, Ahn was highly impressed.
   "Obviously, she's a very clean ball-striker," Ahn said. "She's young, she's raw, she's talented. I think we're going to see a lot more of her. The crazy part is she's only 15. She's really mature for her age, and it's really impressive to watch her dictate matches."
   Anisimova said last week in Stockton, where she lost to American Jamie Loeb in the quarterfinals, that her goal is to become No. 1 in the world and win all the Grand Slam tournaments. That's realistic, according to Ahn.
   "Yeah, yeah," Ahn said without hesitation. "Obviously you never know, but she is only 15. I imagine the time when Serena, Sharapova and Venus aren't playing anymore, so it's going to be interesting to see the new wave of players in 10 years when they're 25. There's a good group of Americans, especially. I think we're all pretty curious to see how they grow up."
   Anisimova is eager to avenge her loss in Dothan.
   "This time it's going to be on hardcourt, so it's going to be a little different," said Anisimova, adding that her favorite surface is clay because it gives her more time to haul off on her groundstrokes. "Last time I wasn't fully there because I pulled a muscle, but hopefully this time I'll be there 100 percent, so we'll see how it goes."
   Both Ahn, 25, and Collins, 23, are college graduates, a rarity in professional tennis. Ahn, along with Nicole Gibbs, led Stanford to the NCAA team title in 2013 and graduated the following year. Collins graduated from Virginia last year as a two-time NCAA singles champion (2014 and 2016).
   Ahn shook off a double fault on set point in the first set and Collins' rally from 1-4 (one service break) to 4-4 in the third set.
   "A lot of credit to her," said the 5-foot-5 (1.65-meter) Ahn, ranked No. 116. "She played well, she put a lot of pressure on me, and I was just trying to clear it out of my head and take each point one at a time.
   "Obviously, experience helps, but she's playing pretty well, and there were just a couple of key moments that —you're right — I was able to put out of my head at the right time."

   Collins, ranked No. 160 after only one year on the circuit full-time, crushes her serve, return of serve and groundstrokes. She blasted 11 aces, including three in a row twice.

   "She definitely took the initiative from the start — serves and returns," Ahn said with a laugh, "I think she had like eight aces or something, so definitely whenever I had a look, I tried to get into points as much as I could. "

   Anisimova trailed by a set and a service break for 0-1 in the second set when she suddenly stopped making unforced errors and started rifling passing shots. When the 5-foot-5 (1.65-meter) Simmonds pounded an ace at 0-4, 0-40, she raised her arms in mock triumph and smiled at the fans sitting behind the baseline.
   Said Anisimova: "I just didn't have a great day today. I think everyone doesn't always play great, but I got myself out of it, and I started playing my game again."
   Here are the Gold River singles and doubles draws and today's schedule. Live streaming is available.

Loeb beats 15-year-old phenom in Stockton quarters

   STOCKTON, Calif. -- Amanda Anisimova brought the hype, but Jamie Loeb brought the game.
   Despite giving up four inches (10.2 centimeters) to the 15-year-old phenom, the second-seeded Loeb outslugged Anisimova 6-4, 6-2 today in an all-American quarterfinal in the $60,000 University of the Pacific Stockton Challenger.
   In May, the 5-foot-10 (1.83-meter) Anisimova became the youngest player to compete in the main draw of the French Open since Alize Cornet of France in 2005. Before the tournament, USTA general manager for player development Martin Blackman called Anisimova "a very special player" in a New York Times profile of her.
   After dispatching sixth-seeded Grace Min 6-1, 6-2 in the second round on Thursday, Anisimova said her long-term goal is "to become No. 1 and win every Grand Slam." 
   But Loeb, a 22-year-old product of the John McEnroe Tennis Academy in New York, is surprisingly powerful for someone her size.
   "You're not the first person to say that," Loeb, who turned pro after winning the 2015 NCAA singles title as a North Carolina sophomore, said with a laugh. "Some people are like, 'How do you get your power?' I'm like, 'I don't know.' I've always been pretty powerful and aggressive. I'm just trying to be more versatile on the court, but aggressiveness definitely is my strength."
   Loeb, ranked 154th, played outstanding offense and defense and repeatedly put Anisimova on the defensive with deep returns of serve. Loeb, however, put in only 43.4 percent of her first serves (23 of 53).
   "Obviously I can still improve on my serve, but I'm still pleased with how I'm playing and constructing points from the baseline," observed Loeb, a singles quarterfinalist in Stockton last year and the doubles champion in the 2015 (inaugural) tournament.
   Loeb said her game plan against Anisimova was to "keep the rally going because I knew once I got into the rally I had a good chance of winning. She has a big game and likes to go for her shots. I wanted to keep moving the ball around."
   The fast courts at the Eve Zimmerman Tennis Center should have favored the bigger Anisimova, but it didn't work out that way.
   "I didn't have enough time to prepare for them," lamented a subdued Anisimova, who was born in Freehold Township, N.J., to Russian parents.
   At the same time, Anisimova complimented Loeb.
   "She played really well," said Anisimova, ranked 257th. "I think her style of game really helps her here. She plays really quick and fast -- she prepares her return early and has a compact swing -- and moves around the court really well."
   Loeb, who has not lost more than four games in a set in three tournament matches, will play 18-year-old wild card Ashley Kratzer of Newport Beach in Southern California for the first time in Saturday's second semifinal. Kratzer, a left-hander who turned pro late last year, defeated Xu Shilin, a 19-year-old right-hander from China who uses two hands on both sides, 6-4, 6-2.
   "My expectations were to get to the quarters. I did that yesterday, so today, I said, 'Let's just play, have fun and do what you can do,' and it worked," said the 415th-ranked Kratzer, who skipped the juniors, like the Williams sisters, to work on her game and avoid injuries. "Anything from here on, I'm proud of."
   In the first semifinal at 9 a.m., fourth-seeded Sofia Kenin, 18, of Pembroke Pines, Fla., will face Ajla Tomljanovic of Croatia.
   Kenin, 5-foot-6 (1.68 meters), downed Francesca Di Lorenzo, a 19-year-old left-hander from New Albany, Ohio, 6-3, 6-7 (5), 6-1.
   Kenin, who won last year's Sacramento Challenger, is ranked 160th. Di Lorenzo won the NCAA doubles title and lost in the first round of singles as the top seed as an Ohio State sophomore in May. She said she will decide at the end of the summer whether to turn pro.
   Tomljanovic, 5-foot-11 (1.80 meters) and lean, used her laser groundstrokes to subdue former Irina Falconi, only 5-foot-4 (1.63 meters) of Orlando, Fla., 2-6, 6-0, 6-2 in a matchup of former top-70 players rebounding from surgery. That prevented an all-U.S. semifinals.
   "I thought she played pretty good in the first set," Tomljanovic, who's based in Boca Raton, Fla., and speaks English with no accent, said after her second consecutive three-set victory in the blazing heat of the San Joaquin Valley. "I had a good start but kind of lost my concentration and let it slip away for a couple games. I just started fresh after the first set and tried to stay calm and win some more games. I got on the board 6-2 and came out and started picking up from there."
   Tomljanovic reached the Australian Open doubles quarterfinals and the fourth round of singles in the French Open in 2014. She had shoulder surgery in February 2016 and missed one year. Ranked a career-high No. 47 in February 2015, Tomljanovic has tumbled to No. 297.
   Tomljanovic is 1-0 against Kenin, having won 6-4, 6-1 in the first round of a $60,000 clay-court tournament in Charlottesville, Va., in April en route to the semifinals.
   Here are the Stockton singles and doubles draws and Saturday's schedule. Live streaming is available.

No. 1 Ahn, three other seeds fall in 60K Stockton

   STOCKTON, Calif. -- Top-seeded Kristie Ahn lost today in the $60,000 University of the Pacific Stockton Challenger, but the former Stanford star shouldn't feel too bad.
   For one thing, Ahn fell to a WTA veteran who reached a career-high No. 63 in May 2016.
   For another, Ahn had plenty of company.
   Irina Falconi dismissed friend and fellow Orlando, Fla., resident Ahn 6-4, 6-0 in the second round at the Eve Zimmerman Tennis Center. Also eliminated were No. 3 seed Danielle Collins, No. 6 Grace Min and No. 7 Usue Maitane Arconada. Only two seeds, No. 2 Jamie Loeb and No. 4 Sofia Kenin, reached the quarterfinals.
   Falconi, only 5-foot-4 (1.63 meters), reached the third round of the 2011 U.S. Open and 2015 French Open. The Ecuador native won her only WTA title in April 2016 on clay in Bogota but had surgery on her right big toe after the U.S. Open and returned to the tour at the beginning of January.
   Now ranked No. 247, the 27-year-old Falconi said the key to beating Ahn was making sure she did "something as simple as looking at the ball on every single point. There were a few times where I corrected myself and said, 'Look at the ball.' Once I won the first set, continuing with that fire and intensity helped me in the second."
   The 5-foot-5 (1.65-meter) Ahn, 25, had no aces and six double faults. She won only 43.3 percent of the points on her first serve (13 of 30) and 39.1 percent (9 of 23) on her second delivery.
   "I didn't serve very well," acknowledged Ahn, ranked No. 117. "I tried to do the right thing and come forward a couple times and made too many errors. It was partly due to her great defense. I definitely overplayed a couple times.
   "Overall it was not my best, but I do think we had a couple good points, and there were some positives I could take away from today. I came forward more today than I did the other day, and I'm trying to incorporate that more into my game."
   Falconi is scheduled to play Croatia's Ajla Tomljanovic, a former top-50 player rebounding from shoulder surgery, Friday not before 10:30 a.m. on Court 2 in the quarterfinals.
   The 5-foot-11 (1.80-meter) Tomljanovic (pronounced Tom-lee-an-o-vich), who reached the fourth round of the 2014 French Open, defeated Tessah Andrianjafitrimo, 18, of France 5-7, 6-4, 6-0.
   Falconi has a 4-2 record with a three-match winning streak against Tomljanovic. Falconi won the last meeting 6-1, 6-2 in the second round of qualifying in the 2015 Canadian Open.
   Also today, 19-year-old Xu Shilin of China dispatched third-seeded Danielle Rose Collins of St. Petersburg, Fla., 6-3, 6-3.
   Xu, who lived in Florida from age 8 to 14 and speaks fluent English, uses two hands on her forehand and backhand. Collins won the 2014 and 2016 NCAA singles titles while playing for Virginia.
   Xu will play wild card Ashley Kratzer, an 18-year-old left-hander from Newport Beach in Southern California, not before 10:30 a.m. on the Stadium Court. Kratzer beat naturalized U.S. citizen Anna Tatishvili, a former top-50 player, 6-4, 7-5.
   Amanda Anisimova, a 15-year-old phenom from Hallandale Beach, Fla., dominated sixth-seeded Grace Min of Atlanta and Orlando 6-1, 6-2. The 5-foot-10 (1.78-meter) Anisimova, who has lost only four games in two Stockton matches, will take on Loeb of Ossining, N.Y., at 9 a.m. on the Stadium Court.
   Loeb, a singles quarterfinalist in Stockton last year and doubles champion in the 2015 (inaugural) tournament, outclassed 18-year-old Caroline Dolehide of Hinsdale, Ill., 6-3, 6-2. Loeb, the 2015 NCAA singles champion at North Carolina, has not lost more than three games in a set in her two matches.
   Also, Francesca Di Lorenzo held off seventh-seeded Usue Maitane Arconada 7-6 (5), 6-4 in a hard-hitting battle of U.S. teenagers. Arconada, who was born in Argentina and grew up in Puerto Rico, led 4-1 in the tiebreaker.
   Di Lorenzo, a 19-year-old left-hander, won the NCAA doubles title as an Ohio State sophomore in May and lost in the first round of singles as the top seed. She will face Kenin, 18, of Pembroke Pines, Fla., at 9 a.m. on Court 2.
   Kenin, who won last year's Sacramento Challenger, beat Robin Anderson, a 24-year-old former UCLA star, 6-4, 6-3.
   Here are the Stockton singles and doubles draws and Friday's schedule. Live streaming is available.  

Capitals blanked twice in loss to Texas

   It's rare to lose a set 5-0 in World TeamTennis.
   It's even rarer to lose two sets 5-0 in a WTT match.
   And it's rarer still to lose two consecutive sets 5-0.
   That's what happened to the Sacramento Capitals on Sunday night in a 23-10 shellacking by the Texas Wild in Dallas. Substitutes Irina Falconi and Ryan Sweeting were shut out in the fourth and fifth sets, respectively.
   Sacramento's Megan Moulton-Levy and Mark Knowles opened the match with a 5-3 victory in mixed doubles, but Texas (4-2) won the last four sets by a combined score of 20-5.
   The Capitals have lost three straight matches after winning their first three.
   Falconi replaced Taylor Townsend (strained abdominal muscle), and Sweeting again took the place of marquee player Mardy Fish (groin injury).
   Falconi, who also lost in women's doubles, played her first match of the season for Sacramento. Sweeting has lost all six sets in which he has played for the Capitals this season, three in men's singles and three in men's doubles.
   The troubles of Falconi and Sweeting, aren't terribly surprising. Both have plunged in the world rankings after reaching career highs in 2011.
   Falconi, a 23-year-old Atlanta resident, has fallen from No. 73 to No. 164. That's nothing compared to Sweeting. The Fort Lauderdale, Fla., resident, who turned 26 on Sunday, has plummeted from No. 64 to No. 525.
   Fish's stint with Sacramento will end this week, if it hasn't already ended. Fortunately for the Capitals, Sam Querrey is scheduled to play in their last four matches of the regular season. Querrey leads all American men with a world ranking of No. 19 in singles.
   The Capitals will visit Orange County (3-3) tonight after beating the Breakers 22-14 last week in the Sacramento area. Following an off day on Tuesday, the Capitals will host Texas at Sunrise Marketplace Outdoor Pavilion in Citrus Heights.
   Bob and Mike Bryan, the No. 1 doubles team in the world and identical twin sons of Capitals coach Wayne Bryan, are scheduled to play for the Wild. The Bryan brothers, 35, recently became the first doubles team to hold all four Grand Slam titles and the Olympic gold medal.
   Ex-Stanford star wins title -- Nicole Gibbs, who turned pro last month after winning her second straight NCAA singles title as a Stanford junior, won the $50,000 Yakima (Wash.) Regional Hospital Challenger.
   Gibbs, seeded eighth, beat unseeded Ivana Lisjak of Croatia 6-1, 6-4 for her second title in a professional tournament.
   Lisjak, who lives in Las Vegas, gained notoriety the week before in the $50,000 FSP Gold River Women's Challenger in the Sacramento area. After losing in the semifinals, Lisjak threw her racket, which skipped off the court and hit a lineswoman in the face. The official did not need medical attention.
   Mayo Hibi, the 17-year-old Gold River champion, lost in the second round of the Yakima Challenger to unseeded Storm Sanders of Australia. That ended Hibi's winning streak at 11 matches and two titles.

TEXAS 23, CAPITALS 10

In Dallas

   Mixed doubles -- Megan Moulton-Levy and Mark Knowles (Capitals) def. Darija Jurak and Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi, 5-3.
   Women's doubles -- Eugenie Bouchard and Jurak (Texas) def. Irina Falconi and Moulton-Levy, 5-3.
   Men's doubles -- Alex Bogomolov Jr. and Qureshi (Texas) def. Knowles and Ryan Sweeting, 5-2.
   Women's singles -- Bouchard (Texas) def. Falconi, 5-0.
   Men's singles -- Bogomolov (Texas) def. Sweeting, 5-0.