Kontaveit beats top seed Martic to reach Palermo final

   Other than a late hiccup, Anett Kontaveit had little trouble ousting the top seed today in the Palermo Ladies Open.

   The fourth-seeded Kontaveit beat Petra Martic 6-2, 6-4 today to reach the final of the first WTA or ATP tournament since the tours shut down in March because of the coronavirus pandemic.

   Kontaveit, a 24-year-old Estonian, is scheduled to play unseeded Fiona Ferro of France in the clay-court tourney. Ferro, 23, overcame a horrid start to outlast unseeded Camila Giorgi of Italy 2-6, 6-2, 7-5 in their first career meeting. Giorgi, who saved two match points in her quarterfinal victory over seventh-seeded Dayana Yastremska, won the first five games against Ferro.

   Kontaveit, who had her left thigh taped after the first set, broke serve to lead 3-1 in the second set and served for the match at 5-3 but was broken at 15.

   After Martic, a 29-year-old Croat ranked No. 15, took a medical timeout off the court for a right thigh injury, Kontaveit broke at love to even her record against Martic at 1-1. Martic won 7-6 (4), 6-1 on a hardcourt in Dubai in February.

   After returning the favor, Kontaveit said she did not expect to win so comfortably.

   "No, not at all," said Kontaveit, who will improve at least two spots to No. 20, down from a career-high No. 14 in April 2019. "Petra's a really great player. It was 6-2, 6-4, but there (were a lot of good points), and I really had to play my best tennis to come out on top today."

   Ferro broke serve on Giorgi's netted forehand to lead 2-1 in the third set and served for the match at 5-4.

   The 28-year-old Giorgi, the top-ranked Italian at No. 89, then broke on a deep forehand winner, but Ferro broke back on Giorgi's long forehand for 6-5. This time, Ferro held with a service winner for the match. She will rise at least six places to No. 47, cracking the top 50 for the first time.

   Three of the four Palermo semifinalists have reached one Grand Slam quarterfinal: Kontaveit (2020 Australian Open), Martic (2019 French Open) and Giorgi (2018 Wimbledon). Ferro's best Grand Slam result is the third round of last year's U.S. Open.

   Kontaveit and Ferro will meet for the second time on Sunday at 10:30 a.m. PDT (Tennis Channel). Kontaveit won 7-5, 6-7 (6), 6-2 in the second round of a $100,000 ITF hardcourt tournament in Poitiers, France, in 2016.

   Both Kontaveit and Ferro seek their second WTA singles title. Kontaveit, who's 1-4 in WTA finals, won 's-Hertogenbosch (Netherlands) on grass in 2017. Ferro won Lausanne on clay in July 2019, beating countrywoman Alize Cornet, in her only previous WTA final.  

   In a doubles semifinal today, unseeded Italians Elisabetta Cocciaretto, 19, and Martina Trevisan, a 5-foot-3 (1.60-meter) left-hander, beat fourth-seeded Bibiane Schoofs and Rosalie Van Der Hoek of the Netherlands 6-4, 6-3. 

   Cocciaretto and Trevisan will face unseeded Arantxa Rus of the Netherlands and Tamara Zidansek of Slovenia for the title on Sunday.

Giorgi saves two match points in win; more Open exits

   Italy's last hope was down to her last point today.

   Twice.

   Unseeded Camila Giorgi, one of the hardest hitters on the WTA Tour despite standing only 5-foot-6 (1.68 meters), saved two match points and went on to defeat seventh-seeded Dayana Yastremska 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-3 in the quarterfinals of the Palermo Ladies Open.

   The 2-hour, 52-minute match ended at 1:27 a.m. local time in the first WTA or ATP tournament since the tours shut down in March because of the coronavirus pandemic.

   Giorgi, the top-ranked Italian at No. 89, escaped two match points at 4-5 in the second set with blistering returns-of-serve and broke serve with the help of three of Yastremska's 16 double faults (Giorgi had 12) to lead 4-3 in the third set.

   Losing earlier in the clay-court tournament were Italian wild cards Elisabetta Cocciaretto, 19, and Sara Errani, 33. Fourth-seeded Anett Kontaveit of Estonia conquered Cocciaretto 6-1, 4-6, 6-1, and unseeded Fiona Ferro of France eliminated Errani, a two-time Palermo champion (2008 and 2012), 6-4, 6-1.

   Ferro, ranked No. 53, is the only semifinalist who has not lost a set. Errani, who was suspended for 10 months in 2018 after failing a drug test, has tumbled from a career-high No. 5 in 2013 to No. 169.

   In Saturday's first semifinal, top-seeded Petra Martic of Croatia will meet Kontaveit, ranked No. 22, at 8 a.m. PDT (Tennis Channel). Martic, ranked No. 15, advanced with a 7-6 (5), 7-6 (3) victory over qualifier Aliaksandra Sasnovich, a Belarusian formerly ranked 30th, 7-6 (5), 7-6 (3). 

   Martic beat Kontaveit 7-6 (4), 6-1 on a hardcourt in Dubai in February in their only previous meeting. Ferro and Giorgi will meet for the first time.

   Three of the semifinalists have reached one Grand Slam quarterfinal: Martic (2019 French Open), Kontaveit (2020 Australian Open) and Giorgi (2018 Wimbledon). The 23-year-old Ferro's best Grand Slam result is the third round of last year's U.S. Open.

   In a doubles semifinal today, Arantxa Rus of the Netherlands and Tamara Zidansek of Slovenia edged Greet Minnen and Alison Van Uytvanck of Belgium 1-6, 7-6 (4) [13-11]. 

   The other semifinal is set for Saturday. Fourth-seeded Bibiane Schoofs and Rosalie Van Der Hoek of the Netherlands will play Cocciaretto and countrywoman Martina Trevisan, a 5-foot-3 (1.60-meter) left-hander.

   U.S. Open – Ukraine's Elina Svitolina, ranked fifth, and the Netherlands' Kiki Bertens, ranked seventh, said they will bypass the U.S. Open, Aug. 31 to Sept. 13, because of coronavirus concerns.

   Svitolina reached the semifinals at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open and the quarterfinals of the Australian Open last year. Bertens' best result in eight appearances at Flushing Meadows is the third round the past two years. She advanced to the semifinals of the French Open in 2016 and the quarterfinals at Wimbledon in 2018.

   Defending champion Rafael Nadal, who needs one more Grand Slam singles title to tie Roger Federer's record of 20, and top-ranked Ashleigh Barty also have chosen not to play in the U.S. Open because of the pandemic. Federer, a five-time U.S. Open champion who will turn 39 on Saturday, is out for the year after undergoing arthroscopic knee surgery for the second time this year in May.

   The women's field includes defending champion Bianca Andreescu; former champions Serena Williams and Naomi Osaka; multiple Grand Slam winners Simona Halep, Garbine Muguruza, Petra Kvitova and Angelique Kerber; and this year's only Grand Slam titlist to date, Australian Open winner Sofia Kenin. 

   The men's field features seven top-10 players: No. 1 Novak Djokovic (a three-time U.S. Open champion), No. 3 Dominic Thiem, No. 5 Daniil Medvedev (last year's runner-up), No. 6 Stefanos Tsitsipas, No. 7 Alexander Zverev, No. 8 Matteo Berrettini and No. 10 David Goffin.

Past Bank of the West champs reach Wimbledon semis

Serena Williams poses after winning the Bank of the West
Classic at Stanford for the third time in 2014. Photo by
Tri Nguyen/TriNguyenPhotography.com

   Two past winners of the Bank of the West Classic at Stanford reached Thursday's semifinals at Wimbledon, and another fell short.
   No. 25 seed Serena Williams -- who won Stanford in 2011, 2012 and 2014 -- topped unseeded Camila Giorgi of Italy 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 today. It's the first time that Williams, bidding to tie Margaret Court's record of 24 Grand Slam singles titles, has lost a set in the tournament.
   No. 11 Angelique Kerber, the Bank of the West champ in 2015 and runner-up to Williams at Stanford in 2014, defeated No. 14 Daria Kasatkina of Russia 6-3, 7-5.
   But unseeded Dominika Cibulkova, who won Stanford five years ago, lost to No. 12 Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia 7-5, 6-4.
   Williams, who has plummeted to No. 181 in the world rankings after having her first child last September, will meet No. 13 seed Julia Goerges of Germany. Goerges, playing in her first Grand Slam quarterfinal at age 29, beat No. 20 Kiki Bertens of the Netherlands 3-6, 7-5, 6-1.
   Williams, 36, has never lost a set in three career matches against Goerges. They met for the first time in seven years in this year's French Open, with Williams winning 6-3, 6-4 in the third round.
   Williams is scheduled to play in the inaugural Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic, July 30-Aug. 5 at San Jose State. The tournament replaces the Bank of the West.

Angelique Kerber poses with a stuffed bear after win-
ning the 2015 Bank of the West Classic at Stanford.
The grizzly bear is the state animal of California.
Photo by Mal Taam

   Kerber, a 30-year-old left-hander from Germany, and Ostapenko, 21, will meet for the first time in a matchup of Grand Slam champions.
   Kerber has reached three Grand Slam finals, all in 2016. She defeated Williams to win the Australian Open, beat Karolina Pliskova to capture the U.S. Open and lost to Williams in the title match at Wimbledon. Ostapenko won last year's French Open for her first tour-level title only two days after turning 20.
   In today's men's doubles quarterfinals, Mike Bryan (Stanford 1997-98) won, but Ben McLachlan (Cal, 2011-14) lost.
   Americans Bryan and Jack Sock, the highest remaining seeds at No. 7, beat unseeded Divij Sharan of India and Artem Sitak, a Russia native who plays for New Zealand, 7-6 (4), 7-6 (5), 6-7 (3), 6-4.
   Bryan, 40, has won three Wimbledon men's doubles crowns (2006, 2011 and 2013). All have come with his twin Bob Bryan, who's sidelined with a hip injury. Sock won Wimbledon with Vasek Pospisil of Canada in 2014.
   No. 14 seeds McLachlan, a New Zealand native who plays for his mother's native Japan, and Jan-Lennard Struff of Germany fell to Frederik Nielsen of Denmark and Joe Salisbury of Great Britain 7-6 (6), 4-6, 7-6 (2), 7-6 (4).
   In 2012, Nielsen and Jonathan Marray of Great Britain became the only wild cards to win the Wimbledon men's doubles title. Nielsen also captured the 2015 Tiburon and Fairfield Challenger titles in Northern California with Johan Brunstrom of Sweden.
  Salisbury and countryman Brydan Klein won the doubles crown in Stockton last fall.
  In the second round of girls singles today, 16-year-old Katie Volynets of Walnut Creek in the San Francisco Bay Area lost to Elisabetta Cocciaretto, 17, of Italy 7-5, 6-4.
  ESPN and ESPN2 will televise Wednesday's men's quarterfinals beginning at 5 a.m. California time. Tennis Channel will recap the matches starting at 1 p.m. Here is the order of play.

Australian Open Day 6: A star is born (maybe)

Madison Keys, then 18, practices during the 2013
Bank of the West Classic at Stanford. In her only
appearance in the tournament, she upset No. 8 seed
Magdalena Rybarikova in the first round before losing
to qualifier Vera Dushevina. Photo by Paul Bauman

   Upset of the day -- Maybe there's hope for U.S. women's tennis when the Williams sisters retire, after all.
   CiCi Bellis of Atherton stunned 12th-seeded Dominika Cibulkova in the first round of the U.S. Open last August. Sofia Kenin won the Orange Bowl in December. Left-hander Taylor Townsend in 2012 became the first American in 30 years to end the year with the No. 1 girls ranking.
   And 19-year-old Madison Keys, perhaps the brightest prospect of all, outslugged fourth seed and two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova 6-4, 7-5 today in Melbourne to reach the fourth round of a Grand Slam tournament for the first time. 
   In addition to her tremendous power, the 5-foot-10 (1.78-meter) Keys displayed remarkable composure as she held serve at love to close out the biggest victory of her career. She's ranked 35th.
   Keys began working with International Tennis Hall of Famer Lindsay Davenport late last year. 
   Match of the day -- No. 18 seed Venus Williams defeated Camila Giorgi of Italy 4-6, 7-6 (3), 6-1 in the third round in Melbourne. Giorgi, ranked 33rd, served for the match in the second set but was broken at love.
   Giorgi, 23, was trying to become the second Italian in two nights to pull off a big upset. Andreas Seppi stunned Roger Federer in the third round.
   The 34-year-old Williams, a seven-time Grand Slam singles champion, reached the round of 16 in a major for the first time since being diagnosed with Sjogren's Syndrome, which can cause joint pain and saps energy, in 2011.  
   Notable -- Gilles Muller, a 31-year-old left-hander from Luxembourg, toppled 19th-seeded John Isner of Tampa, Fla., 7-6 (4), 7-6 (6), 6-4 in the third round. Muller is best known for reaching the quarterfinals of the 2008 U.S. Open as a qualifier.
   Victoria Azarenka, unseeded in the Australian Open for the first time since 2007, outplayed 25th-seeded Barbora Zahlavova Strycova of the Czech Republic 6-4, 6-4. Azarenka won the Australian Open in 2012 and 2013 but missed most of last year with foot and knee injuries.
   Both defending men's doubles champions, Lukasz Kubot and Robert Lindstedt, were eliminated in the second round. They played with separate partners this year. Nothing like breaking up a winning combination ... 
   Men's seeded winners -- No. 1 Novak Djokovic, No. 4 Stan Wawrinka, No. 5 Kei Nishikori, No. 8 Milos Raonic, No. 9 David Ferrer, No. 12 Feliciano Lopez.
   Men's seeded losers -- No. 18 Gilles Simon, No. 19 John Isner, No. 31 Fernando Verdasco.
   Women's seeded winners -- No. 1 Serena Williams, No. 6 Agnieszka Radwanska, No. 11 Dominika Cibulkova, No. 18 Venus Williams, No. 24 Garbine Muguruza.
   Women's seeded losers -- No. 19 Alize Cornet, No. 25 Barbora Zahlavova Strycova, No. 26 Elina Svitolina, No. 30 Varvara Lepchenko.
   Stars and stripes -- Four U.S. women, all in the top half of the draw, reached the round of 16: the Williams sisters, Keys and Madison Brengle. The two Madisons will meet for the second time. Keys won 6-3, 6-2 in the first round of qualifying for the 2012 U.S. Open. 
   The only other remaining American man in the Australian Open, Steve Johnson, lost to fifth-seeded Kei Nishikori 6-7 (7), 6-1, 6-2, 6-3. Nishikori is coming off his first Grand Slam final, a 6-3, 6-3, 6-3 loss to Marin Cilic.
   Northern California connection -- Davenport, a lifelong Los Angeles-area resident, practically made Northern California her second home as a player.
   Davenport racked up a whopping nine titles (three in singles and six in doubles) in the Bank of the West Classic at Stanford. All of her doubles crowns came with a different partner (Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, Mary Joe Fernandez, Martina Hingis, Natalia Zvereva, Corina Morariu and Liezel Huber), and four came consecutively (1996-99).
   Davenport also played for the now-defunct Sacramento Capitals in World TeamTennis in separate stints as an unknown 17-year-old, a budding star on the WTA tour and a 31-year-old mother. She was named the WTT Female Rookie of the Year at 17 in 1993 and helped the Capitals win three of their record six league titles (1997, 1998 and 2007).
   Top-ranked Bob and Mike Bryan, 36-year-old former Stanford stars, defeated Carlos Berlocq and Leonardo Mayer of Argentina 5-7, 6-3, 6-1 in the second round. The Bryans seek their seventh Australian Open men's doubles title.
   Lindstedt played at Fresno State before transferring to Pepperdine.
   Fast fact -- Giorgi committed 16 double faults in her loss to Venus Williams.
   Quote -- ESPN2 commentator and International Tennis Hall of Famer Pam Shriver on Keys: "She has a chance to win the Australian Open based on the way she played tonight."

Schnack, top two seeds upset in Redding

   Three seeds, including Yasmin Schnack of Elk Grove, were upset on a wild day at the $25,000 Oak River Rehab Challenger in Redding.
   Schnack, seeded eighth, lost to unseeded Yuliana Lizarazo, 18, of Colombia 6-7 (3), 6-1, 6-1 in Friday's quarterfinals at Sun Oaks Tennis and Fitness. Afterward, Schnack said she landed awkwardly on a serve in the second set and strained a hamstring.
   Every quarterfinal went three sets. Top-seeded Camila Giorgi of Italy suffered a particularly agonizing loss to fifth-seeded Olga Puchkova of Russia. Not only was the score 6-2, 6-7 (3), 7-6 (5), the match ended on a net-cord winner.
   "I was feeling pretty bad for her," Puchkova, who played two matches for the Sacramento Capitals of World TeamTennis in 2008, told the Redding Record-Searchlight. "It was a tough match, and for it to end that way, it was unfair to her. She is a real good player, and it was a tight third set. But that's tennis."
   Puchkova, who reached No. 32 in the world in 2007, and Lizarazo will meet in one semifinal. Third-seeded Julia Boserup will face wild card and fellow Boca Raton, Fla., resident Allie Will in the other.
   Will, a junior on Florida's reigning NCAA championship team, edged second-seeded Kurumi Nara of Japan 0-6, 7-6 (5), 7-5. Will, who has lost the first set in each of her three matches, eliminated seventh seed and former Capital Tammy Hendler in the first round.
   Boserup outlasted sixth-seeded Lauren Davis, 17, of Boca Raton 3-6, 6-4, 6-4. Davis, only 5-foot-2, won the girls 18 singles title in the USTA National Championships last month in San Diego.
   Schnack lost in the quarterfinals for the third straight time in Redding, the first two times as a qualifier. But the 23-year-old former UCLA All-American will play for her second consecutive doubles title in the tournament.
   The top-seeded team of Schnack and her former USC rival, Maria Sanchez of Modesto, advanced to the final with a 6-3, 6-3 victory over unseeded Boserup and Malou Ejdesgaard of Denmark. Schnack and Sanchez will play second-seeded Brittany Augustine of El Segundo and Whitney Jones of St. Louis on Sunday.
   G'day, mate -- Newly crowned U.S. Open champion Samantha Stosur of Australia played one year in the Redding Challenger, losing in the first round of singles and reaching the doubles semifinals in 2003.  
    
    
  
  
    

Blake, Gonzalez set to play in Natomas Challenger

   Although they come from different countries, James Blake and Fernando Gonzalez have much in common.
   Both are 31. Both have reached the top five in the world. Both are battling back from injuries. And both are scheduled to play in the $100,000 Natomas/USTA Challenger, Oct. 1-9 at the Natomas Racquet Club in Sacramento.
   Gonzalez, who received a wild card last week, climbed to a career-high No. 5 in the world in January 2007 after finishing as the runner-up to Roger Federer in the Australian Open. The Chilean won the singles silver medal in the 2008 Beijing Olympics and finished in the top 15 for the fifth consecutive year in 2009. However, he underwent right hip surgery last October and has plunged to No. 297.
   Blake, a three-time Grand Slam singles quarterfinalist, ascended to a career-high No. 4 in 2006 and played a key role on the United States' 2007 Davis Cup championship team. But the Yonkers, N.Y., native, now living in Tampa, Fla., missed 10 weeks in the spring of 2010 with a knee injury and fell to No. 173 last March. He has since climbed back to No. 73.
   Other entrants in the Natomas Challenger include former top-15 player Ivo Karlovic of Croatia, 2005 U.S. Open semifinalist Robby Ginepri of Kennesaw, Ga., and 2007 Sacramento Challenger champion Wayne Odesnik of Weston, Fla.
   Blake, Karlovic (32) and Ginepri (28) are no strangers to Northern California. All have done well in the SAP Open in San Jose.
   Blake reached the singles semifinals in 2003 and 2009 and won the doubles title in 2004 with Mardy Fish. The 6-foot-10 Karlovic came within a tiebreaker of winning the 2007 SAP Open, losing to Andy Murray.  Ginepri advanced to the semis in singles in 2008 and doubles in 2005 with Jan-Michael Gambill.
   Odesnik, 25, returned to action in January after serving a one-year suspension for possession of HGH.
   Also receiving a wild card last week was 18-year-old Jack Sock, who won the U.S. Open mixed doubles title with fellow American Melanie Oudin last week.
   Redding Women's Challenger -- Yasmin Schnack of Elk Grove, a Sacramento suburb, reached the Redding singles quarterfinals for the third time in four appearances.
   The eighth seed and former UCLA All-American defeated doubles partner and ex-USC rival Maria Sanchez of Modesto 7-6 (2), 6-2 in the second round of the $25,000 Oak River Rehab Challenger at Sun Oaks Tennis and Fitness.
   Schnack, 5-10, has a good chance to reach the Redding singles semifinals for the first time when she meets unseeded Yuliana Lizarazo of Colombia today. Schnack then could face top-seeded Camila Giorgi of Italy.
   In the bottom half of the draw, second-seeded Kurumi Nara of Japan will play wild card Allie Will of Boca Raton, Fla., and third-seeded Julia Boserup of Newport Beach will take on sixth-seeded Lauren Davis of Boca Raton. The 5-foot-2 Davis, nine inches shorter than Boserup, has lost only two games in two matches.
   Schnack and Sanchez, the top seeds in doubles, beat Surina de Beer of South Africa and Olga Puchkova of Russia 6-3, 6-2 in the quarterfinals. Schnack is the defending champion with Sacramento native Christina Fusano, who retired two weeks ago.
  
            

Rising star Davis bounces back from concussion

   REDDING — Tiny Lauren Davis is handling the big girls in professional tennis just fine.
   Television cameras are another matter.
   It's not that Davis is shy. Rather, in one of the strangest accidents in sports history, the 17-year-old rising star suffered a concussion while filming a commercial at the Family Circle Cup in Charleston, S.C., in April. The wind knocked over the camera, which fell on the 5-foot-2, 120-pound Davis' head. 
   "I blacked out for five or 10 seconds," the sixth-seeded Davis said after demolishing Katie Ruckert, 27, of Vienna, Va., 6-0, 6-0 in 62 minutes Wednesday in the first round of the $25,000 Oak River Rehab Challenger at Sun Oaks Tennis and Fitness. "I didn't think it was too severe, but the pain was excruciating the next day. I got really nervous then. I felt like my head was going to explode. I had headaches for two months straight, but it was never that severe again."
   In other first-round matches involving seeds Wednesday, No. 1 Camila Giorgi of Italy wore down qualifier Tori Kinard of Pasadena 7-6 (4), 6-0, but No. 4 Maria-Fernanda Alvarez-Teran of Bolivia lost to Yuliana Lizarazo of Colombia, and No. 7 Tamaryn Hendler of Belgium fell to wild card Allie Will of Boca Raton, Fla., 5-7, 6-4, 6-2.
   Hendler, who played for the Sacramento Capitals of World TeamTennis in 2008, began cramping midway through the second set. She later complained of fatigue after arriving Monday night from Japan, where she won a $25,000 tournament last week and reached the semifinals of another the previous week.
   Will, a 5-10 junior at Florida, played No. 1 singles and doubles on the team that won the NCAA title at Stanford in May.
   In the opening round of doubles, top-seeded Yasmin Schnack of Elk Grove and Maria Sanchez of Modesto beat Yawna Allen of Phoenix and Jessica Roland-Rosario of Puerto Rico 7-5, 6-2, and wild cards Alexandra and Kat Facey, 18-year-old twins from Cameron Park outside of Sacramento, lost to Julia Boserup of Newport Beach and Malou Ejdesgaard of Denmark 6-0, 6-4.   
   Davis admitted that she missed tennis while sitting out for two months.
   "I couldn't do much other than watch TV. I was bored out of my mind," said Davis, a Cleveland product who trains at the Evert Tennis Academy in Boca Raton.
   Davis returned to competition in her hometown, losing in the first round of a $10,000 tournament. She then won 13 consecutive matches, capturing titles in $10,000 events in Buffalo, N.Y., and Atlanta and reaching the semifinals of a $50,000 tournament in Lexington, Ky.
   Last month, Davis won the girls 18 singles title at the USTA National Championships in San Diego to earn a berth in the main draw of the U.S. Open. She lost to eventual semifinalist Angelique Kerber of Germany 7-6 (3), 6-3 in the first round.
   "Taking time off made me want to come back and do well more than before," Davis said.
   Davis ended the 2010 season on a 27-match winning streak. She beat 6-1 Coco Vandeweghe, another former Capital, in a wild-card playoff in December to earn a spot in the Australian Open. Making her Grand Slam debut in Rod Laver Arena, Davis lost to fifth-seeded Samantha Stosur of Australia 6-1, 6-1 in January. Stosur won her first Grand Slam singles title Sunday in the U.S. Open.
   Davis, who began playing at the advanced age of 9 and turned pro two weeks before the Australian Open, has soared from No. 437 in the world at the end of 2010 to No. 320. She hopes to reach the top 10 eventually in a sport increasingly dominated by big, powerful, athletic players.
   "The thing hurting Lauren is her height, but she makes up for a lot of that territory by being an incredible athlete, very much like (5-8) Kim Clijsters,'' tennis legend and ESPN analyst Chris Evert told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel last month. "The way she moves, she's a great little competitor.''
   And a headache for opponents.

Schnack seeded in Redding, new rankings, etc.

  Eighth-seeded Yasmin Schnack of Elk Grove is scheduled to face lucky loser Yolande Leacock of Trinidad and Tobago today in the first round of the $25,000 Oak River Rehab Challenger at Sun Oaks Tennis & Fitness in Redding.
  In her professional debut last year, Schnack reached the Redding singles quarterfinals and won the doubles title with Sacramento native Christina Fusano.
   Schnack, who graduated from UCLA in 2010, is seeded first in doubles this year with former USC rival Maria Sanchez of Modesto. Fusano, 30, recently retired to become an assistant coach at UC Davis.
  Italy's Camila Giorgi, the No. 1 singles seed in Redding, is set to open against qualifier Tori Kinard of Pasadena on Wednesday.
   The 19-year-old Giorgi, ranked 154th in the world, won a $50,000 tournament in Carson in May and qualified for Wimbledon in June, losing in the first round to eventual quarterfinalist and 2010 semifinalist Tsvetana Pironkova of Bulgaria.
   Schnack, 23, is one of three current or former Sacramento Capitals in the Redding singles draw. She completed her first season with the World TeamTennis franchise in July. In 2008, Tammy Hendler of Belgium played 14 matches for the Capitals at 15 years old and Olga Puchkova of Russia two.
   Mike Bryan fined -- Former Stanford All-American Mike Bryan received the maximum on-site fine of $10,000 for an off-court unsportsmanlike conduct violation after he and brother Bob, the top-ranked men's doubles team in the world, lost in the first round of the U.S. Open.
   The nature of the infraction was not revealed because Bryan can appeal the fine.
   The 33-year-old twins, who have a squeaky clean image, had not lost in the first round of a Grand Slam tournament in 10 years.  
   Men's Futures -- Seventh-seeded Kiryl Harbatsiuk, a Belarus native who graduated from Sacramento State in May, is scheduled to play Darian King of Barbados today in the first round of the $10,000 Pomona Valley Hospital USTA Pro Circuit Event in Claremont.
   Also today, second-seeded Harbatsiuk and Boris Nicola Bakalov of Bulgaria will face Jeremy Hunter Nicholas of the United States and Javier Pulgar-Garcia of Spain in the opening round of doubles.
   New rankings -- Following are this week's world rankings of players with Northern California ties (change from last week in parentheses):  

Men

   Bob Bryan, 1998 NCAA doubles champion from Stanford -- No. 1 in doubles (no change), no singles ranking.
   Mike Bryan, 1998 NCAA doubles champion from Stanford -- No. 1 in doubles (no change), no singles ranking.
   Scott Lipsky, 2002 NCAA doubles runner-up from Stanford -- Career-high-tying No. 26 in doubles (+2), no singles ranking.
   Mark Knowles, Sacramento Capitals of World TeamTennis (2001-07, 2009-11) -- No. 39 in doubles (+1), no singles ranking.
   Dmitry Tursunov, Folsom resident -- No. 41 in singles (+2), No. 92 in doubles (+4).
   David Martin, 2002 NCAA doubles runner-up from Stanford -- No. 99 in doubles (+6), No. 705 in singles (-4).
   John Paul Fruttero, Cal All-American in 2001 and 2002 -- Career-high No. 146 in doubles (+6), 1,235 in singles (-1).
   Conor Niland, 2006 Pacific-10 Conference Player of the Year and two-time All-American at Cal -- No. 207 in singles (-10), no doubles ranking. 
   Jimmy Wang, Folsom resident -- No. 389 in singles (+1), No. 678 in doubles (+4).
   Dusan Vemic, Capitals (2010-11) -- No. 508 in doubles (-5), No. 1,515 in singles (-7).
   Kiryl Harbatsiuk, three-time Big Sky Conference MVP (2009-11) at Sacramento State -- No. 765 in singles (+2), No. 1,224 in doubles (+1).

Women

   Vania King, Capitals (2010-11) -- No. 9 in doubles (-2), No. 94 in singles (+9).
   Raquel Kops-Jones, 2003 NCAA doubles champion from Cal -- No. 50 in doubles (+3), no singles ranking.
   Yasmin Schnack, Elk Grove resident, Sacramento Capitals of World TeamTennis (2011) -- No. 223 in doubles (-3), No. 379 in singles (+1).