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. 

Teen Swiatek swamps Halep to head upset parade

Top-seeded Simona Halep lost to Iga Swiatek, 19, of Poland
6-1, 6-2 in 68 minutes today in the fourth round of the French
Open. File photo by Paul Bauman

    Befitting an unusual tournament, two 19-year-olds and two qualifiers reached the French Open women's or men's quarterfinals today.

   Iga Swiatek, 19, of Poland produced the most shocking upset, dismissing top-seeded Simona Halep 6-1, 6-2 in 68 minutes in Paris. The tournament was postponed from May 24-June 7 because of the coronavirus pandemic, and only 1,000 spectators are allowed per day.

   Swiatek, who ended Halep's winning streak at 17 matches, lost to the 2018 champion 6-1, 6-0 in 45 minutes at the same stage of last year's French Open.

   "I wasn't experienced at all last year," Swiatek, the 2018 Wimbledon girls singles champion, told reporters. "It was my first match in a big stadium. Since then, I've played some big matches. Right now, I feel like I can handle the pressure.

   "I remembered that last year she beat me but lost against (17-year-old) Amanda Anisimova in the next round. I thought we could do the same thing this year but just change the names around."

   Swiatek, ranked No. 54, is scheduled to play Martina Trevisan, an Italian qualifier ranked No. 159, on Tuesday. Trevisan, a 5-foot-3 (1.60-meter) left-hander, stunned fifth-seeded Kiki Bertens, a French Open semifinalist four years ago, 6-4, 6-4. 

   Swiatek and Trevisan, 26, have split two career matches. Swiatek won in straight sets on grass in Birmingham, England, last year, and Trevisan triumphed in three sets on clay in a minor-league tournament in Swiatek's hometown of Warsaw in 2017.

   In the other women's quarterfinal in the top half of the draw, third-seeded Elina Svitolina of Ukraine is set to meet qualifier Nadia Podoroska, the top-ranked Argentine at No. 131, for the first time.

   Svitolina, a two-time French Open quarterfinalist seeking her first Grand Slam final, dispatched France's Caroline Garcia, who has plunged from a career-high No. 4 in 2018 to No. 45, 6-1, 6-3 in 63 minutes. Podoroska, 23, topped unseeded Barbora Krejcikova, a Czech formerly ranked No. 1 in doubles, 2-6, 6-2, 6-3.

   Swiatek and Podoroska became the 10th and 11th female qualifiers to reach the quarterfinals at Roland Garros and the first since Yaroslava Shvedova in 2012.

   On the men's side, 19-year-old Jannik Sinner of Italy eliminated sixth-seeded Alexander Zverev, the runner-up to Dominic Thiem in the U.S. Open last month, 6-3, 6-3, 4-6, 6-3. Zverev said afterward that he had a fever and difficulty breathing and "shouldn't have played."

   Sinner, who advanced to the second round of last year's Aptos (Calif.) Challenger one week after winning the Lexington (Ky.) Challenger, is set to face second-seeded Rafael Nadal for the first time.

   Nadal, pursuing his fourth consecutive French Open title and 13th overall, overwhelmed Sebastian Korda, a 20-year-old qualifier from Bradenton, Fla., 6-1, 6-1, 6-2 in 1 hour, 55 minutes.   

   The third-seeded Thiem outlasted 20-year-old wild card Hugo Gaston, a 5-foot-8 (1.73-meter) left-hander from France, 6-4, 6-4, 5-7, 3-6, 6-3 in 3 hours, 32 minutes on Court Philippe Chatrier.

   "I think it was an amazing match by both of us," Thiem, seeking his third consecutive French Open final, said in an on-court interview. "I haven't seen for a very long time a player with such a big touch in his hands. His drop shots are just from another planet; I was sprinting like 400 times to the net. All the credit to him. If he continues like this, he's going to be a huge, huge player and make a lot of joy in this stadium in the future."

   Thiem is set to play 12th-seeded Diego Schwartzman, a 5-foot-7 (1.70-meter), 141-pound (64-kilogram) Argentine who outclassed Lorenzo Sonego of Italy 6-1, 6-3, 6-4.

   Thiem is 6-2 against Schwartzman, who beat Nadal for the first time in 10 meetings in the Italian Open quarterfinals two weeks ago. 

   In women's doubles, seventh-seeded Shuko Aoyama and Ena Shibahara of Japan topped 10th-seeded Hayley Carter of Hilton Head Island, S.C., and Luisa Stefani of Brazil 6-4, 7-5 to reach their first Grand Slam quarterfinal together.

   The 5-foot-1 (1.54-meter) Aoyama, a semifinalist in women's doubles with Chanelle Scheepers of South Africa at Wimbledon in 2013, and Shibahara, a 22-year-old native of Mountain View in the San Francisco Bay Area, are scheduled to play 14th-seeded Alexa Guarachi, a U.S. native who plays for Chile, and Desirae Krawczyk, a native of Palm Desert, Calif. 

   Guarachi and Krawczyk — who starred at Alabama and Arizona State, respectively — ousted top-seeded Hsieh Su-Wei of Chinese Taipei and Barbora Strycova of the Czech Republic, 6-4, 7-5.  

   In the first round of boys singles, ninth-seeded Arthur Fery, a Stanford freshman from Great Britain, beat French wild card Mehdi Sadaoui 6-4, 6-3.

Djokovic breaks record; Halep breaks through

Novak Djokovic won the Italian Open for his 36th Masters 1000 title, breaking
the record he had shared with Rafael Nadal. 2017 photo by Mal Taam

   The temper is still there, but so is the phenomenal game.

   In his first tournament since being defaulted from the U.S. Open, top-ranked Novak Djokovic defeated eighth-seeded Diego Schwartzman 7-5, 6-3 today for his fifth Italian Open title in Rome.

   Top-seeded Simona Halep won the women's title for the first time, beating second-seeded Karolina Pliskova 6-0, 2-1, retired (left thigh) in a matchup of 28-year-olds and former world No. 1s.

   Djokovic, who received warnings for smashing a racket in anger in the quarterfinals and uttering an obscenity in the semifinals, won his 36th Masters 1000 (the highest level besides the Grand Slams) crown to break a tie with Rafael Nadal for the record.

   The 33-year-old Djokovic, the only player to win all nine Masters 1000 tournaments at least twice and the oldest player to win the Italian Open, passed his idol, Pete Sampras, with 287 weeks at No. 1 for second behind Roger Federer's 310.  

   Djokovic lost only one set in his five matches in Rome but was extended to a tiebreaker in the third round and lost the first three games (two service breaks) against Schwartzman.

   "It was a great week, a very challenging week," Djokovic, who improved to 31-1 this year, said in an on-court interview. "I don't think I played my best tennis throughout the entire week, but I think I found my best tennis when I needed it the most, the decisive moments today, yesterday, practically every match. That makes me definitely very satisfied and proud."

   Djokovic now turns his attention to the French Open, which begins Sunday. A four-time finalist at Roland Garros, he won the 2016 title to complete a career Grand Slam.

   Schwartzman, only 5-foot-7 (1.70 meters) and 141 pounds (64 kilograms), rose two spots to No. 13, two short of his career high in June 2018. The 28-year-old Argentine beat Nadal, a nine-time Italian Open champion, for the first time in 10 matches in the quarterfinals and edged 12th-seeded Denis Shapovalov 6-4, 5-7, 7-6 (4) in 3 hours, 15 minutes in the semifinals.

   Halep recorded her 14th consecutive victory and 19th in her last 20 matches. The Rome runner-up in 2017 and 2018, she lost her opening match there last year to Marketa Vondrousova, who was 19 at the time.

   "I've finally won it," Halep, who will turn 29 on Sunday, gushed in an on-court interview. "I love this tournament, and I play well here almost every year – besides last year, of course.

   "I started my rise up the rankings at this tournament in 2013, so I've always dreamed of having this title. I'm really happy that it happened today."

   Halep has reached three French Open finals, winning the first of her two Grand Slam titles in 2018. Pliskova, the runner-up in the 2015 Bank of the West Classic at Stanford, said she hopes to be ready for Roland Garros.

   WTA Tour — Japan's Nao Hibino, who won the inaugural Stockton (Calif.) Challenger in 2015 at 20, beat eighth-seeded Sloane Stephens, a 27-year-old Fresno product, 6-2, 3-6, 6-1 in the first round of the Internationaux de Strasbourg. 

   Stephens, the runner-up to Halep in the 2018 French Open, has lost in the opening round of eight of her 10 tournaments this year.

Diego digs deep to reach first Masters 1000 final

   It would have been easy for Diego Schwartzman to suffer a letdown after shocking Rafael Nadal on Saturday.

   Instead, the 5-foot-7 (1.70-meter), 141-pound (64-kilogram) Argentine gutted out a 6-4, 5-7, 7-6 (4) victory over Denis Shapovalov of Canada today in the semifinals of the Italian Open in Rome.

   Shapovalov, seeded 12th, served for the match at 5-4 in the third set, which lasted 1 hour, 27 minutes. Schwartzman, seeded eighth, ultimately prevailed in 3 hours, 15 minutes to reach his first Masters 1000 (the highest level besides the Grand Slams) final. 

   Schwartzman, ranked 15th, is scheduled to face top-ranked Novak Djokovic on Monday not before 8 a.m. PDT (Tennis Channel). If the 28-year-old Schwartzman wins, he will crack the top 10 for the first time. If he loses, the 14th-ranked Shapovalov, 21, will do the same.

   "I have two dreams tomorrow," Schwartzman said on atptour.com. "One is winning a tournament like this, and the second one is (being in the) top 10. I need to play more than my 100 percent. I don't want to say (it will be) impossible, because it's not. I know I can beat him, but it's going to be very difficult."

   Djokovic, who won the last of his four Italian Open titles in 2015, beat unseeded Casper Ruud, a semifinalist in the $100,000 Fairfield (Calif.) Challenger in 2018 at 19, 7-5, 6-3 to improve to 30-1 this year. 

   Djokovic, 33, advanced to his 10th Italian Open final. He is 4-0 against Schwartzman, including a 6-3, 6-7 (2), 6-3 win in the Rome semifinals last year. 

   Top-seeded Simona Halep is set to play second seed and defending champion Karolina Pliskova in the women's final at 5:30 a.m. PDT in a showdown of 28-year-olds and former world No. 1s.

   Halep, the Rome runner-up in 2017 and 2018, outlasted ninth-seeded Garbine Muguruza 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 for her 13th consecutive victory and 18th in her last 19 matches. Both players have been ranked No. 1 and won two Grand Slam singles titles, coming at the French Open and Wimbledon.

   Pliskova, the runner-up in the 2015 Bank of the West Classic at Stanford, outplayed 12th-seeded Marketa Vondrousova, a finalist in last year's French Open at 19, 6-2, 6-4 in an all-Czech affair. Vondrousova, a left-hander, had left-wrist surgery last summer and sat out for the rest of the year. 

   The second-ranked Halep, who will turn 29 on Sunday, is 7-4 against Pliskova, ranked fourth, but Pliskova has won three of the last four encounters. They have split two clay-court matches, including Halep's 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 win in the semifinals of the 2017 French Open.   

   In today's men's doubles final, fourth-seeded Marcel Granollers of Spain and Horacio Zeballos of Argentina edged unseeded Frenchmen Jeremy Chardy and Fabrice Martin 6-4, 5-7 [10-8] for their third title of the coronavirus-shortened season.

   Granollers, the singles runner-up in the $100,000 Tiburon (Calif.) Challenger in 2018, won his second Italian Open title in his fourth Rome final. He took the 2012 crown with compatriot Marc Lopez.

   Top-seeded Hsieh Su-Wei of Chinese Taipei and Barbora Strycova of the Czech Republic claimed the women's doubles title, dominating unseeded Anna-Lena Friedsam of Germany and Raluca Olaru of Romania 6-2, 6-2. Hsieh and Strycova improved to 21-1 this year with four titles.

Another Italian teenager scores big upset in Rome

Third-seeded Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece lost to 19-year-old wild card Jannik
Sinner of Italy in three sets today in the second round of the Italian Open in Rome.
2019 photo by Mal Taam

   An Italian teenage man pulled off a major upset in the Italian Open for the second consecutive day today.

   One day after 18-year-old qualifier Lorenzo Musetti stunned 10th-seeded Stan Wawrinka, 19-year-old wild card Jannik Sinner ousted third-seeded Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece 6-1, 6-7 (9), 6-2 in the second round in Rome. 

   Sinner, ranked No. 81, led 6-1, 5-2, but the 22-year-old Tsitsipas, ranked sixth, won four straight games to serve for the second set and saved two match points in the tiebreaker.

   Sinner recorded his second victory over a top-10 player. He knocked off No. 10 David Goffin in the second round in Rotterdam in February.

   Sinner, who reached the second round of last year's Aptos, Calif., Challenger one week after winning the Lexington, Ky., title, is set to face 15th-seeded Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria on Friday for a quarterfinal berth.

   Dimitrov, a 2014 Rome semifinalist who climbed as high as No. 3 in 2017, demolished Yoshihito Nishioka of Japan 6-1, 6-0 in 55 minutes. Dimitrov won 24 of 25 points on his first serve.

   Another Italian wild card, 28-year-old Stefano Travaglia, surprised unseeded Borna Coric, a U.S. Open quarterfinalist last week, 7-6 (2), 7-5. Travaglia, ranked No. 84, is scheduled to take on countryman Matteo Berrettini, seeded fourth, on Friday.

   Top-ranked Novak Djokovic, playing his first match since getting defaulted from the U.S. Open on Sept. 6, outclassed Italian wild card Salvatore Caruso 6-3, 6-2.

   Djokovic, a four-time Italian Open champion, next will meet fellow Serb Filip Krajinovic, a 6-4, 6-1 winner over Italian qualifier Marco Cecchinato.

   Second-seeded Rafael Nadal, playing his first official match since winning Acapulco in February, overwhelmed Spanish countryman Pablo Carreno Busta, a U.S. Open semifinalist, 6-1, 6-1 in 73 minutes. 

   Nadal, seeking his third consecutive Rome title and 10th overall, will play the winner of Thursday's match between 13th-seeded Milos Raonic of Canada and Dusan Lajovic of Serbia.

   Both sixth seeds lost today. Marin Cilic, an Italian Open semifinalist in 2018 and a two-time Rome quarterfinalist, routed Goffin 6-2, 6-2. Qualifier Danka Kovinic of Montenegro dominated Belinda Bencic, playing her first match since February, 6-3, 6-1.

   Top-seeded Simona Halep, a two-time Italian Open runner-up, beat Italian wild card Jasmine Paolini 6-3, 6-4 for her 10th straight victory and 15th in her last 16 matches.

   In a matchup of former world No. 1s and Bank of the West Classic champions at Stanford, Victoria Azarenka eliminated 40-year-old Venus Williams 7-6 (7), 6-2.

   Azarenka has won 13 of her last 14 matches, losing to Naomi Osaka in the U.S. Open final, after going 0-3 since August 2019.

   Williams lost in the first round for the third consecutive tournament and fell to 1-7 this year. Her only victory is over Azarenka in the opening round in Lexington last month.

Halep to skip U.S. Open due to coronavirus concerns

Simona Halep, who won her 21st career singles title on
Sunday in Prague, tweeted that she prefers "to stay and
train in Europe." File photo by Paul Bauman

Second-ranked Simona Halep, a two-time Grand Slam singles champion, said Monday that she will skip the U.S. Open because of coronavirus concerns.

Halep, formerly ranked No. 1, won her 21st career singles title on Sunday in Prague.

"After weighing up all the factors involved and with the exceptional circumstances in which we are living, I have decided that I will not travel to New York to play the @usopen," tweeted Halep, a 28-year-old Romanian. "I always said I would put my health at the heart of my decision and I therefore prefer to stay and train in Europe."

Halep won the French Open in 2018 and Wimbledon last year. Her best result in the U.S. Open is a semifinal appearance in 2015. She has not advanced past the second round at Flushing Meadows since reaching the 2016 quarterfinals.

Six of the top eight women have withdrawn from the U.S. Open, Aug. 31 to Sept. 13. Also opting out were No. 1 Ashleigh Barty of Australia, No. 5 Elina Svitolina of Ukraine, No. 6 and reigning champion Bianca Andreescu of Canada, No. 7 Kiki Bertens of the Netherlands and No. 8 Belinda Bencic of Switzerland. The exceptions are No. 3 Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic and No. 4 Sofia Kenin of the United States.

Also planning to play are No. 9 Serena Williams, seeking her record-tying 24th Grand Slam singles title, and No. 10 Naomi Osaka, the 2018 champion. Both are former world No. 1s.

Men who have chosen not to compete in the U.S. Open include No. 2 Rafael Nadal, who won his fourth singles title at Flushing Meadows last year; No. 9 Gael Monfils, a 2016 semifinalist; No. 17 Stan Wawrinka, the 2016 champion; and No. 40 Nick Kyrgios. 

Top-ranked Novak Djokovic, a three-time U.S. Open champion, has said he will play. Five-time champ Roger Federer, who has had arthroscopic surgery on his right knee twice this year, is out for the rest of the season.

Kei Nishikori, the runner-up to Marin Cilic in the 2014 U.S. Open, tested positive for COVID-19 on Sunday and said he will pull out of the Western & Southern Open, which begins Saturday at Flushing Meadows. He did not discuss his plans for the U.S. Open.

"I am feeling well and have very little symptoms but will obviously be in complete isolation for the safety of everyone," Nishikori told The Associated Press.

A non-player who has been granted access to the USTA National Tennis Center, the site of the Western & Southern Open and U.S. Open, also has tested positive. The individual, who is asymptomatic, has been advised to self-isolate for at least 10 days. The USTA did not divulge the person's identity or role.

Wimbledon canceled for first time in 75 years

Roger Federer tweeted "Devastated" after Wimbledon, which he has won eight
times, was canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic. 2017 photo by Mal Taam

   Tennis suffered its biggest blow of the coronavirus pandemic when Wimbledon was canceled today.
   It's the first time the tournament has been canceled in 75 years and the first time Wimbledon will not be played during peacetime since it began in 1877. 
   "Devastated," tweeted eight-time Wimbledon champion Roger Federer, who on Monday posted a video of himself hitting trick shots against a backboard in the snow after having arthroscopic knee surgery on Feb. 19.
   Wimbledon had been scheduled for June 29 to July 12. Next year's tournament is set for July 28 to July 11. Organizers of the Tokyo Olympics also announced Monday that the games, scheduled for July 24 to Aug. 9, would be pushed back to the same time slot in 2021.

Simona Halep, shown at Indian Wells in 2015, will
have an extra year to defend her Wimbledon title.
Photo by Mal Taam

   "So sad to hear @Wimbledon won't take place this year," women's defending champion Simona Halep tweeted. "Last year's final will forever be one of the happiest days of my life! But we are going through something bigger than tennis and Wimbledon will be back! And it means I have even longer to look forward to defending my title."
   The ATP and WTA also jointly announced that all events have been canceled through July 13, wiping out the grass-court season. The International Tennis Federation made the same decision.
   All England Club officials declined to postpone the tournament because staff, supplies and services would be unavailable and the condition of the grass would be inadequate. The club also ruled out playing the tournament without spectators.
   The All England Club is insured against cancellation, sources told ESPN. Wimbledon had been canceled only because of World War I (1915-18) and World War II (1940-45).
   The U.S. Open remains scheduled for Aug. 31 to Sept. 13. However, ESPN tennis commentator Patrick McEnroe, interviewed on the network today, estimated the chances of that happening at less than 50 percent.
   McEnroe, a 53-year-old Stanford graduate and resident of Bronxville, N.Y., in the New York area, announced Tuesday that he had tested positive for the coronavirus but feels fine.
   Organizers of the French Open announced on March 17 the postponement of the tournament from May 24-June 7 to Sept. 20-Oct. 4. The unilateral move angered many players, including Vasek Pospisil of Canada.
   "This is madness," tweeted Pospisil, a member of the ATP Player Council. "Major announcement by Roland Garros changing the dates to one week after the U.S. Open. No communication with the players or the ATP .. we have ZERO say in this sport. It's time. #UniteThePlayers"

Kenin upsets No. 1 Barty to reach first Grand Slam final

Sofia Kenin chats with her father and coach, Alex, after winning in the quarter-
finals of the 2018 Berkeley (Calif.) Challenger. Kenin went on to capture the title.
Photo by Paul Bauman

   Only 18 months after winning the Berkeley (Calif.) title in her last Challenger, Sofia Kenin reached her first Grand Slam final.
   The 14th-seeded Kenin, a Moscow-born American, eliminated top-ranked Ashleigh Barty of Australia 7-6 (6), 7-5 tonight in the Australian Open in Melbourne.
   Kenin won the last four points of the tiebreaker, saving two set points, and the last three games of the second set, breaking serve twice and erasing two more set points, as the temperature topped 100 degrees (38 Celsius).
   Kenin won NorCal Challenger singles titles in three consecutive years – Sacramento in 2016 at age 17, Stockton and Berkeley.
   Kenin pocketed $9,199 for winning the Berkeley title. The Australian Open champion will collect $2,853,100, and the runner-up will take home $1,430,012. Regardless of the outcome, the 21-year-old Kenin will crack the top 10 for the first time in Monday's rankings.
   Barty was trying to become the first Aussie, male or female, to win the Australian Open since Chris O'Neil captured the women's title in 1978.
   Kenin, the youngest Australian Open finalist since 20-year-old Maria Sharapova in 2008, will play unseeded Garbine Muguruza. ESPN will televise Saturday's match live at 12:30 a.m. California time and taped at 2 p.m.
   Muguruza, 26, topped fourth-seeded Simona Halep 7-6 (8), 7-5 in a spectacular baseline battle. Muguruza survived four set points in the first set en route to her first Grand Slam final since she won Wimbledon in 2017. Both Muguruza and Halep have won two major singles titles – Wimbledon and the French Open.
   Kenin is 1-0 against Muguruza, winning 6-0, 2-6, 6-2 in the first round at Beijing last September. Even with a loss in the final, Kenin will rise six spots to No. 9.
   In the men's semifinals, second seed and defending champion Novak Djokovic will face third-seeded Roger Federer on Thursday at 12:30 a.m., and fifth-seeded Dominic Thiem will play seventh-seeded Alexander Zverev on Friday at 12:30 a.m. ESPN will televise both matches.

Resurgent Muguruza reaches Australian Open semis

Garbine Muguruza excelled in the Bank of the West
Classic at Stanford but has withdrawn from both edi-
tions of the Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic in San
Jose, Calif., with injuries. File photo by Paul Bauman

   In a matchup of players with Northern California connections, unseeded Garbine Muguruza beat 30th-seeded Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 7-5, 6-3 on Tuesday in the quarterfinals of the Australian Open in Melbourne.
   Muguruza, who has tumbled from No. 1 in 2017 to No. 32, reached her first Grand Slam semifinal since the 2018 French Open. She excelled in the Bank of the West Classic at Stanford but has yet to appear in its replacement, having withdrawn from both editions of the Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic in San Jose, Calif., with injuries.
   At Stanford, Muguruza advanced to the semis in 2017, the tournament's last year, and the quarterfinals in 2014 at age 20. Also in 2014, she won the doubles title with fellow Spaniard Carla Suarez Navarro.
   Pavlyuchenkova played for the Sacramento Capitals of World TeamTennis in 2006 at age 15. The team announced in 2014 that it was moving to Las Vegas after 28 years in Sacramento and folded one month later after the owner was charged with orchestrating a $150 million Ponzi scheme. He is serving a 20-year prison sentence.
   Muguruza is set to play fourth-seeded Simona Halep, who crushed 28th-seeded Anett Kontaveit of Estonia 6-1, 6-1 in 53 minutes, today not before 8:30 p.m. PST (ESPN2).
   Muguruza, 26, is 3-2 (3-0 on hardcourts) against Halep, 26. Both players have won two Grand Slam singles titles, taking the Wimbledon and French Open crowns.
   In the other women's semifinal, top-ranked Ashleigh Barty of Australia will meet 14th-seeded Sofia Kenin of Pembroke Pines, Fla., today at 7 p.m. (ESPN2). Barty leads the head-to-head series 4-1.
   On the men's side, seventh-seeded Alexander Zverev of Germany beat 15th-seeded Stan Wawrinka, the 2014 Australian Open champion, 1-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 to reach his first Grand Slam semifinal.
   The 6-foot-6 (1.98-meter) Zverev, 22, is scheduled to meet fifth-seeded Dominic Thiem on Friday at 12:30 a.m. on ESPN2. Thiem knocked off top-seeded Rafael Nadal, the 2009 Australian Open champion and a four-time runner-up in Melbourne, 7-6 (3), 7-6 (4), 4-6, 7-6 (6). Nadal was trying to tie Roger Federer's record of 20 Grand Slam singles titles.
   Thiem, 26, is 6-2 (2-1 on hardcourts) against Zverev. If Zverev wins the title, he has pledged to donate his prize money of $2,853,100 (U.S.) to the Australian Bushfire Relief Fund.
   In the first men's semifinal, second seed and defending champion Novak Djokovic will face the third-seeded Federer on Thursday at 12:30 a.m. (ESPN2). Djokovic has won the Australian Open seven times and Federer six.
   Djokovic leads the head-to-head series 26-23 with four victories in the last five meetings. He's six years younger than the 38-year-old Federer, who saved seven match points and suffered a groin injury in a five-set victory over Tennys Sandgren in the quarterfinals.

Townsend takes out Wimbledon champ Halep

   For the fourth consecutive match, Taylor Townsend won after dropping the first set.

   This one, however, was special.

   The 23-year-old qualifier from Atlanta knocked off fourth-seeded Simona Halep, the reigning Wimbledon champion, 2-6, 6-3, 7-6 (4) today in the second round of the U.S. Open in Flushing Meadows, N.Y.

   "It's been a really long journey," the 116th-ranked Townsend, a left-hander who played for the now-defunct Sacramento Capitals of World TeamTennis at 17 in 2013, told reporters. "You flood with emotions of the things you've been through – positive, negative ... 

   "It's just confirmation more for myself that I'm on the right path, doing the right things. You keep your head down and keep working, and you see what happens."

   Townsend, who had never won more than four games in a set in three career matches against Halep, is scheduled to play another Romanian, unseeded Sorana Cirstea, on Saturday. The 29-year-old Cirstea, ranked 106th after reaching a career-high No. 21 in 2013, defeated Aliona Bolsova of Spain 3-6, 6-4, 6-2.
   Wild card Kristie Ahn, a 27-year-old Stanford graduate, needed eight match points to defeat Russia's Anna Kalinskaya, a 20-year-old qualifier, 6-2, 6-3. Kalinskaya ousted 11th-seeded Sloane Stephens, the U.S. Open champion two years ago, on Tuesday.
   Ahn, who lives a 30-minute drive from Flushing Meadows in Englewood Cliffs, N.J., set up a rematch against unseeded Jelena Ostapenko, who won the 2017 French Open two days after turning 20 and last year became the first Latvian woman to reach the Wimbledon semifinals.
   Ahn shocked the top-seeded Ostapenko 2-6, 7-6 (5), 7-5 in the first round on clay at Bogota in April in their only other career meeting.
   Coco Gauff, a 15-year-old U.S. sensation, outlasted Timea Babos, ranked No. 112 in singles and No. 3 (formerly No. 1) in doubles, 6-2, 4-6, 6-4 to become the youngest player to reach the third round of the U.S. Open since Anna Kournikova, also 15, in 1996.
   Gauff will meet top seed and defending champion Naomi Osaka, who eliminated Magda Linette of Poland 6-2, 6-4 in a blockbuster match on Saturday.
    Jenson Brooksby, an 18-year-old qualifier from Carmichael in the Sacramento area, lost to 17th-seeded Nikoloz Basilashvili of Georgia 3-6, 7-6 (3), 7-5, 6-2 in 3 hours, 4 minutes.
   Brooksby, who will jump from No. 394 to No. 271 after the U.S. Open, led 4-0 in the second set and served for it at 5-4. He plans to enroll at Baylor in January but could turn pro instead.
   Basilashvili trained with Dmitry Tursunov, now the coach of 13th-ranked Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus, at the Gorin Tennis Academy in the Sacramento suburb of Granite Bay.
   Tim Smyczek, 31, ended his career with a first-round doubles loss. In a matchup of U.S. wild-card teams, Martin Damm, 15, and Toby Kodat, 16, defeated Mitchell Krueger and Smyczek 7-6 (6), 7-5.
   In other opening-round men's doubles matches:
   –Luke Bambridge of Great Britain and Ben McLachlan (Cal, 2011-14) edged Americans Thai-Son Kwaitkowski and Noah Rubin 4-6, 6-1, 7-6 (4).
   –No. 10 seeds Rajeev Ram of Carmel, Ind., and Joe Salisbury of Great Britain beat unseeded Ryan Harrison and Sam Querrey, a 31-year-old San Francisco native, 6-4, 6-2.
   In the first round of mixed doubles, Raquel Atawo (Cal, 2001-04) of San Jose and Fabrice Martin of France nipped seventh-seeded Anna-Lena Groenefeld of Germany and Oliver Marach of Austria 2-6, 6-4 [10-8].
   Here are the U.S. Open men's singles, women's singles, men's doubles, women's doubles and mixed doubles draws and Friday's schedule.

Halep routs Serena for first Wimbledon crown

Simona Halep poses with the trophy in front of the
Romanian flag after winning the 2015 BNP Paribas
Open in Indian Wells. Photo by Paul Bauman

   At one time, Simona Halep couldn't win a Grand Slam final, and Serena Williams couldn't lose one.
   Lately, the roles have been reversed.
   Playing the match of her life, Halep routed a nervous Williams 6-2, 6-2 in 56 minutes today for her second major singles title and first at Wimbledon.
   "It's something very special," Halep, a 27-year-old Romanian, told the BBC after her maiden Wimbledon final. "I will never forget this day because when I was about 10, my mom said if I want to do something in tennis, I have to play the final of Wimbledon. The day came, so thanks, Mom."
   Halep, playing great defense, committed only three unforced errors to Williams' 26 and won 83 percent of the points on her first serve (29 of 35) to Williams' 59 percent (19 of 32).
   Williams, perhaps trying to atone for her atrocious behavior in a loss to 20-year-old Naomi Osaka in the U.S. Open final last September, was calm during today's debacle and gracious afterward.
   "She (really) played out of her mind – congratulations, Simona," said Williams, a seven-time Wimbledon singles champion who had been 9-1 against Halep. "It was a little bit of deer in the headlights for me. Whenever a player plays that amazing, you have to take your hat off and give them a nod (of) the head, so congrats on all the hard work."
   Williams, a 37-year-old part-time Silicon Valley resident, was trying to tie Margaret Court's record of 24 Grand Slam singles titles. Williams, who won eight consecutive major finals in which she played from 2012 to 2015, is 0-3 in them since capturing the Australian Open in January 2017. She had her first child that September and suffered life-threatening complications. Since then, injuries have slowed Williams.
   "You can't deny the pressure she was under in this tournament," said ESPN commentator Chris Evert, who won Wimbledon in 1974, 1976 and 1981.
   Williams also was upset in straight sets by a defense-minded European in last year's Wimbledon final, falling 6-3, 6-3 to Angelique Kerber, a 5-foot-8 (1.73-meter) left-hander.
   "I really think last year when Kerber beat Serena, it gave baseliners new hope," Evert said.
   Also, Tennis Channel commentator Lindsay Davenport, the 1999 Wimbledon champion, said Friday that the grass at Wimbledon was playing slower this year, helping the 5-foot-6 (1.68-meter) Halep.
   Halep lost her first three Grand Slam finals before breaking through in last year's French Open. Her coach at the time, Darren Cahill, threatened to quit unless she improved her attitude.
   Today, Halep was focused and confident, showing no sign of nerves.
   "Well, I had nerves," she noted. "My stomach was not very well before the match, but I knew there is no time for emotions. I just came on court and gave my best."
   Halep, seeded seventh, raced to a 4-0 lead after 13 minutes and won 16 of the first 22 points. Williams, seeded 11th, then began to find her game, but Halep closed out the set.
   Halep broke for 3-2 in the second set on a Williams error and for 5-2 on a backhand passing shot down the line that a lethargic Williams didn't chase. On Halep's first match point, Williams fittingly drilled a forehand into the net.
   This was Halep's ninth appearance at Wimbledon. She reached the semifinals in 2014 and the quarterfinals in 2016 and 2017 and lost in the third round last year to crafty Su-Wei Hsieh of Taiwan.
   "(Halep) has played on grass enough to have instincts," Evert said. "The serve, the movement – everything clicked today."

Serena, Halep cruise into Wimbledon final

   Barbora Strycova and Elina Svitolina played in their first Grand Slam semifinals today.

   It did not go well.

   Eleventh-seeded Serena Williams, a seven-time Wimbledon champion, dismantled the unseeded Strycova, a 33-year-old Czech, 6-1, 6-2 in 59 minutes.

   Seventh-seeded Simona Halep dismissed the eighth-seeded Svitolina, a 24-year-old Ukrainian, 6-1, 6-3 in 73 minutes to reach her first Wimbledon final.

   Williams, a 37-year-old part-time Silicon Valley resident, will try to tie Margaret Court's record of 24 Grand Slam singles titles when she faces Halep, a 27-year-old Romanian seeking her second major crown, on Saturday at 6 a.m. PDT (ESPN). 

   Williams leads the head-to-head series 9-1. She won the last meeting 6-1, 4-6, 6-4 in the round of 16 at the Australian Open in January. 

   Williams and Halep will face each other for the second time on grass. In their first career encounter, Williams triumphed 3-6, 6-2, 6-1 in the second round at Wimbledon in 2011. 

   Tennis Channel commentator Lindsay Davenport said the surface at the All England Lawn Tennis Club is playing slower this year, helping the 5-foot-6 (1.68-meter) Halep. 

Serena tops Riske in Wimbledon quarterfinals

Serena Williams, playing in Indian Wells in March, appears headed for a record-
tying 24th Grand Slam singles title. Photo by Harjanto Sumali

   It will take a big upset to prevent Serena Williams from winning a milestone Grand Slam title.
   Of course, it has happened before.
   The 11th-seeded Williams, a part-time Silicon Valley resident, outplayed unseeded Alison Riske of Nashville, Tenn., 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 today in the Wimbledon quarterfinals.
   Williams, who's trying to tie Margaret Court's record of 24 Grand Slam singles title, is 16-2 combined against the other semifinalists. She has never lost a set in three career matches (all in majors) against her next opponent, Barbora Strycova, is 9-1 against Simona Halep and is 4-1 against Elina Svitolina.
   The unseeded Strycova beat 19th-seeded Johanna Konta 7-6 (5), 6-1, and the seventh-seeded Halep downed unseeded Zhang Shuai 7-6 (4), 6-1. Svitolina, seeded eighth, stopped unseeded Karolina Muchova 7-5, 6-4.
   Strycova, a 33-year-old Czech, and Svitolina, a 24-year-old Ukrainian, reached their first Grand Slam semifinals.
   Svitolina is 4-3 against Halep, 27. They have never met on grass.
   Williams won three singles titles (2011, 2012 and 2014) and Konta one (2016) in the Bank of the West Classic at Stanford.
   Svitolina, a semifinalist in her only Bank of the West appearance in 2015, is scheduled to play in the second annual Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic, July 29-Aug. 4 at San Jose State.
   Williams was two victories from pulling off the first calendar-year Grand Slam since Steffi Graf's in 1988 when she lost to unseeded Roberta Vinci in the 2015 U.S. Open semifinals.
   In today's match, Williams had 19 aces and two double faults to Riske's one and six, respectively.
   With Riske serving at 3-4, 30-30 in the third set, she played two terrible points in a row. Riske hit down the line instead of into the open court, allowing Williams to put away a forehand volley, and double-faulted. Williams closed out the match with -- what else? -- an ace down the middle.
   In the men's doubles quarterfinals, 11th-seeded Nicolas Mahut and Edouard Roger-Vasselin of France ousted top seeds and 2017 champions Lukasz Kubot of Poland and Marcelo Melo of Brazil 7-6 (3), 6-7 (5), 6-3, 6-3.
   Mahut and Roger-Vasselin were coming off a four-set victory over seventh seeds and three-time champions Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan, 41-year-old ex-Stanford stars.
   In the second round of mixed doubles, Andy Murray and Williams beat 14th-seeded Fabrice Martin of France and Raquel Atawo (Cal, 2001-04) of San Jose 7-5, 6-3.
   Murray won the first of his 45 tour-level singles titles at 18 in the 2006 SAP Open in San Jose and repreated the following year.

Anisimova, 17, stuns Halep to reach French Open semis

Amanda Anisimova, shown en route to the title in the $60,000 Sacramento
Challenger at 15 in 2017, shocked defending champion Simona Halep 6-2,
6-4 today to reach her first Grand Slam semifinal. Photo by Rob Vomund

   It might be Saturday, later this year or beyond.
   But Amanda Anisimova appears destined to win a Grand Slam singles title, probably sooner rather than later.
   Only 17, the unseeded Anisimova toppled third seed and defending champion Simona Halep 6-2, 6-4 today in the French Open in Paris to reach her first major semifinal.
   Anisimova, who hasn't lost a set in the tournament, became the youngest French Open semifinalist since 17-year-old Nicole Vaidisova in 2006 and the youngest American in the semis at Roland Garros since 14-year-old Jennifer Capriati in 1990.
   "I just played the best tennis of my life," Anisimova, who was born in New Jersey to Russian parents and moved to Florida when she was 3, said after facing Halep for the first time. "I don't know how; it just happened."
   The 5-foot-11 (1.80-meter) Anisimova, with nothing to lose, was more relaxed than Halep.
   "She was pretty calm," said Halep, who admitted she felt pressure defending her title. "She showed that she's able to do good things and big things."
   Anisimova won her first professional title at 15 in the 2017 Sacramento Challenger and her maiden WTA crown on clay in Bogota in April. She plans to play in the Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic, July 29-Aug. 4 at San Jose State, for the second consecutive year.
   Anisimova qualified for last year's inaugural Silicon Valley Classic and extended eventual champion Mihaela Buzarnescu, a Romanian like Halep, to three sets in the second round before falling.
   Anisimova or Marketa Vondrousova, a Czech left-hander who will turn 20 on June 28, could become the first teenager to win the French Open since Iva Majoli of Croatia in 1997.
   None of the four women's semifinalists have reached a Grand Slam singles final, although Ashleigh Barty of Australia won last year's U.S. Open doubles title with CoCo Vandeweghe after losing in the doubles final once in all four majors.
   Both Vaidisova (2004-06) and Vandeweghe (2009, 2012) played for the now-defunct Sacramento Capitals of World TeamTennis.
   On Friday at 2 a.m. PDT (Tennis Channel), Anisimova is scheduled to face the eighth-seeded Barty for the first time, and 26th-seeded Johanna Konta of Great Britain will meet Vondrousova. However, the Paris weather forecast calls for rain in the morning and perhaps afternoon, then wind.
   Barty, only 5-foot-5 (1.66 meters), eliminated 14th-seeded Madison Keys 6-3, 7-5.
   Konta won the Bank of the West Classic at Stanford in 2016, and Keys won the final edition of the tournament in 2017.
   Konta is 1-1 against Vondrousova. Their last meeting occurred only three weeks ago, with Konta winning 6-3, 3-6, 6-1 in the Italian Open quarterfinals.
   The men's semifinals are scheduled to begin Friday at 3:50 a.m. (Tennis Channel). Second-seeded Rafael Nadal and third-seeded Roger Federer will renew their storied rivalry, followed by top-seeded Novak Djokovic against fourth-seeded Dominic Thiem.
   Nadal leads Federer 23-15 overall and 13-2 on clay. Djokovic is 6-2 (3-2 on clay) against Thiem. However, Thiem won 7-6 (5), 6-3, 6-0 in the French Open quarterfinals during Djokovic's 2017 slump.

Serena tops Halep for QF berth in Aussie Open

   Serena Williams took a big step in her quest for a record-tying 24th Grand Slam singles title.
   In a matchup of former and current No. 1 players, the 16th-seeded Williams outlasted top-seeded Simona Halep 6-1, 4-6, 6-4 early Monday (California time) for a berth in the Australian Open quarterfinals.
   Williams, who has a residence in Silicon Valley, improved to 9-2 against Halep, including a Williams retirement. They met for the first time since Williams' 6-2, 4-6, 6-3 victory in the quarterfinals of the 2016 U.S. Open.
   Williams will play seventh-seeded Karolina Pliskova, who dismissed 18th-seeded Garbine Muguruza 6-3, 6-1 in 60 minutes in Melbourne.
   In the other quarterfinal in the top half of the draw, fourth-seeded Naomi Osaka will meet sixth-seeded Elina Svitolina.
   Osaka, who won last year's U.S. Open at 20, advanced despite losing the first set for the second consecutive match. She topped 13th-seeded Anastasia Sevastova of Latvia 4-6, 6-3, 6-4.
   Osaka's first big win came in the 2014 Bank of the West Classic at Stanford. As a 16-year-old qualifier playing her first main-draw match on the WTA tour, Osaka ousted 2011 U.S. Open champion Samantha Stosur 4-6, 7-6 (7), 7-5 in the opening round. Osaka saved a match point in the tiebreaker and overcame a 3-5 deficit in the third set. She then fell to No. 8 seed Andrea Petkovic.
   Svitolina, a semifinalist in the 2015 Bank of the West Classic, beat 17th-seeded Madison Keys, the 2017 Bank of the West champion, 6-2, 1-6, 6-1.
   Williams seeks her first Grand Slam title since the 2017 Australian Open. She has reached two major finals since delivering her first child on Sept. 1, 2017.
   Halep lost to Caroline Wozniacki in last year's Australian Open final after leading by a service break at 4-3 in the third set. Halep, however, defeated Sloane Stephens, who grew up in Fresno, after trailing by a set and a break to win the French Open five months later. Halep had been 0-3 in major finals.
   Williams had not lost more than two games in a set in three Australian Open matches this year. Halep, meanwhile, also was extended to three sets in the first two rounds.
   Halep trailed 4-2 in the third set against 20-year-old American Sofia Kenin, who won the inaugural $60,000 Berkeley Tennis Club Challenge last July, in the second round.
   On the men's side today, 16th-seeded Milos Raonic beat fourth-seeded Alexander Zverev 6-1, 6-1, 7-6 (5) to reach the quarterfinals. Raonic never lost a set in the SAP Open in San Jose, winning the last three titles (2011-13) before the tournament was discontinued.
   Top-ranked Novak Djokovic, seeking his seventh Australian Open singles crown, beat 15th-seeded Daniil Medvedev of Russia 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-2, 6-3.
   Djokovic will meet eighth-seeded Kei Nishikori, who outlasted 23rd-seeded Pablo Carreno Busta 6-7 (8), 4-6, 7-6 (4), 6-4, 7-6 (8) in 5 hours, 5 minutes. Carreno Busta led 8-5 in the decisive tiebreaker, when a decision by the chair umpire went against him.
   After the match, an irate Carreno Busta threw his racket bag, yelled at the umpire, stormed off the court and continued screaming in the tunnel. He apologized later.
   In a late doubles match between unseeded American teams, Ryan Harrison and San Francisco native Sam Querrey defeated Jack Sock and Jackson Withrow 4-6, 6-3, 7-5.

Berkeley champ Kenin blows late lead, loses to Halep

Sofia Kenin, playing in the $60,000 Berkeley Tennis
Club Challenge last July, lost to top-ranked Simona
Halep today in the Australian Open after leading 4-2
in the third set. Photo by Paul Bauman

   Top-ranked Simona Halep rallied to defeat Sofia Kenin, a 20-year-old American, 6-3, 6-7 (5), 6-4 today in the second round of the Australian Open.
   Kenin, who won the inaugural $60,000 Berkeley Tennis Club Challenge last July, overcame a 6-3, 3-0 deficit to lead 4-2 in the third set of a grueling baseline battle that lasted 2 hours, 31 minutes at Rod Laver Arena.
   Halep will play Venus Williams, a 6-3, 4-6, 6-0 winner over Alize Cornet of France, in a matchup of Australian Open runners-up.
   No. 16 seed Serena Williams, who has a residence in Silicon Valley, dominated Eugenie Bouchard of Canada 6-2, 6-2. Williams will play Dayana Yastremska, an 18-year-old Ukrainian who beat No. 23 seed Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain 6-3, 3-6, 6-1.
   Williams, 37, seeks her eighth Australian Open title and record-tying 24th Grand Slam crown in singles. She improved to 3-0 against Bouchard, 24, also winning 4-6, 6-2, 6-2 in the second round at Cincinnati in 2013 and 6-1, 6-1 in the round-robin phase of the 2014 WTA Finals in Singapore.
   Bouchard, the 2014 Wimbledon runner-up to Petra Kvitova, has slumped from a career-high No. 5 that year to No. 79. She won her first career WTA doubles title two weeks ago in Auckland with Kenin.
   Bouchard sued the USTA after slipping on the wet floor of a dimly lit trainers room during the 2015 U.S. Open and suffering a head injury. The parties reached an undisclosed settlement last February.
   Meanwhile, Alexei Popyrin, a 19-year-old wild card from Australia, ousted seventh-seeded Dominic Thiem of Austria 7-5, 6-4, 2-0, retired (fatigue). Popyrin squandered six match points in a 4-6, 7-6 (2), 7-6 (6) loss to countryman James Duckworth in the second round of the $100,000 Tiburon (Calif.) Challenger last September.
   Aussie wild card Alex Bolt, the runner-up in the $100,000 Fairfield (Calif.) Challenger last October, took out No. 29 seed Gilles Simon of France, 2-6, 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (8), 6-4 in 4 hours, 4 minutes.
   In the first round of women's doubles, ninth-seeded Raquel Atawo, a 36-year-old former Cal star from Sacramento, and Katarina Srebotnik, 37, of Slovenia dominated Americans Amanda Anisimova, 17, and Danielle Collins 6-1, 6-3.
   On the men's side, eighth-seeded Ben McLachlan (Cal, 2011-14) of Japan and Jan-Lennard Struff of Germany lost in the first round after reaching the semifinals last year in their first tournament together. They fell to Radu Albot of Moldova and Malek Jaziri of Tunisia 6-2, 3-6, 7-6 (11-9).

Serena named Comeback Player of Year

SERENA WILLIAMS
Photo by Paul Bauman

   Serena Williams, a part-time Silicon Valley resident, was named the Comeback Player of the Year, the WTA announced today.
   Williams, 37, has skyrocketed from No. 491 in March to No. 17 after having her first child in September 2017 and suffering life-threatening complications. She reached two consecutive Grand Slam finals, losing to Angelique Kerber at Wimbledon and Naomi Osaka in the U.S. Open.
   Other award winners were Simona Halep (Player of the Year), Barbora Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova (Doubles Team of the Year), Kiki Bertens (Most Improved Player of the Year) and Aryna Sabalenka (Newcomer of the Year).
   Halep, a 27-year-old Romanian, won her first Grand Slam title in the French Open, spent 40 weeks at No. 1 in the world and finished the year there.
   Krejcikova and Siniakova, both 22-year-old Czechs, became the first team in 15 years to win the French Open and Wimbledon back to back.
   Bertens, 26, became the first Dutchwoman to crack the top 10 in 22 years. She beat Halep to win Cincinnati, one of her three titles this year.
   Sabalenka, 20, of Belarus is ranked No. 15 after beginning the year at No. 78. She is coached by Dmitry Tursunov, a Moscow native and former longtime Northern California resident.

Halep suffers historic loss; Stephens, Serena advance

Simona Halep, playing in 2015, became
the first top-seeded woman to lose her
opening match in the 50-year history of
the U.S. Open. Photo by Paul Bauman

   Defending champion Sloane Stephens and six-time winner Serena Williams, both of whom have strong Northern California ties, won't have to worry about facing Simona Halep before the U.S. Open final.
   Halep today became the first top-seeded woman to lose her opening match in the tournament's 50-year history. In the first match in rebuilt Louis Armstrong Stadium, she was overpowered by 44th-ranked Kaia Kanepi of Estonia 6-2, 6-4 in 76 minutes.
   The 5-foot-11 (1.81-meter) Kanepi, a quarterfinalist last year in Flushing Meadows, is five inches (12.7 centimeters) taller than Halep.
   Halep also lost in the first round of last year's U.S. Open, to 2006 champion Maria Sharapova, after reaching the quarterfinals in 2016 and semifinals in 2015.
   "I never play my best tennis here, even if I've done quarterfinals, semifinals," Halep moaned to reporters. "I feel like my game is not at its best, but always I fight for every match.
   "Maybe it's the noise in the crowd; the city is busy. It's everything together. I'm a quiet person, so maybe I like the smaller places."
   Like Paris? Halep won her first Grand Slam title in the French Open in June and tuned up for the U.S. Open by winning Montreal and holding championship point before losing to Kiki Bertens the following week in Cincinnati.
   "I was tired (today), but positive tired because I played so many matches in Montreal and Cincinnati," said Halep, who withdrew from last week's Connecticut Open with an Achilles injury. " ... Today was not my day; the balance was not there. I couldn't feel myself strong on the court to win this match. I was actually practicing OK yesterday and two days ago, but that's it. It's just a day, and it's a bad day for me. She deserved to win because she was playing better than me today." 
   Five other times, a woman has lost in the first round of a Grand Slam tournament since professionals were admitted in 1968. Also owning that dubious distinction are Martina Hingis (twice) and Steffi Graf at Wimbledon, Angelique Kerber at the French Open and Virginia Ruzici at the Australian Open. Ruzici, like Halep, is Romanian.
   Halep could have faced Williams, seeded 17th, in the fourth round and Stephens, seeded third, in the semifinals.
   Williams, who has a residence in Silicon Valley, defeated Magda Linette of Poland 6-4, 6-0 in 69 minutes in a featured night match. Stephens, a Fresno product, beat Evgeniya Rodina of Russia 6-1, 7-5. Rodina, a mother like Williams, reached the fourth round at Wimbledon as a qualifier last month.
   On Wednesday, Williams is scheduled to play No. 101 Carina Witthoeft of Germany, and Stephens is set to meet No. 134 Anhelina Kalinina, a qualifier from Ukraine. Kalinina won the 2015 Sacramento Challenger at age 18.
   Meanwhile, all three men with NorCal connections who played today lost.
   Andreas Seppi, a 34-year-old Italian, topped 6-foot-6 (1.98-meter) Sam Querrey, a 30-year-old San Francisco native, 6-7 (6), 6-4, 6-2, 2-1, retired on a hot, humid day. David Ferrer of Spain and qualifiers Felix Auger-Aliassime of Canada and Kathinka Von Deichmann of Liechtenstein also quit in their matches.
   No. 11 seed John Isner, 6-foot-10 (2.08 meters), pounded 20 aces in a 7-6 (3), 6-3, 6-4 victory over fellow American Bradley Klahn, a 28-year-old Stanford graduate. Isner, 33, is having the best year of his career, winning his first Masters 1000 title in Miami and reaching his first major semifinal at Wimbledon.
   Red-hot Ugo Humbert of France outclassed fellow qualifier Collin Altamirano, 22, of Sacramento 6-3, 7-6 (4), 6-3. Humbert, 20, has reached the final of his last three tournaments, all hardcourt Challengers. He lost to Klahn in Gatineau, Canada, and to Canadian Peter Polansky in Granby, Canada, but defeated Spaniard Adrian Menendez-Maceiras in Segovia, Spain.

Hsieh shocks Halep in latest Wimbledon upset

No. 7 Karolina Pliskova, shown in 2015, is the only
top-10 women's seed to reach the second week at
Wimbledon. Photo by Mal Taam

   Hsieh Su-Wei has been known primarily for her doubles prowess.

   She won Wimbledon in 2013 and the French Open in 2014 with Peng Shuai and reached No. 1 in the world in doubles in 2014.

   But Hsieh pulled off the latest women's singles upset at Wimbledon today, stunning top-ranked Simona Halep 3-6, 6-4, 7-5 in the third round. Hsieh, a 32-year-old Taiwanese player who uses two hands on both sides, won the last five games and saved a match point.

   Only one of the top 10 women's seeds, No. 7 Karolina Pliskova, survived the first week. Pliskova lost to Angelique Kerber in the final of the 2015 Bank of the West Classic, which ended a 21-year run at Stanford last summer. The tournament will be replaced by the Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic, July 30-Aug. 5 at San Jose State.

   No. 11 seed Kerber and No. 25 Serena Williams, a three-time Stanford champion (2011, 2012 and 2014) who's scheduled to play in San Jose, also remain alive at Wimbledon. Williams seeks her eighth Wimbledon singles title in only her fourth tournament since having a daughter on Sept. 1.

   Dominika Cibulkova dispatched No. 15 Elise Mertens of Belgium 6-2, 6-2 after eliminating No. 22 Johanna Konta in a matchup of former Stanford champions. Mertens also is entered in San Jose.
   Another Belgian, Alison Van Uytvanck, took out No. 28 seed Anett Kontaveit of Estonia 6-2, 6-3. Van Uytvanck, who swept the singles and doubles titles in the 2016 Stockton (Calif.) Challenger, was coming off a win over No. 3 seed and defending champion Garbine Muguruza.
   In the men's draw, qualifier Ernests Gulbis of Latvia surprised No. 4 seed Alexander Zverev of Germany 7-6 (2), 4-6, 5-7, 6-3, 6-0. Gulbis, 29, is ranked No. 138 after reaching a career-high No. 10 in 2014.
   Also advancing were No. 2 Rafael Nadal, a two-time Wimbledon champion; No. 5 Juan Martin Del Potro; No. 12 Novak Djokovic, a three-time Wimbledon champ; and No. 13 Milos Raonic.
   Raonic never lost a set in three appearances in the SAP Open in San Jose, winning the title from 2011 through 2013 before the tournament was discontinued the following year. He reached the 2016 Wimbledon final, losing to Andy Murray.
   The 6-foot-5 (1.96-meter) Raonic is scheduled to play 5-foot-10 (1.78-meter) Mackenzie McDonald, a 23-year-old product of Piedmont in the San Francisco Bay Area, for the first time on "Manic Monday" (ESPN) after a 3:30 a.m. PDT women's singles match on Court 12.
   Karen Khachanov, a 22-year-old rising star from Russia, topped American Frances Tiafoe, who won the 2016 Stockton Challenger at 18 years old, 4-6, 4-6, 7-6 (3), 6-2, 6-1.
   Meanwhile, another high seed in men's doubles lost. No. 4 Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut, the 2016 champions from France, fell to Philipp Petzschner and Tim Puetz of Germany 6-4, 6-7 (3), 7-6 (4), 6-3 in the second round. The highest remaining seeded team is No. 5 Jamie Murray, Andy's older brother, and Bruno Soares of Brazil.
   Petzschner, who won the 2010 Wimbledon title with Jurgen Melzer of Austria, and Puetz will face No. 14 Ben McLachlan, a former Cal star, and Jan-Lennard Struff of Germany.
   McLachlan, a New Zealand native who plays for his mother's native Japan, and Struff reached the Australian Open semifinals in January in their first tournament together.
   Jack Sock, who won the 2012 Tiburon Challenger in the Bay Area, and Sloane Stephens, a 25-year-old Fresno product, reached the third round of mixed doubles.
   Also, Katie Volynets of Walnut Creek in the Bay Area beat Viktoryia Kanapatskaya of Belarus 6-2, 4-6, 6-3 in the first round of girls singles.