Sacramento junior soars to No. 1 during pandemic

Emon van Loben Sels poses with his trophy at the USTA
Level 1 Spring Individual Championships, March 6-9 in
Mobile, Ala. Photo courtesy of Emon van Loben Sels

   The pandemic hasn't hurt Emon van Loben Sels' game.

   In fact, the scourge has helped it.

   "Pre-Covid, I wasn't receiving the best results, and I was never satisfied," conceded van Loben Sels, a Sacramento, Calif., resident ranked No. 1 nationally in the boys 16s. "I almost came home from Winter Nationals (at the beginning of 2020) without winning a match. The quarantine was a perfect chance for me to change that.

   "Once all the (clubs) got shut down, I started training on clay with my friends like Dylan (Tsoi) and Michael (Gravel). Once tournaments started again, I gained confidence after every win. Ever since then, I've been happy with my results, and things have been going my way. But I'm still pretty far from my ultimate goal, so I'm going to keep working hard."

   Van Loben Sels, a 16-year-old homeschooled sophomore, hopes to play professionally. He won the 16-and-under singles title in USTA Level 1 Spring Individual Championships, March 6-9 on hardcourts in Mobile, Ala., after capturing a Level 2 tournament in Newport Beach, Calif., in February.

   In the Mobile final, van Loben Sels beat close friend Mitchell Lee of Oakland, Calif., 7-5, 6-4. They train together almost every weekend, van Lobel Sels said.

   "Recently, he's actually changed his game style," Lee said. "He started to be more aggressive. His retrieving skills and touch are definitely key strengths. His biggest strength is neutralizing the point when he's on defense. He's able to get himself out of tough situations."

   Van Loben Sels' coaches at the Spare Time Junior Tennis Academy — Dima Hrynashka, Kiryl Harbatsiuk and Eric Roberson — have emphasized aggressiveness. 

   "All my life, I played aggressive tennis and found it's more beneficial," said Harbatsiuk, a former Sacramento State star from Belarus who played briefly on the Futures Tour. "I'm trying to teach him how to be an aggressive player — hitting harder, going to the net more often, taking the ball sooner, playing more inside the court than outside, taking time away from his opponent and finishing points sooner instead of rallying 25 or 30 times. He wants to complete the point sooner so he doesn't get too tired."

Emon van Loben Sels, right, and close friend Mitchell Lee shake
hands after the final in Mobile, Ala. Photo courtesy of Emon van
Loben Sels

   Van Loben Sels' biggest asset, according to Harbatsiuk, is his passion for tennis.

   "He is really passionate," Harbatsiuk said. "He remembers the scores of all of his matches, even tournaments he played five or seven years ago. He remembers the critical points, what he did wrong. He is very passionate about tennis — that's his biggest advantage. He really wants to improve his game and does whatever it takes.

   "He remembers not just his matches but (those of) his opponents and other people. He is very into it, and that's why he's becoming really successful."

   Harbatsiuk added that van Loben Sels, 5-foot-10 (1.78 meters) and 145 pounds (65.8 kilograms) with a Japanese mother and American father, "needs to get stronger physically. He's still growing up. In terms of technical things, he needs to work on his serve to make it really consistent and aggressive. And just polish other shots like forehands and backhands and move to the net faster.

   "He needs to stay healthy, injury-free. It's going to help him play longer matches and be ready for college and then pro. The biggest goal is to stay healthy and get stronger physically."

   A right-hander with a two-handed backhand, van Loben Sels idolizes Rafael Nadal.

   "He's the biggest fighter on court," van Loben Sels explained. "He never gives up. He's out there to win every point, and he has a great game style. No free points, corner to corner."

   Van Loben Sels' next tournament is the prestigious Easter Bowl, March 29-April 4 in San Diego.

   "My record there has not been the best," van Loben Sels admitted, "but now I'm playing pretty well, so I hope I can do better this year."

Pro final delayed; Muljat, 14, wins women's open title

   Fifteen-year-old CiCi Bellis' Challenger final was postponed by rain, but 14-year-old Jessi Muljat won a women's open title on Sunday.
   The sixth-seeded Bellis, from Atherton in the San Francisco Bay Area, was scheduled to play  fourth-seeded Maria Sanchez, a 25-year-old Modesto product, for the first time on Sunday in the $25,000 Fresh Start Women's Open in the San Diego suburb of Rancho Santa Fe.
   The match between Sanchez, ranked No. 220 in the world, and Bellis, ranked No. 244, was rescheduled for 9 a.m. today. However, there's an 80 percent chance of more rain.
   Muljat, seeded fourth, outclassed fellow Sacramentan Eirene Granville, who was unseeded, 6-1, 6-2 in the $2,000 Rio del Oro Open at the Rio del Oro Racquet Club in Sacramento.
   Earlier Sunday, Muljat ousted top-seeded Haley Gay of San Ramon 6-2, 7-5. Fourteen women played in the women's open division.
   Muljat, an amateur, advanced to the second round of qualifying in the Fresh Start Women's Open in her first pro tournament.
   Second-seeded Kiryl Harbatsiuk, a 27-year-old resident of Orangevale in the Sacramento area, prevailed in the 57-player men's draw. He overpowered his fellow Belarus native and former Sacramento State teammate, top-seeded Anton Stryhas, 6-3, 6-3.
   Harbatsiuk was named the Big Sky Conference MVP for three consecutive years (2009-11) and briefly played on the professional tour, reaching a career-high No. 710 in the world in 2011.
   Colleges -- Cecilia Estlander outlasted Lindsay Kostas 2-6, 6-4, 6-4 on Court 6 to clinch a 4-3 victory for the No. 8 Cal women over No. 7 Stanford at Stanford.
   On Court 1, fourth-ranked Carol Zhao of Stanford edged No. 2 Maegan Manasse 2-6, 6-3, 7-6 (6). Estlander's victory gave the Bears (7-2) an insurmountable 4-2 lead.
   Stanford (7-2) suffered its first home loss of the season and only its sixth since 1999. Cal coach Amanda Augustus has been involved in three of those losses, including as a player in 1999.
   In other college matches, the No. 64 Saint Mary's women trounced Sacramento State 7-0 in Moraga, the host UC Davis women routed UC Riverside 6-1, and the Pacific men lost to Idaho 4-3 to finish sixth among eight teams in the Pacific Mountain Invitational in Stockton.

No. 7 seed Johnson falls in Napa Challenger

Seventh-seeded Steve Johnson lost to Michael Venus of New
Zealand in the first round of the Napa Valley Challenger.
Photo by Paul Bauman

   Michael Venus of New Zealand upset seventh-seeded Steve Johnson of Orange, Calif., 7-6 (4), 6-4 today in the first round of the $50,000 Napa Valley Challenger at the Napa Valley Country Club.
   Johnson, who won two NCAA singles and four team titles at USC from 2009 to 2012, had beaten Venus 6-1, 6-4 in the second round of the $50,000 Winnetka (Ill.) Challenger in July in their only previous meeting.
   Venus, a 25-year-old former LSU All-American, will meet the winner of Tuesday's match between Robby Ginepri of Kennesaw, Ga., and Nicolas Barrientos of Colombia.
   Ginepri, 30, is the only active U.S. man to have reached a Grand Slam singles semifinal, losing to Andre Agassi in five sets in 2005.
   Ginepri, who climbed to a career-high No. 15 in the world in 2006, has plunged to No. 229. The right-hander broke his left elbow in September 2010 when he fell off his bicycle trying to avoid a squirrel and missed 10 months.
   The top three seeds in the Napa Valley Challenger -- Americans Denis Kudla, Tim Smyczek and Rhyne Williams, respectively -- won easily in the first round. Williams dispatched Collin Altamirano, a 17-year-old wild card from Elk Grove in the Sacramento area, 6-2, 6-2.
   In the final round of qualifying, former Sacramento State star Kiryl Harbatsiuk lost to third-seeded Jesse Witten of Naples, Fla., 6-4, 6-1. Witten avenged a 2-6, 6-2, 6-4 loss to Harbatsiuk, a native of Minsk, Belarus, living in Sacramento, 2-6, 6-2, 6-4 in the final round of qualifying in the 2010 Tiburon Challenger.
   Here are links to the Napa singles, doubles and qualifying draws and Tuesday's schedule:
   http://assets.usta.com/assets/1/15/singles_draw265.PDF
   http://assets.usta.com/assets/1/15/doubles_draw288.PDF
   http://assets.usta.com/assets/1/15/qualifying_draw285.PDF
   http://assets.usta.com/assets/1/15/schedule288.PDF   

Ex-Sac State star advances in Napa qualifying

   Wild card Kiryl Harbatsiuk of Sacramento defeated seventh-seeded Chris Wettengel of Las Vegas 7-6 (4), 6-4 Sunday to reach the final round of qualifying in the $50,000 Napa Valley Challenger at the Napa Valley Country Club.
   Harbatsiuk, a 25-year-old native of Minsk, Belarus, was named the Big Sky Conference MVP for three consecutive years (2009-11) at Sacramento State. He will play third-seeded Jesse Witten, 30, of Naples, Fla., on Monday.
   Witten, who reached the third round of the 2009 U.S. Open as a qualifier, beat Dane Webb, a junior at the University of Oklahoma from Richardson, Texas, 3-6, 7-6 (2), 6-1.
   The top three seeds in the main draw -- Americans Denis Kudla, Tim Smyczek and Rhyne Williams, respectively -- will play on Monday in the first round. Williams will face wild card Collin Altamirano, 17, of Elk Grove in the Sacramento area.
   Altamirano won the USTA Boys 18 National Championships in Kalamazoo, Mich., last month to earn an automatic wild card at the U.S. Open in the main draw of men's singles. He lost to 22nd-seeded Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany in the first round but reached the boys singles quarterfinals.
   Harbatsiuk is 1-0 against Witten, winning 2-6, 6-2, 6-4 in the final round of qualifying for the 2010 Tiburon Challenger. Harbatsiuk then lost to second-seeded Donald Young of Atlanta 6-1, 6-0 in the first round of the main draw.
   Two other Northern California wild cards, Anthony Tsodikov and Matt Seeberger, lost in the second round of qualifying in the Napa Valley Challenger.
   Fifth-seeded Alex Blumenberg of Brazil edged Tsodikov, a Stanford sophomore from San Francisco, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4.
   Sixth-seeded Greg Ouellette of Ormond Beach, Fla., held off Seeberger, an ex-UC Santa Cruz star, 7-5, 2-6, 6-3. Seeberger won a record eight NCAA Division III titles (two team, three singles and three doubles).
   Ouellette, a former All-American at the University of Florida, will play Mico Santiago of Corvallis, Ore. Santiago, 19, knocked off top seed Daniel Smethurst of Great Britain 7-5, 6-1.
   Here are links to the singles, doubles and qualifying draws and Monday's schedule:
   http://assets.usta.com/assets/1/15/singles_draw287.PDF
   http://assets.usta.com/assets/1/15/doubles_draw288.PDF
   http://assets.usta.com/assets/1/15/qualifying_draw285.PDF
   http://assets.usta.com/assets/1/15/schedule288.PDF

McHale shocks Kvitova as viruses strike Indian Wells

   Illnesses shook the BNP Paribas Open on Sunday.
   Third-seeded Petra Kvitova, still battling a virus that caused her to withdraw from Dubai three weeks ago, lost to No. 32 Christina McHale 2-6, 6-2, 6-3 in the third round at Indian Wells.
   "I lost a little bit of my fitness, so it was tough moving and having winners," Kvitova, the reigning Wimbledon champion and the 2011 WTA Player of the Year, told reporters. "(McHale) was moving very well, so she played a lot of shots back. (And) my serve was not really good, too. She played very solid, and she didn't make mistakes, so it was tough."
   McHale, 19, of Englewood Cliffs, N.J., rallied to set up a match against 18th-seeded Angelique Kerber of Germany.
   "I couldn't get a read on (Kvitova's) serve in the first set, and I wasn't really moving very well, either," said McHale, who won the USTA girls 18 national singles and doubles titles in Berkeley in 2009. "Then I just kind of hung in there early in the second. She played one service game where she gave me a couple of loose errors, and then I got more comfortable as the match went along."
   Meanwhile, a virus spreading through the Coachella Valley claimed at least a half-dozen players, including Vania King, Gael Monfils and Jurgen Melzer.
   Also, third-seeded Roger Federer appeared ill after his 6-4, 6-1 victory over American wild card Denis Kudla in the second round, and No. 9 seed Vera Zvonareva of Russia defaulted her third-round match against Klara Zakopalova of the Czech Republic with a reportedly unrelated virus. Federer is scheduled to face dangerous Milos Raonic, seeded 27th, on Tuesday.
   King, a Sacramento Capitals veteran in World TeamTennis, defaulted from her third-round singles match against Kerber and the second round of doubles with Anna-Lena Groenefeld of Germany against Australians Casey Dellacqua and Samantha Stosur. Groenefeld and King were seeded eighth.
   Tweeted King: "Just spent one of the worst nights of my life (gruesome details) fever, vomiting, diarrhea .. all at the same time .. caught a bug from someone."
   Wild card Jamie Hampton, a 22-year-old American, defeated Jarmila Gajdosova of Australia 6-2, 6-7 (1), 6-2 in the third round. Hampton, who won the 2010 Redding Challenger and upset 2010 Indian Wells champion Jelena Jankovic in the second round, is scheduled to play fifth-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland.
   In the first round of doubles, wild cards Mark Knowles of the Bahamas and Nicolas Almagro of Spain lost to second-seeded Max Mirnyi of Belarus and Daniel Nestor of Canada 6-3, 7-6 (3). Knowles, a longtime Capitals standout, and Nestor played together for much of their careers, winning three Grand Slam titles.
   Also, former Stanford All-American Scott Lipsky of Huntington Beach and Juan Sebastian Cabal of Colombia lost to wild cards Matthew Ebden of Australia and Ryan Harrison of Austin, Texas, 4-6, 7-6 (5), 10-4 tiebreak.
   Harbatsiuk wins title -- Top-seeded Kiryl Harbatsiuk of Sacramento defeated second-seeded Sherif Zaher of Folsom 6-2, 6-4 Saturday to win the men's open singles title of the $2,000 Rio Del Oro Open, NTRP, Senior Tournament in Sacramento.
   Both Harbatsiuk, a native of Minsk, Belarus, and Zaher, originally from Cairo, are multiple former Big Sky Conference MVPs at Sacramento State.
   Unseeded Collin Altamirano of Yuba City and Jordan Boyls of Sacramento won the doubles title, beating top-seeded Harbatsiuk and Anton Stryhas 7-6 (4), 7-6 (3) Saturday.

Karlovic, Blake advance to Sacramento final

   Ivo Karlovic was disappointed in his serve.
   Sam Querrey was disgusted with his.
   Within minutes of edging Querrey 7-6 (6), 3-6, 6-4 Saturday in the semifinals of the $100,000 RelyAid Natomas Racquet Club Challenger in Sacramento, Karlovic was practicing his serve on a side court.
   "Today my serve didn't work at all," lamented the second-seeded Karlovic, a 6-foot-10 veteran who holds the record for the fastest serve (156 mph). "I had a really low (first-serve) percentage, but I was able to make it up with my baseline game and fighting."
   Karlovic, who converted 56 percent of his first deliveries, recorded the only service break of the third set in the last game. Querrey committed his second double fault of the match to trail 30-40, then missed a first serve. The second serve allowed Karlovic to get into the point, and he capitalized by ripping a runaround forehand passing shot down the line for the victory.
   The normally mild-mannered Querrey was incensed after the match, played before an announced capacity crowd of 650 that included Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson and coach Dennis Green of the Sacramento Mountain Lions in the United Football League.
   "My second serve sucked the whole week,"  snapped the third-seeded Querrey, a 6-6 native of San Francisco who lives in Las Vegas. "Pathetic ... "
   Karlovic, whose wife gave birth to the couple's first child on Sept. 15, is playing in his first tournament since the U.S. Open one month ago. He agreed that his layoff affected the timing on his serve Saturday.
   Querrey, meanwhile, was competing in his second tournament since undergoing arthroscopic elbow surgery in June. But he didn't use that as an excuse for his serving woes.
   "I just need to go for it more," he said. "I'm too conservative on my serve and forehand."
   Karlovic will meet top-seeded James Blake of Tampa, Fla., for the title after today's 12:30 p.m. doubles final pitting American wild cards Nicholas Monroe and Jack Sock against Australians Carsten Ball and Chris Guccione.
  Blake outclassed unseeded Alex Kuznetsov of Tampa 6-2, 7-5 in the other semifinal. Kuznetsov, a Ukraine native who moved to the United States at 3, also reached the semifinals of the Sacramento Challenger five years ago at 19. The tournament was held at the Sutter Lawn Tennis Club at the time.
   At first glance, Blake and Karlovic couldn't be more different. Blake is nine inches shorter and an African-American. Karlovic is a white Croat.
   On further inspection, however, they are remarkably similar.
   Both were born in 1979 (Karlovic, 32, is exactly 10 months older). Both have reached the top 15 in the world, Blake peaking at No. 4 in 2006 and Karlovic at No. 14 in 2008.
   Both have played on Davis Cup championship teams, Karlovic helping Croatia win in 2005 for its only title and Blake helping the United States end its longest title drought (12 years).
   Both endured long injury layoffs last year, Blake for three months with knee tendinitis and Karlovic for six months after Achilles' tendon-related surgery.        
   Their current rankings? Blake is No. 75, Karlovic No. 76.  
   Karlovic leads the head-to-head series 5-3 overall and 3-2 on hardcourts. In their last meeting, Karlovic won 6-3, 6-7 (5), 6-1 on a hardcourt in the quarterfinals at Delray Beach, Fla., in February 2010.
   "I didn't watch him in the last year or two, but I know he was injured like me," said Karlovic, who saved two match points in the first round of the Natomas Challenger against Martin Fischer of Austria. "He can play really well. It will be an interesting match."
   ATP Challenger Tour in Tiburon -- Kiryl Harbatsiuk, a former Sacramento State star from Belarus, lost to Blake Strode of Cary, N.C., 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 in the first round of qualifying for the $100,000 First Republic Bank Tiburon Challenger.
   Strode, the Chico Futures runner-up in June, has deferred his acceptance to Harvard Law School several times to play professional tennis.
    ITF Women's Circuit in Kansas City, Mo. -- Yasmin Schnack of Elk Grove and Amanda Fink of Calabasas lost to Jamie Hampton of Auburn, Ala., and Ajla Tomljanovic of Croatia 7-5, 2-6, 10-8 tiebreak in the doubles semifinals of the $50,000 Women's Tennis Classic.
   Intercollegiate Tennis Association in Pacific Palisades -- Jacqueline Cako of Arizona State knocked off  Jana Juricova, the top seed and reigning NCAA champion from Cal, 7-6 (6), 7-6 (1) in the quarterfinals of the Women's All-American Championships.
   Stanford's Stacey Tan, the NCAA runner-up, and Nicole Gibbs, an NCAA semifinalist, lost in the first round of doubles. The Cardinal's Mallory Burdette, who won the NCAA doubles title with Hilary Barte in May, and Gibbs will play Florida's Sophie Oyen and Allie Will in the finall.
   Intercollegiate Tennis Association in Tulsa, Okla. -- Cal's Nick Andrews (Folsom), Carlos Cueto and Ben McLachlan and Stanford's Ryan Thacher lost in the first round of the Men's All-American Championships.
   In doubles, fifth-seeded Andrews and Christoffer Konigsfeldt and qualifiers Cueto and McLachlan also fell n the first round.
  
RELYAID NATOMAS CHALLENGER
At Natomas Racquet Club
Singles semifinals
   Ivo Karlovic (2), Croatia, def. Sam Querrey (3), Las Vegas, 7-6 (6), 3-6, 6-4. James Blake (1), Tampa, Fla., def. Alex Kuznetsov, Tampa, Fla., 6-2, 7-5.
Sunday’s schedule
(Beginning at 12:30 p.m.)
Center Court
   Monroe and Sock vs. Ball and Guccione. Blake (1) vs. Karlovic (2).

Four former top-20 players to play in Sacramento

   Officially, it's the Rely Aid Natomas Racquet Club Challenger.
   Perhaps a better name would be the Comeback Classic.
   Four former top-20 players trying to work their way back up the rankings after major injuries are entered in the $100,000 tourmament that starts Monday in Sacramento. They consist of the top three seeds -- No. 1 James Blake, No. 2 Ivo Karlovic and No. 3 Sam Querrey -- and unseeded Fernando Gonzalez. Querrey and Gonzalez accepted wild cards.
   Blake, ranked a career-high No. 4 in 2006, missed most of the clay-court season last year because of a knee injury and plunged to No. 173 in March. The 31-year-old resident of Tampa, Fla., has fought his way back to No. 74.
   The 6-foot-10 Karlovic, who reached No. 14 in 2008, has followed a similar path. The 32-year-old Croatian missed the last six months of 2010 with an Achilles' injury and plummeted to No. 239 in March. He has climbed back to No. 77.
    Querrey, ranked a career-high No. 17 in January, missed three months this summer after operations for bone spurs in his elbow and an umbilical infection. The San Francisco native, who turns 24 on Friday, has fallen to No. 119.
   Gonzalez, who reached the 2007 Australian Open final to attain a career-high ranking of No. 5, underwent hip surgery last October. The 31-year-old Chilean has dropped to No. 300.
    Natomas qualifying -- The top two seeds lost in the first round of Natomas qualifying Saturday.
   No. 1 Raven Klaasen of South Africa fell to Steve Johnson of Orange 6-1, 6-2. Johnson is coming off two consecutive titles in $10,000 tournaments in Southern California. The reigning NCAA singles champion from USC plans to return for his senior season and a shot at four NCAA team championships.
   No. 2 Alejandro Gonzalez of Colombia lost to Michael Venus of New Zealand 6-4, 6-2. Venus won a $15,000 tournament in Loomis, near Sacramento, last year.
   Former Sacramento State star Kiryl Harbatsiuk of Belarus beat his doubles partner, Boris Nicola Bakalov of Bulgaria, 2-6, 6-2, 6-1. In a matchup of Sacramento-area wild cards, junior player Brandon Sutter defeated Eric Roberson 6-3, 6-2.
   ATP World Tour in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia -- Second-seeded Eric Butorac of Rochester, Minn., and Jean-Julien Rojer of Netherlands Antilles edged fourth-seeded Scott Lipsky of Huntington Beach and Rajeev Ram of Carmel, Ind., 6-3, 6-7 (5), 10-6 in the doubles semifinals of the $850,000 Malaysian Open.
   Lipsky won the doubles title in the inaugural Sacramento Challenger in 2005 with former Stanford teammate David Martin. Ram reached the Sacramento singles final in 2006 and doubles final (with John Isner) in 2008.

Young shocks Monfils to reach first ATP final

   Unseeded Donald Young of Atlanta stunned second-seeded Gael Monfils of France 4-6, 7-6 (5), 7-6 (5) early Saturday in the $587,000 PTT Thailand Open in Bangkok to reach his first career ATP World Tour final.
   Young, ranked a career-high 55th in the world, will crack the top 50 regardless of how he does against top-seeded Andy Murray of Great Britain. The fourth-ranked Murray advanced with a 6-2, 3-6, 6-2 victory over third-seeded Gilles Simon of France. Monfils is ranked ninth.
   Young, who won the 2008 Sacramento Challenger, is 1-1 lifetime against Murray. Both matches have come this year. Young won 7-6 (4), 6-3 in the first round at Indian Wells in March, and Murray coasted 6-2, 6-3, 6-3 in the round of 16 at the recent U.S. Open.
   Both players have won the Aptos Challenger, Murray in 2005 and Young in 2007.      
   NorCal players fall -- It was a rough day for Northern California players.     Maria Sanchez of Modesto lost twice, in a rout and a heartbreaker, Friday; Yasmin Schnack of Elk Grove also fell in the heartbreaker; and former Sacramento State star Kiryl Harbatsiuk lost to a 137-pound player.
   Unseeded Alexa Glatch of Newport Beach routed Sanchez, a wild card, 6-1, 6-1 in the quarterfinals of the $50,000 Lexus of Las Vegas Open. Then the third-seeded team of Glatch and Mashona Washington of Houston edged the unseeded Sanchez and Schnack 3-6, 7-5, 10-8 tiebreak in the doubles semifinals.
   Meanwhile, qualifier Sanam Singh of India defeated the unseeded Harbatsiuk, from Belarus, 7-5, 6-3 in the quarterfinals of the $10,000 USTA Futures of Laguna Niguel. Both players ended their four-year college careers in May. Singh starred at Virginia, reaching the NCAA semifinals in 2009.
   Natomas Men's Challenger in Sacramento -- Top-seeded Raven Klaasen of South Africa will meet reigning NCAA champion Steve Johnson of USC today in the first round of qualifying for the $100,000 Rely Aid Natomas Racquet Club Challenger.
  Klaasen, ranked a career-high No. 216, and Johnson, coming off two consecutive Futures singles titles in Southern California, are scheduled to play the fourth match on Center Court. Play begins at 10 a.m.
  The other qualifying seeds, in order, are Alejandro Gonzalez of Colombia, Jamie Baker of Great Britain, Pierre-Ludovic Duclos of Canada, Carsten Ball of Australia, Simon Stadler of Germany, Alex Bogdanovic of Great Britain and Daniel Kosakowski of Downey.
   Kosakowski, UCLA's top player as a freshman last season, turned pro after winning the $15,000 Park Terrace Pro Tennis tournament in Sacramento in June.

Former Sacramento champ Young will crack top 50

   It was supposed to have happened a long time ago. Then it seemed it would never happen.
   Donald Young, a supremely gifted but undersized and temperamental left-hander with strong ties to Northern California, is projected to crack the top 50 in the world for the first time after reaching the semifinals of the PTT Thailand Open in Bangkok.
   The unseeded American routed Japanese qualifier Go Soeda, who won the 2009 Tiburon Challenger, 6-1, 6-2 Thursday night in the $587,000 tournament.
   “It wasn’t as easy as the score suggests,” Young said on the ATP World Tour's Web site. “I had to play well and figure out his game a little bit. I’m happy to move on to the semis, definitely. I hope to go further. I like playing here, and this year I’m coming with more confidence than I’ve had previously.”
   Young will face second-seeded Gael Monfils, ranked ninth in the world, for a berth in the final. Monfils is listed at 6-foot-4 and 177 pounds, Young at 6-0 and 160. In their only previous meeting, Monfils breezed 6-1, 6-1 in the first round at Cincinnati in 2008.
   Northern California has figured prominently in Young's career. He made his ATP World Tour debut in San Jose at 15 in 2005 and won Challenger singles titles in Aptos in 2007 and Sacramento in 2008.
   Young turned professional at 14. At 15, he won the Australian Open junior title to become youngest-ever and first African-American boy to be ranked No. 1 in the world.
   Even then, he accepted wild cards into ATP tournaments for the money, got hammered and lost confidence. He then essentially started his career over, gradually working his way up from Futures to Challengers and back to the ATP World Tour.
  There was one other problem. Having been told all his life how talented he is, Young thought he didn't have to work hard. He finally addressed that issue this year, and it has paid off handsomely.
  Still only 22, Young is ranked a career-high No. 55 after reaching his first ATP semifinal (in Washington) and the fourth round of the U.S. Open for his best Grand Slam result.
  The question is how much higher Young can go. One thing is certain. Confidence, especially when combined with rare talent, can do a lot for a player.
   Malaysian Open in Kuala Lumpur -- Seventh-seeded Dmitry Tursunov, a Moscow native living in Folsom, lost to second-seeded Viktor Troicki of Serbia 6-4, 6-4 in the quarterfinals of the $850,000 Malaysian Open. Tursunov is 0-4 lifetime against Troicki.
   Americans Scott Lipsky and Rajeev Ram, seeded fourth, defeated Australians Matthew Ebden and Bernard Tomic 6-2, 6-3 in the doubles quarterfinals.
   Lipsky, a former Stanford All-American, and Ram, a past singles and doubles runner-up in the Sacramento Challenger, will meet second-seeded Eric Butorac, a former Sacramento Capital from Rochester, Minn., and Jean-Julien Rojer of Netherlands Antilles in the semifinals.
   WTA tour in Tokyo -- Third-seeded Vania King, a Capital living in Boynton Beach, Fla., and Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan lost to second-seeded Gisela Dulko of Argentina and Flavia Pennetta of Italy 4-6, 6-3, 10-8 tiebreak in the doubles semifinals of the $2.05 million Toray Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo.
   King and Shvedova, last year's Wimbledon and U.S. Open champions, led 6-4, 3-1 against the reigning Australian Open titlists.
   "We were down pretty much the whole match," Dulko said on the WTA tour's Web site. "They were very tough opponents. At the end we were a little bit nervous, but we closed it out, and we are very happy."
   It was the second consecutive tournament in which King and Shvedova blew a late lead. In a 4-6, 7-6 (5), 7-6 (3) loss to Americans Liezel Huber and Lisa Raymond in the U.S. Open final, Shvedova served for match at 5-4 in the second set and had the match on her racket serving at 5-4 in the second-set tiebreaker.
   Unseeded Raquel Kops-Jones, a former Cal All-American from Fresno, and Abigail Spears of San Diego fell to fourth-seeded Victoria Azarenka of Belarus and Maria Kirilenko of Russia 6-0, 6-1 in the Pan Pacific quarterfinals.
   Women's Challenger in Las Vegas -- Wild card Maria Sanchez of Modesto dismissed Krista Hardebeck  of Santa Ana 6-3, 6-2 in the second round of the $50,000 Lexus of Las Vegas Open.
   Sanchez and Yasmin Schnack of Elk Grove advanced to the doubles semifinals with a 6-2, 6-3 victory over Gabriela Dabrowski of Canada and Laura Siegemund of Germany in a matchup of unseeded teams.
   Men's Futures in Laguna Niguel -- Unseeded Kiryl Harbatsiuk, who graduated from Sacramento State in May, wore down Connor Farren, a wild card from Hillsborough who will turn 17 Monday, 6-7 (5), 6-4, 6-2 in the second round of the $10,000 USTA Futures of Laguna Niguel.

King falls to Wimbledon champion Kvitova

   Vania King faced a fellow Wimbledon champion, Petra Kvitova, in singles Wednesday at the Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo.
   The problem for King was that her Wimbledon crown came in women's doubles.
   Kvitova, seeded fifth, eliminated the Sacramento Capital 6-1, 7-6 (4) in the third round of the $2.05 million tournament.
   Kvitova, a 21-year-old Czech who stands 6-foot, won Wimbledon in July for her first Grand Slam title.
   King, a 22-year-old Long Beach product who's only 5-5, captured the Wimbledon doubles championship last year with Yaroslava Shvedova. It was the first of two Grand Slam titles for the pair, who also won the U.S. Open last year.
   Kvitova will meet 6-2 Maria Sharapova, the second seed and 2004 Wimbledon champion, in the quarterfinals. They are 1-1 lifetime against each other.
   In doubles Wednesday, King and Shvedova reached the semifinals with a 6-4, 6-4 victory over Natalie Grandin of South Africa and Vladimira Uhlirova of the Czech Republic. Grandin and Uhlirova were coming off their first title together Sunday in Seoul, South Korea.
   Kng and Shvedova will face No. 2 seeds Gisela Dulko and Flavia Pennetta, the reigning Australian Open champions. The teams have split two career meetings, both last year. King and Shvedova won 6-3, 6-3 in the quarterfinals of the U.S. Open, and Dulko and Pennetta prevailed 6-4, 6-4 in the semifinals of the WTA Championships in Doha, Qatar.
   ATP World Tour in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia -- Folsom resident Dmitry Tursunov, seeded seventh, brushed aside Belgian wild card David Gofffin 6-3, 6-3 in the second round of the $850,000 Malaysian Open.
   Tursunov, a Moscow native ranked No. 41, will meet second-seeded Viktor Troicki, a Serb ranked 15th, in the quarterfinals. Tursunov is 0-3 lifetime against Troicki. 
   Women's Challenger in Las Vegas -- Wild card Maria Sanchez of Modesto defeated Monica Puig of Puerto Rico 6-1, 7-5 in the first round of the $50,000 Lexus of Las Vegas Open.
   Sanchez, 21, was named the Pacific-10 Conference Women's Player of the Year in May as a senior at USC. She will meet qualifier Krista Hardebeck, who turned 17 two weeks ago, in the second round.
   Hardebeck upset fourth-seeded Mirjana Lucic, 29, of Croatia 7-6 (4), 6-4. Lucic became the youngest player to win an Australian Open title when she took the 1998 women's doubles crown at 15 years, 10 months with Martina Hingis.
   At 17, Lucic reached the 1999 Wimbledon singles semifinals. She was the lowest-ranked player (No. 134) at the time to reach a Grand Slam semifinal but since has been surpassed. Her career was derailed by problems with her father, who Mirjana has said physically abused her and tampered with her prize money.
   Puig, who turned 18 Tuesday, advanced to the Australian Open and French Open junior finals this year.
   Men's Futures in Laguna Niguel -- Connor Farren, a 16-year-old wild card from Hillsborough, beat lucky loser Aaron Yovan, 27, of Irvine 6-1, 6-4 in the first round of the $10,000 USTA Futures of Laguna Niguel.
   Farren, who turns 17 Monday, will meet Kiryl Harbatsiuk -- a native of Minsk, Belarus, who graduated from Sacramento State in May -- on Thursday in the second round.

King, Shvedova rally for wild victory; new rankings

   Playing their first doubles match since a heartbreaking loss in the U.S. Open final, Vania King and Yaroslava Shvedova pulled out a wild victory in the Toray Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo.
   The third seeds edged Hsieh Su-Wei of Taiwan and Zheng Jie of China 2-6, 7-6 (4), 11-9 tiebreak Tuesday in the first round of the $2.05 million tournament.
   King and Shvedova trailed 5-0 in the first set, the WTA reported on its Web site. They were a game away from defeat at 5-4 in the second, but Shvedova held serve.
   King, a 22-year-old member of the Sacramento Capitals who grew up in Long Beach, and Shvedova, a 24-year-old Moscow native who plays for Kazakhstan, also trailed 4-2 in the second-set tiebreaker before winning five straight points for the set. They jumped out to a 5-1 lead in the match tiebreaker, but Hsieh and Zheng tied it 9-9 before King and Shvedova finally prevailed.
   King and Shvedova, last year's Wimbledon and U.S. Open champions in women's doubles, lost to Americans Liezel Huber and Lisa Raymond 4-6, 7-6 (5), 7-6 (3) in this year's U.S. Open final. Shvedova served for the match at 5-4 in the second set and had the match on her racket serving at 5-4 in the second-set tiebreaker. Shvedova then double-faulted, and she and King lost the next point after Shvedova's 76-mph first serve.
    Zheng won the 2006 Australian Open and Wimbledon women's doubles titles with Yan Zi.
    ATP World Tour in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia -- Fourth-seeded Scott Lipsky of Huntington Beach and Rajeev Ram of Carmel, Ind., defeated Paul Capdeville of Chile and Ryan Sweeting of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., 6-3, 6-2 in the first round of doubles at the $850,000 Malaysian Open. 
   Lipsky, a former Stanford All-American, and Ram, the singles runner-up in the 2006 Sacramento Challenger, will meet Matthew Ebden and Bernard Tomic in the quarterfinals. The Australian pair eliminated Lukasz Kubot of Poland and Dmitry Tursunov, a Russian living in Folsom, 6-3, 6-2.
   Men's Futures in Laguna Niguel -- Belarus' Kiryl Harbatsiuk, who graduated from Sacramento State last spring, ousted eighth-seeded Bassam Beidas, a former Pepperdine All-American from Lebanon, 6-3, 6-1 in the opening round of the $10,000 USTA Futures of Laguna Niguel.
   Beidas reached the junior doubles semifinals of the 2006 Australian Open with Sacramento's Matt Kecki, who helped USC win NCAA titles as a freshman in 2009 and in 2010 before quitting the team in a dispute with coach Peter Smith. The Trojans repeated this year, so Kecki would have had a chance to play on four NCAA championship teams. 
   In doubles Tuesday, Harbatsiuk and Boris Nicola Bakalov of Bulgaria lost to third-seeded Benjamin Rogers of the United States and John-Patrick Smith of Australia 6-4, 7-6 (4) in the first round.
   Women's Challenger in Las Vegas -- Maria Sanchez of Modesto and Yasmin Schnack of Elk Grove surprised second-seeded Irena Pavlovic of France and Kathrin Woerle of Germany 6-4, 6-3 in the first round of doubles at the $50,000 Lexus of Las Vegas Open. 
   New rankings -- Following are this week's world rankings of players with Northern California ties (change in parentheses):

Men

   Bob Bryan, 1998 NCAA doubles champion from Stanford -- No. 1 in doubles (no change), unranked in singles.
   Mike Bryan, 1998 NCAA doubles champion from Stanford -- No. 1 in doubles (no change), unranked in singles.
   Scott Lipsky, 2002 NCAA doubles runner-up from Stanford -- Career-high-tying No. 26 in doubles (no change), unranked in singles.
   Mark Knowles, Sacramento Capitals of World TeamTennis (2001-07, 2009-11) -- No. 40 in doubles (-1), unranked in singles.
   Dmitry Tursunov, Folsom resident -- No. 41 in singles (no change), No. 92 in doubles (+3).
   David Martin, 2002 NCAA doubles runner-up from Stanford -- No. 90 in doubles (+2), No. 696 in singles (+5).
   John Paul Fruttero, Cal All-American in 2001 and 2002 -- Career-high No. 135 in doubles (+10), 1,254 in singles (-10).
   Conor Niland, 2006 Pacific-10 Conference Player of the Year and two-time All-American at Cal -- No. 206 in singles (no change), unranked in doubles. 
   Jimmy Wang, Folsom resident -- No. 387 in singles (+4), No. 669 in doubles (+5).
   Dusan Vemic, Capitals (2010-11) -- No. 507 in doubles (+7), No. 1,523 in singles (-3).
   Kiryl Harbatsiuk, three-time Big Sky Conference MVP (2009-11) at Sacramento State -- No. 767 in singles (+4), No. 1,233 in doubles (-6).

Women

   Vania King, Capitals (2010-11) -- No. 9 in doubles (no change), No. 90 in singles (+8).
   Raquel Kops-Jones, 2003 NCAA doubles champion from Cal -- No. 45 in doubles (no change), unranked in singles.
   Yasmin Schnack, Elk Grove resident, Sacramento Capitals of World TeamTennis (2011) -- No. 228 in doubles (+2), No. 382 in singles (-3).
   Maria Sanchez, Modesto resident -- No. 354 in doubles (+69), No. 911 in singles (+196).

King eliminated in Seoul quarterfinals

   Vania King could not sustain her momentum in the Hansol Korea Open.
   After shocking 10th-ranked Marion Bartoli for her first career victory over a top-10 player, the Sacramento Capital lost to unseeded Klara Zakopalova of the Czech Republic 6-2, 4-6, 6-1 Friday in the quarterfinals of the $220,000 tournament in Seoul, South Korea.
   It was King's first loss to Zakopalova in four career meetings. Both players are 5-foot-5. The 29-year-old Zakopalova is ranked No. 43, and the 22-year-old King is No. 98.
   Zakopalova will meet sixth-seeded Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez of Spain in one semifinal, and fifth-seeded Polona Hercog of Slovenia will play unseeded Galina Voskoboeva of Kazakhstan in the other.
   Tiburon Challenger -- The field for the $100,000 First Republic Bank Tiburon Challenger, Oct. 10-16 at the Tiburon Peninsula Club, is much the same as for the $100,000 Natomas/USTA Challenger in Sacramento the previous week.
   The primary difference is San Francisco native Sam Querrey playing in Tiburon instead of James Blake. Entered in both tournaments are Fernando Gonzalez of Chile, Ivo Karlovic of Croatia, Robby Ginepri of Kennesaw, Ga., and Jack Sock of Lincoln, Neb.
   Blake and Gonzalez, both 31, are former top-five players. Karlovic, 32, and Ginepri, 28, reached the top 15. All four are coming back from serious injuries. Sock, 18, won the mixed doubles title in the recent U.S. Open with Melanie Oudin.
   Costa Mesa Futures -- Kiryl Harbatsiuk, a former Sacramento State standout from Belarus, lost to John-Patrick Smith of Australia 7-5, 6-4 in the second round of the $10,000 Costa Mesa Tennis Classic.
   Both players completed their collegiate eligibility in May. Smith, who starred at Tennessee, became the second player in college tennis history to be named a four-time All-American in singles and doubles. He joined Rick Leach of USC (1984-87).

Schnack turns match around in Redding

   REDDING -- One of tennis' many allures is how quickly a match can turn around.
   Consider Yasmin Schnack's first-round encounter in the $25,000 Oak River Rehab Challenger.
   Seeded eighth, the 23-year-old Elk Grove resident trailed 5-2 in the first set against lucky loser Yolande Leacock, the only ranked player from the Caribbean islands of Trinidad and Tobago at No. 925 in the world.
   Schnack then reeled off 11 straight games to win 7-5, 6-0 Tuesday at Sun Oaks Tennis and Fitness.
    "I got off to a really slow start," the former UCLA All-American conceded. "I told myself, 'Fight for every point and make her win it. I was giving it to her. Give her credit -- she played well. But I took a couple deep breaths and said, 'Get some balls in the court and see what she can do.' "
   Unlike most players, Schnack is comfortable at the net.
   "I definitely wanted to go out playing super aggressively, come to the net and put pressure on her, but I was going for too much," the 5-foot-10 Schnack said. "I slowed it down a little bit. I was still aggressive but with a greater margin of error. I played smarter tennis."
   Schnack will meet her doubles partner and former USC rival, Maria Sanchez of Modesto, on Thursday in the second round.
   "I hate it when the draw is like that," said Schnack, seeded first with Sanchez. "It will definitely be a battle. She's a great player, but that's what we come out here for -- to battle for titles."
   Schnack is making her fourth appearance in the tournament. She has reached the singles quarterfinals twice, as a 17-year-old amateur and last year in her professional debut. She also won the 2010 doubles title with Sacramento native Christina Fusano, who retired two weeks ago.
   "This is the closest (USTA Pro Circuit) tournament to Sacramento," said Schnack, whose parents, William and Candida, attended Tuesday's match. "It's nice that my family can come here. It's a treat for me.
   "I love this place. I've always done well here, and everyone is so friendly. I don't have one bad thing to say about this place."
   Schnack, last year's Pacific-10 Conference Women's Player of the Year and a member of UCLA's 2008 national championship team, has skyrocketed more than 200 places in the singles world rankings this year to No. 379 and to No. 223 in doubles.
   She came within a match tiebreaker of her first Grand Slam appearance, falling in the mixed doubles final of last month's U.S. Open National Playoffs with Eric Roberson of Sacramento to Fusano and former Stanford All-American David Martin.
   Schnack said she has enjoyed her first year as a pro.
   "I've experienced a lot, and my game has improved. It's very tough on the circuit, grinding and traveling from tournament to tournament. My goal is to play in the Grand Slams, and I'm getting pretty close. I've gone to different countries and experienced different cultures. I'm very happy at this stage of my life. I can't imagine doing anything else," Schnack said.
   Schnack considers playing for the Sacramento Capitals of World TeamTennis in July as the highlight of her brief career. She finished fifth among 19 regulars in women's doubles, sixth among 15 part-time players in women's singles and eighth among 24 part-timers in mixed doubles.
   "It was so much fun," Schnack said. "I learned a lot from my teammates, and playing former No. 1s (Martina Hingis and Serena Williams) was a tremendous opportunity. I hope I get the opportunity to play team tennis next year, and it would be even better to play for the Capitals again."
    Schnack faced Hingis and Williams in consecutive matches, losing 5-1 and 5-0 in singles, respectively, but winning in women's doubles against Hingis and in mixed doubles against Williams.
   "Both were very intimidating, but they have different game styles," Schnack said. "I got killed by Serena, but just being on the court with her was a great experience. Martina is very solid. She takes everything early and takes time away from you. She's not overpowering, but she's very smart."
   After a rough start Tuesday, Schnack showed her intelligence, too.
   Men's Futures -- Seeded seventh in singles and second in doubles, former Sacramento State star Kiryl Harbatsiuk lost in the opening round of each event at the $10,000 Pomona Valley Hospital USTA Pro Circuit Event in Claremont.
   The native of Minsk, Belarus, fell to Darian King of Barbados 7-6 (4), 5-7, 6-3, then teamed with Boris Nicola Bakalov of Bulgaria in a 6-3, 3-6, 13-11 tiebreak loss to Jeremy Hunter Nicholas of the United States and Javier Pulgar-Garcia of Spain.  
  
  
   

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).
  

Lipsky advances in Cincinnati doubles; new rankings

   Although Scott Lipsky was born and raised on Long Island and lives in Huntington Beach, he has several Northern California ties.
   Lipsky starred at Stanford, won the doubles titles in the 2005 (inaugural) Sacramento Challenger and this year's SAP Open in San Jose, and is coached by Woodland product Scott McCain.
   Lipsky, a 30-year-old doubles specialist, continued his strong year Monday night as he and Bruno Soares of Brazil defeated Mark Knowles of the Sacramento Capitals and Xavier Malisse of Belgium 6-4, 7-5 in the first round of the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati.
   The winners will meet seventh-seeded Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski, both of Poland, in the second round.
   Lipsky has improved from No. 55 in the world in doubles at the beginning of the year to No. 29, three spots below his career high last month. In addition to winning his first Grand Slam title (French Open mixed doubles with Casey Dellacqua of Australia), he has captured three men's doubles titles on the ATP Tour and three on the Challenger circuit this year.
   In the Barcelona final on clay in April, Lipsky and Santiago Gonzalez of Mexico edged Bob and Mike Bryan, arguably the greatest men's doubles team of all time, 5-7, 6-2 (10-8 match tiebreaker).
   New rankings -- Following are this week's world rankings of other players with Northern California connections (change from last week in parentheses):

Women

   Vania King, Capitals -- No. 7 in doubles (no change), No. 89 in singles (-6).
   Raquel Kops-Jones, 2003 NCAA doubles champion from Cal -- No. 52 in doubles (+2), no singles ranking.
   Christina Fusano, Sacramento native, 2003 NCAA doubles champion from Cal, Plymouth resident -- No. 175 in doubles (+1), no singles ranking.
   Yasmin Schnack, Elk Grove resident -- No. 221 in doubles (no change), No. 381 in singles (-2).

Men

   Bob Bryan, 1998 NCAA doubles champion from Stanford -- No. 1 in doubles, no singles ranking.
   Mike Bryan, 1998 NCAA doubles champion from Stanford --  No. 1 in doubles, no singles ranking.
   Knowles -- No. 31 in doubles (-1), no singles ranking.
   Dmitry Tursunov, Folsom resident -- No. 44 in singles (+1), No. 94 in doubles (no change).
   David Martin, former Stanford All-American -- No. 102 in doubles (-4), No. 698 in singles (+6).
   Jimmy Wang, Folsom resident -- No. 383 in singles (+1), No. 672 in doubles (-3).
   Dusan Vemic, Capitals -- No. 496 in doubles (-210), No. 1,496 in singles (+2).
   Kiryl Harbatsiuk, former Sacramento State star -- No. 710 in singles (+83), No. 1,027 in doubles (+151).
        

Harbatsiuk has bad luck; Tsodikov falls in juniors

   The tennis gods were not on Kiryl Harbatsiuk's side Tuesday.
   But the former Sacramento State star made the best of it.
   On the first day of the $10,000 Edwardsville (Ill.) Futures, Harbatsiuk lost to the second seed in singles but teamed with Boris Nicola Bakalov of Bulgaria to knock off the top seeds in doubles.
   Harbatsiuk, a native of Minsk, Belarus, fell to Blake Strode 6-4, 6-3 but won 7-6 (6), 6-2 against Erik Crepaldi of Italy and Tal Eros of Israel.
   Harbatsiuk, arguably the best men’s tennis player in Sac State history, turned pro in June after completing his eligibility. A three-time Big Sky Conference MVP and first-team all-conference selection all four years, he  also was named Sac State’s Male Student-Athlete of the Year in April.
   Strode, a former University of Arkansas All-American, has deferred his acceptance to Harvard Law School to play professional tennis.
   USTA junior nationals -- Seventeenth-seeded Anthony Tsodikov of San Francisco lost to top-seeded Jack Sock of Lincoln, Neb., 6-1, 6-1 in the fourth round of 18 singles at the USTA Boys National Championships in Kalamazoo, Mich.
   Sock, the defending champion and 2010 U.S. Open boys champion, turned pro two weeks ago after graduating from high school. He will face 10th-seeded Emmett Egger of Issaqua, Wash., in the round of 16.
   Egger won the boys 18 singles title in the West Coast Junior Championships at the Rio del Oro Racquet Club in Sacramento last month. He will play on scholarship at the University of Washington in the fall.
   In 16 singles in Kalamazoo, top-seeded Connor Farren of Hillsborough defeated 18th-seeded Elliott Orkin of Marietta, Ga., 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 to reach the round of 16.
   In San Diego, 10th-seeded Ellen Tsay of Pleasanton and unseeded Mary K. Closs of Menlo Park advanced to the round of 16 in 18 and 16 singles, respectively, at the USTA Girls National Championships.
   In San Antonio, second-seeded Cameron Klinger of San Jose moved into the boys 14 singles quarterfinals, but 13th-seeded Victor Pham of Saratoga lost to sixth-seeded Catalin Mateas of Braintree, Mass., 6-2, 6-1.
   In North Little Rock, Ark., eighth-seeded Sam Riffice of Roseville gained the boys 12 singles quarterfinals, in which he will face top-seeded Nathan Perrone of Mount Laurel, N.J. Jenson Brooksby of Sacramento and Keenan Mayo of Roseville fell in the second round earlier in the tournament.  
   In Alpharetta, Ga., top-seeded Catherine Bellis of Atherton and fifth-seeded Michaela Gordon of Los Altos Hills reached the girls 12 singles quarterfinals. However, 16th-seeded Katya Tabachnik of San Francisco lost to fourth-seeded Anna Bright of Fort Worth, Texas, 6-1, 6-1 in the round of 16.   


      

Defending champ Knowles falls; other results

   Mark Knowles, a longtime Sacramento Capital from the Bahamas, and Xavier Malisse of Belgium lost to Robert Lindstedt of Sweden and Horia Tecau of Romania 6-4, 6-4 Friday in the doubles quarterfinals at the $1,166,400 Legg Mason Tennis Classic in Washington, D.C.
  Knowles, 39, was the defending champion with Mardy Fish. They broke up at the end of last year because Fish wanted to concentrate on singles, Knowles said in March. Lindstedt and Tecau have lost in the past two Wimbledon finals.
   Knowles' teammate on the Capitals, Vania King, fell to 16th-seeded Sara Errani of Italy 6-3, 6-2 in the second round of singles at the $721,000 Mercury Insurance Open in Carlsbad. King, who won the women's doubles title at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open last year (both with Yaroslava Shvedova), did not play doubles in Carlsbad.
   Men's Futures -- Kiryl Harbatsiuk, a former Sacramento State star, lost to Tennys Sandgren of Gallatin, Tenn., 1-6, 6-4, 6-0 in the semifinals of the $10,000 USTA/Ursula Beck Pro Tennis Classic in Decatur, Ill.
   Harbatsiuk equaled his best result since turning pro in June.
   Sandgren, an NCAA singles semifinalist at Stanford in May who will be a junior at Tennessee in the fall, is seeking his second title in two weeks. He will face third-seeded Bassam Beidas, a former Pepperdine All-American from Lebanon, in Sunday's final.
   USTA junior nationals -- Matthew Alves of Gold River defeated Hudson Barnhart of Wenatchee, Wash., 7-6 (6), 6-1 in the second round of the USTA Boys 18 National Championships in Kalamazoo, Mich.
   No. 17 seed Anthony Tsodikov of San Francisco also advanced, but No. 32 Eric Johnson of San Jose fell to Jordan Daigle of Lafayette, La., 6-2, 6-3.
   Kassidy Jump of Granite Bay beat Vivian Cheng of Woodbury, N.Y., 6-3, 6-4 in the first round of the girls 16s in San Diego.

Tursunov falls to Monfils; other results

   Fifteenth-seeded Dmitry Tursunov of Folsom lost to top-seeded Gael Monfils of France 6-2, 7-6 (9) Thursday in the third round of the $1,166,400 Legg Mason Tennis Classic in Washington, D.C.
   Tursunov, who underwent three operations on his left ankle or foot between March 2009 and February 2010, has fought his way back to No. 45 in the world rankings after reaching a career high of No. 20 in 2006.
   Women's $100,000 tournament -- The Sacramento-area team of Christina Fusano and Yasmin Schnack fell to third-seeded Monica Niculescu of Romania and Urszula Radwanska of Poland 6-4, 6-1 this week in the first round of doubles at the $100,000 Odlum Brown Vanopen in Vancouver, British Columbia.
   Radwanska is the younger sister of Agnieszka Radwanska, ranked 13th in the world in singles.
   Schnack, in her first full year as a professional after an All-America career at UCLA, lost in the second round of singles qualifying. Fusano plays only doubles.
   Men's Futures --Kiryl Harbatsiuk, a Belarus native who turned pro in June after starring at Sacramento State, upset seventh-seeded John Peers of Australia 6-3, 6-2 to reach the semifinals of the $10,000 USTA/Ursula Beck Pro Tennis Classic in Decatur, Ill.
   Harbatsiuk will face unseeded Tennys Sandgren, a junior-to-be at the University of Tennessee from Gallatin, Tenn. Sandgren, a singles semifinalist in the NCAA championships at Stanford in May, won his first pro title last week in singles at Godfrey, Ill.
   Habatsiuk also reached the doubles semifinals with Boris Nicola Bakalov of Bulgaria. Seeded third, they lost to unseeded Americans Devin Britton and Bradley Cox 6-3, 6-4.
   USTA junior nationals -- Matthew Alves of Gold River beat David Doehring of Fallbrook, Calif., 7-5, 6-3 in the first round of the USTA Boys 18 National Championships in Kalamazoo, Mich.

Wang's weird background, etc.

   Of all the players in the recent $15,000 Futures tournaments in Sacramento and Chico, Jimmy Wang almost certainly has the weirdest background.

   A 26-year-old Taiwanese veteran born in Saudi Arabia and given an American nickname, Wang reached a career-high No. 85 in the world in 2006 before missing three years because of two operations on his right (playing) wrist.

   Wang’s mother worked as a physician in Saudi Arabia, but the family moved back to Taiwan when Jimmy was 3 months old. His nickname has nothing to do with Jimmy Connors. When Wang was 8, an English teacher dubbed him Jimmy. His given name is Yeu-Tzuoo.

   Ten years ago in the juniors, Wang reached the Australian Open and U.S. Open finals and the Wimbledon semifinals to ascend to No. 3 in the world. After graduating to the men’s tour, he advanced to the second round in three Grand Slam tournaments (the Australian Open in 2006 and Wimbledon in 2006 and 2007).

   But then Wang sat out from November 2007 to November last year while undergoing surgery for a torn ligament and then a bone spur. When asked how he hurt his wrist, Wang said, “I wish I knew.”

   After dropping out of the rankings, Wang has soared from No. 1,009 to No. 491 since his return. He reached the singles semifinals of the Park Terrace Pro Tennis tournament in Sacramento and teamed with his coach, Vahe Assadourian of the Gorin Tennis Academy in Granite Bay, to win the doubles title of the Balbutin’s Chico Pharmacy Tennis Classic.

   “It’s good to be back,” Wang said. “I don’t know how to describe (how much I missed tennis). Every day I followed tennis. I grew up in tennis. My whole family played. It’s what I’m used to.”

   He’s changing his game to Wang 2.0, though.

   “I’m more aggressive,” he said. “I’m changing the technique on my serve and forehand and the way I move. I’m sick of the old way. I’m updating myself.”

   Oh, brother – France’s Antoine Benneteau, a singles semifinalist in the Park Terrace tournament, is the younger brother of Julien Benneteau, ranked 106^th in the world after climbing to a career-high No. 32 last July.

   Christian Harrison, a 17-year-old resident of Bradenton, Fla, who lost in the first round of Park Terrace, is the brother of Ryan Harrison, ranked No. 101 in the world at 19 years old.

   Oh, Canada – Growing up in Vancouver, British Columbia, Philip Bester played tennis instead of hockey.

   “But sometimes I think to myself that in my future life, I would really love to be a hockey player,” the 22-year-old Chico singles champion said. “I’m a huge hockey fan.”

   Bester’s beloved Vancouver Canucks recently lost to the visiting Boston Bruins in the deciding seventh game of the Stanley Cup Finals.

   “It was very disappointing, more so what a small group of people did afterward with all the rioting downtown, but it was a very entertaining season that the Canucks put up,” said Bester, who attended Games 1 and 2 in Vancouver. “We’ll get (the Stanley Cup) next year.”

   Learning self-reliance – Sometimes, it’s better not to have a coach.

   “Last year, I was without a coach, and I felt that helped me the most,” Bester said. “I was just figuring out things on my own and not having somebody else tell me.”

  The 229^th-ranked Bester, however, resumed working with Jon Sorbo of Toronto at the beginning of this year.

   Wish you were here – Florida apparently agrees with Granite Bay resident Artem Ilyushin and former Sacramento State star Kiryl Harbatsiuk.
   Ilyushin, a native of Vladivostok, Russia, who recently completed his junior year at Mississippi State, reached his first Futures final Saturday. Unseeded, he fell to eighth-seeded Rhyne Williams, the runner-up in the NCAA championships at Stanford in May as a Tennessee sophomore, 4-6, 6-2, 7-5 Sunday in the $10,000 PressEx Print Open in Innisbrook, Fla.
   In doubles, Ilyushin advanced to the final of last week's $10,000 MIMA Foundation Pro Tennis Classic in Indian Harbour Beach, Fla., and the semifinals in Innisbrook.
   Harbatsiuk -- a native of Minsk, Belarus, playing in his third tournament as a professional -- reached the singles semifinals in Indian Harbour Beach. He beat Ilyushin 6-3, 6-3 in the quarterfinals before falling to top seed and eventual champion Jesse Levine by the same score.