Murray voted ATP Comeback Player of Year

Andy Murray rebounded from his second hip operation to win
a doubles title in his first tournament back and a singles crown
in October. Photo by Paul Bauman

   Andy Murray, who won the first two of his 46 tour-level singles titles in San Jose, Calif., was voted by fellow players as the ATP Comeback Player of the Year.
   Other award winners announced Thursday were Rafael Nadal (year-end No. 1 singles player), Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah (year-end No. 1 doubles team), Matteo Berrettini (Most Improved Player) and Jannik Sinner (Newcomer of the Year).
   Murray announced on Jan. 10 that he would retire after Wimbledon at the latest because of chronic hip pain. He had surgery on his right hip for the second time on Jan. 28 but returned to the tour in doubles in June, one month after his 32nd birthday.
   In Murray's first tournament back, he won the doubles title with Feliciano Lopez in the Fever-Tree Championships in London. Murray also won the singles crown in the European Open in Antwerp in October.
   Murray went 10-0 in singles in the now-defunct SAP Open in San Jose, winning the crown in 2006 at 18 years old and the following year. He also won the Challenger in Aptos, Calif., a 45-minute drive south of San Jose, in 2005 at 18.
   Nadal, 33, became the oldest player to finish as the year-end No. 1 in the history of the ATP rankings. He took home four singles trophies this year, including his 12th in the French Open and fourth in the U.S. Open.
   With his Roland Garros crown, Nadal broke Margaret Court's record of 11 Australian Open singles titles, seven of which came when only amateurs were allowed to play.
   By winning the U.S. Open, Nadal pulled within one of Roger Federer's record of 20 Grand Slam men's singles titles.
   Cabal, 33, and Farah, 32, of Colombia won their first two Grand Slam titles at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open. They became the second all-South American team to finish as the year-end No. 1 doubles team, following Hans Gildemeister of Chile and Andres Gomez of Ecuador in 1986.
   Farah reached the singles final in the 2012 Aptos Challenger, losing to former USC teammate Steve Johnson.
   Berrettini, a 23-year-old Italian, climbed from No. 54 to No. 8 in the 2018 and 2019 year-end rankings, respectively. He advanced to his first Grand Slam semifinal in the U.S. Open.
   Berrettini's countryman, 18-year-old Sinner, skyrocketed from No. 763 at the end of 2018 to No. 78 currently. He is the youngest player in the year-end top 80 since Nadal finished No. 47 at age 17 in 2003.
   Sinner lost in the second round of the $81,240 Aptos Challenger in August the week after winning the $54,160 Lexington (Ky.) Challenger.

Nadal to meet Medvedev in U.S. Open final

Rafael Nadal, shown in 2017, can pull within one of Roger Federer's record 20
Grand Slam singles titles. Photo by Mal Taam

   Daniil Medvedev is known as a fast learner, among other things.
   He had better be.
   The rising Russian star must figure out how to beat Rafael Nadal in the U.S. Open final on Sunday at 1 p.m. PDT on ESPN. Good luck with that.
   Four weeks ago, Nadal drubbed Medvedev 6-3, 6-0 for the Montreal title in their only previous career meeting.
   Nadal, seeded second, and Medvedev, seeded fifth, reached the final in Flushing Meadows, N.Y., with victories by remarkably similar scores on Friday.
   Nadal, 33, eliminated 24th-seeded Matteo Berrettini of Italy 7-6 (6), 6-4, 6-1. The 6-foot-6 (1.97-meter) Medvedev, 23, downed unseeded Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria 7-6 (5), 6-4, 6-3 to reach his first Grand Slam final.
   Nadal seeks his second U.S. Open title in three years and fourth overall. He can pull within one of Roger Federer's record 20 major singles crowns.
   Medvedev improved to 20-2 since Wimbledon with his 12th consecutive victory, including his first Masters 1000 title in Cincinnati.
   Earlier Friday, Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah of Colombia won their second consecutive Grand Slam title. The top seeds beat eighth-seeded Marcel Granollers of Spain and Horacio Zeballos of Argentina 6-4, 7-5.

Ex-Cal star, Bryans out; Halep wins thriller

   Ben McLachlan's stunning doubles run ended in heartbreaking fashion, and the Bryan brothers' Grand Slam title drought continued in the Australian Open.

   The unseeded team of McLachlan, a former Cal All-American, and Jan-Lennard Struff lost to seventh-seeded Oliver Marach of Austria and Mate Pavic of Croatia 4-6, 7-5, 7-6 (4) today in the semifinals in Melbourne.
   Marach, 37, and Pavic, a 24-year-old left-hander, improved to 13-0 this year, including titles at Doha and Auckland.

   McLachlan, a 25-year-old New Zealand native who plays for his mother's native Japan, and Struff, a 27-year-old German, were playing in their first tournament together. McLachlan, in fact, made his Grand Slam debut in the tournament. Struff had never advanced past the second round of doubles in nine appearances in majors.
   Marach and Pavic will meet 11th-seeded Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah, a Colombian pair who beat sixth seeds and six-time Australian Open champions Bob and Mike Bryan 7-6 (1), 7-5.
   The 39-year-old Bryan twins (Stanford, 1997-98) have won a record 16 Grand Slam men's doubles titles but none since the 2014 U.S. Open.
   Meanwhile, the women's singles final (Saturday at 12:30 a.m. PST on ESPN) will produce a first-time Grand Slam champion.
   Top-ranked Simona Halep saved two match points in a scintillating 6-3, 4-6, 9-7 victory over No. 21 seed Angelique Kerber, who won the 2015 Bank of the West Classic at Stanford. Earlier, No. 21 seed Caroline Wozniacki beat unseeded Elise Mertens of Belgium 6-3, 7-6 (2).
   Wozniacki, 27, can regain the top ranking for the first time since 2010 with a victory over Halep, 26. Wozniacki leads the head-to-head series 4-2 with wins in the last three meetings.
   Both players are 0-2 in Grand Slam finals. Wozniacki lost in the 2009 and 2014 U.S. Open. Halep fell in the 2014 and 2017 French Open.
   In a late men's singles semifinal, sixth-seeded Marin Cilic of Croatia eliminated unseeded Kyle Edmund of Great Britain 6-2, 7-6 (4), 6-2. Cilic, the 2014 U.S. Open champion and runner-up to Roger Federer at Wimbledon last year, will play either Federer, the second seed and defending champion, or unseeded Hyeon Chung of South Korea on Sunday at 12:30 a.m. PST. Federer and Chung will meet on Friday at the same time. ESPN will televise both matches. 
   All McLachlan and Struff did in the tournament was oust ninth seeds and 2016 French Open champions Feliciano Lopez and Marc Lopez (no relation) in the second round, 2016 U.S. Open runners-up Pablo Carreno Busta and Guillermo Garcia-Lopez in the third round, and top seeds and 2017 Wimbledon champions Lukasz Kubot and Marcelo Melo in the quarterfinals. The latter victory went to 7-6 (5) in the third set.
   Marach and Pavic know all about losing heartbreakers. Playing in their only previous Grand Slam final last year at Wimbledon, they fell to Kubot and Melo 13-11 in the fifth set.
   Cabal, 31, seeks his second berth in a Grand Slam men's doubles final and Farah, a 31-year-old Montreal native and former USC All-American, his first.
   Cabal and Eduardo Schwank of Argentina lost to Max Mirnyi of Belarus and Daniel Nestor of Canada in the 2011 French Open final. Cabal won his only Grand Slam mixed doubles title in last year's Australian Open with American Abigail Spears.
   Farah has reached two major mixed doubles finals, losing at Wimbledon in 2016 and the French Open last year with Anna-Lena Groenefeld of Germany.

Ex-USC star Johnson rolls to Aptos title

Ex-USC star Steve Johnson, shown against Dmitry
Tursunov in the second round, dominated Aptos
the way he did college tennis. Photo by Paul Bauman

   What does Steve Johnson think this is, college?
   The former USC star dominated the $100,000 Comerica Bank Challenger in Aptos, Calif., the way he did college tennis.
   Playing in his first Challenger singles final, Johnson cruised past ex-Trojan teammate Robert Farah 6-3, 6-3 Sunday at the Seascape Sports Club.They have practiced together many times, but this was their first official match against each other.
   Johnson, a 22-year-old wild card from Orange, Calif., did not lose a set during the week. His closest match actually came in the first round, 6-3, 7-5 against 6-foot-5 left-hander Carlos Salamanca of Colombia.
   Johnson then got a break when Russian Dmitry Tursunov, a former top-20 player who owns a townhouse in the Sacramento suburb of Folsom, retired from their second-round matchup at 4-6, 0-0 with a groin injury. 
   With the title, Johnson soared 141 spots in the world rankings to No. 237 after only one month as a professional. The unseeded Farah, 25, of Colombia jumped 36 places to No. 169.
   Johnson was the Michael Phelps of college tennis, ending his USC career in May with 72 consecutive singles victories, four NCAA team titles and two NCAA singles crowns (2011 and 2012).
   Third-seeded John Peers of Australia and Rik de Voest of South Africa won the doubles title in their first tournament together. They edged second-seeded Chris Guccione of Australia and Frank Moser of Germany 6-7 (5), 6-1, 10-4 tiebreak.
   Guccione, a 6-foot-7 left-hander, was bidding for his fourth consecutive Aptos doubles crown. The other three came with ex-partner Carsten Ball, a Southern California native who plays for Australia. Ball did not enter Aptos this year. Guccione also won the 2009 singles title.
   De Voest, 32, won the singles title of the inaugural Sacramento Challenger in 2005 and took the doubles crown there in 2010 with countryman Izak Van der Merwe. Ball and Guccione captured the doubles title in last year's Sacramento Challenger. 

TV SCHEDULE  

(All times PDT)

   Today -- Montreal (women), final, ESPN2, 7-9 p.m. (delay).

CALENDAR

   Aug. 27-Sept. 9 -- U.S. OPEN, Flushing Meadows, N.Y., www.usopen.org.
   Sept. 9-16 -- $25,000 USTA Oak River Rehab Challenger, Sun Oaks Tennis & Fitness, 3452 Argyle Road, Redding, Calif., 96002, www.sunoakschallenger.com, (530) 227-3498.
   Sept. 14 -- World TeamTennis, Western Conference finals, Sacramento Capitals vs. Orange County Breakers, 3:30 p.m. PDT, Charleston, S.C.
   Sept. 15 -- WTT, Eastern Conference finals, Washington Kastles vs. New York Sportimes, 3:30 p.m. PDT, Charleston, S.C.
   Sept. 16 -- WTT Finals, Western Conference champion vs. Eastern Conference champion, 12:30 p.m. PDT, Charleston, S.C.
   Sept. 29-Oct. 7 -- Natomas Men's $100,000 Challenger, Natomas Racquet Club, 2450 Natomas Park Drive, Sacramento, Calif., 95833, www.natomaschallenger.com, (916) 649-0909.
   Oct. 6-14 -- First Republic Bank Men's $100,000 Challenger, Tiburon Peninsula Club, 1600 Mar West St., Tiburon, Calif., 94920, www.tiburon challenger.com, (415) 789-7900.