Oh, brother: Bryans, Murrays to meet

Andy Murray slugs a forehand during his quarter-
final victory over Kei Nishikori at the Australian
Open in January.

   Family pride will be at stake Thursday in the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters.
   Identical twins Bob and Mike Bryan, the top seeds and defending champions in doubles, will face brothers Andy and Jamie Murray for the first time in the second round. It's not known when the last time two sets of brothers met on the ATP World Tour.
   Andy, 24, and Jamie, 26, set up the intriguing match with a 6-4, 6-3 victory over Santiago Gonzalez of Mexico and Christopher Kas of Germany. It was the Murrays' first win together on clay.
   The Bryans, former NCAA doubles champions from Stanford who will turn 34 on April 29, received a first-round bye. They also won the Monte Carlo title in 2007.
   The Bryans grew up in Camarillo in the Los Angeles area and the Murrays in Scotland.
   Andy Murray won his first ATP World Tour singles title in San Jose at 18 years old in 2006 and repeated the following year. Jamie won the 2007 doubles title in San Jose with Eric Butorac, who played for the Sacramento Capitals of World TeamTennis in 2008.
   Curiously, the Bryans have never won the San Jose crown in nine attempts. They have reached one final there, losing to former NCAA doubles finalists Scott Lipsky and David Martin of Stanford in 2008.
   In another first-round doubles match in Monte Carlo, Spaniards Marcel Granollers and Marc Lopez eliminated Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi of Pakistan and Jean-Julien Rojer, a product of Netherlands Antilles who will make his Capitals debut in July, 6-4, 6-4.
   Men's Challenger in Sarasota, Fla. -- Sixth-seeded Sam Querrey, a San Francisco native, wore down Horacio Zeballos of Argentina 3-6, 6-4, 6-1 in the opening round of the $100,000 Sarasota Open on clay.
   Men's Futures in Little Rock, Ark. -- Peter Aarts of the United States and Daniel Chu of Canada edged Dean O'Brien of South Africa and Pedro Zerbini, a former Cal star from Brazil, 6-2, 3-6, 10-8 tiebreak in the first round of the $15,000 St. Vincent Tour de Paul Tournament.
   ITF Women's Circuit in Dothan, Ala. -- In an all-American battle, Julia Cohen and Chi Chi Scholl nipped Alexandra Mueller and the Capitals' Asia Muhammed 4-6, 7-5, 10-5 tiebreak in the opening round of the $50,000 Dothan Pro Classic.
   Colleges -- It's been a big week of Artem Ilyushin.
   On Monday, the Mississippi State senior from the Sacramento suburb of Granite Bay was named the Southeastern Conference Men's Player of the Week for the second time this season. Ilyushin beat 14th-ranked Nik Scholtz of then-No. 14 Mississippi 6-4, 6-1 at the top position to clinch No. 9 Mississippi State's 4-3 victory Saturday in Oxford, Miss. That gave the Bulldogs (18-5, 9-2) their second straight SEC Western Division championship.
   On Tuesday, Ilyushin cracked the top 10 in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association rankings for the first time. He rose two spots to No. 10.
   Meanwhile, three of the top six women's singles players in the nation and two of the top five doubles teams play for Stanford or Cal. In singles, Stanford sophomore Nicole Gibbs ranks fourth, Cardinal junior Mallory Burdette fifth and Cal senior Jana Juricova sixth. In doubles, Burdette and Gibbs are second, and Cal's Annie Goransson and Anett Schutting are fifth.
   Here are this week's rankings of Northern California teams and players in Division I:
   Men's team -- 12. Stanford; 14. Cal; 30. Santa Clara.
   Men's singles -- 10. Ilyushin, Mississippi State; 31. Ryan Thacher, Stanford; 41. Ben McLachlan, Cal; 45. Bradley Klahn, Stanford; 48. Nick Andrews (Folsom), Cal; 58. Carlos Cueto, Cal; 68. Kyle Dandan, Santa Clara.
   Men's doubles -- 5. Andrews and Christoffer Konigsfeldt, Cal; 7. Klahn and Thacher, Stanford; 35. George Coupland and Ilyushin, Mississippi State; 47. Cueto and McLachlan, Cal; 52. John Morrissey and Thacher, Stanford; 84. Ilya Osintev and John Lamble, Santa Clara.
   Women's team -- 5. Stanford; 10. Cal; 42. Saint Mary's; 52. Sacramento State.
   Women's singles -- 4. Gibbs, Stanford; 5. Burdette, Stanford; 6. Juricova, Cal; 11. Zsofi Susanyi, Cal; 22. Denise Dy (San Jose), Washington; 48. Katie Le, Santa Clara; 54. Stacey Tan, Stanford; 57. Tayler Davis (San Jose), Cal; 61. Ellen Tsay, Stanford; 79. Goransson, Cal; 91. Jenny Jullien, Saint Mary's; 93. Schutting, Cal; 105. Catherine Isip, Saint Mary's.
   Women's doubles -- 2. Burdette and Gibbs, Stanford; 5. Goransson and Schutting, Cal; 15. Juricova and Susanyi, Cal; 29. Tan and Tsay, Stanford; 68. Rebeca Delgado and Tatsiana Kapshai, Sac State.

King-Shvedova end year with loss in elite tournament

   It's tough to call a year in which doubles partners Vania King and Yaroslava Shvedova reached the U.S. Open final and the season-culminating WTA Championships disappointing.
   But they set a very high standard.
   The third-seeded team of King, a member of the Sacramento Capitals living in Boynton Beach, Fla., and Shvedova, a Moscow native who plays for Kazakhstan, ended its 2011 season with a 6-3, 6-4 loss Saturday to top-seeded Kveta Peschke of the Czech Republic and Katarina Srebotnik of Slovenia in the semifinals (first round) of the TEB BNP Paribas WTA Championships in Istanbul.
   King and Shvedova, who became partners in June 2010, are still looking for their first victory in the WTA Championships, featuring the top eight singles players and four best doubles teams of the year in the point standings. They also lost in the semifinals last year.  
   For the second consecutive year, King and Shvedova won two titles. But they won Wimbledon and the U.S. Open in 2010 and no Grand Slams this year. They almost repeated at the U.S. Open, falling to Americans Liezel Huber and Lisa Raymond 4-6, 7-6 (5), 7-6 (3) in the final.
   Shvedova served for the U.S. Open crown at 5-4 in the second set. She also had the match on her racket at 5-4 in the second-set tiebreaker but double-faulted, and she and King lost the next point after Shvedova's 76-mph first serve.
  After the U.S. Open, King and Shvedova reached the semifinals in Tokyo and Beijing and the final in Osaka and won the title in Moscow before coming to Istanbul.
   When asked on Twitter to rate her 2011 season, King wrote, "not as good as last years, but hard to compare! But solid second half, esp from us open on."
   To read King and Shvedova's latest blog from Istanbul, go to wtatennis.com. 
   In the other semifinal, the second-seeded Huber and Raymond edged No. 4 seeds and defending champions Gisela Dulko of Argentina and Flavia Pennetta of Italy 4-6, 6-3, 10-7 tiebreak. Huber and Raymond trailed 3-6 in the match tiebreaker.
  Below are Saturday's singles and doubles results and Sunday's schedule. Tennis Channel will broadcast the doubles final at 5:30 a.m. PDT (live) and 2:30 p.m. (taped) and the singles final between third-seeded Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic and fourth-seeded Victoria Azarenka of Belarus at 5 p.m. (taped).
   Bryans reach final --Top-seeded Bob and Mike Bryan, former Stanford All-Americans living in Wesley Chapel, Fla., advanced to their 10th final of the year with a 6-3, 6-2 victory over fourth-seeded Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski of Poland in the $905,000 Erste Bank Open in Vienna.
   The Bryan twins are playing in Vienna for the first time since 2002. They will seek their seventh title of the year, but first since winning their second Wimbledon crown in July, when they face second-seeded Max Mirnyi of Belarus and Daniel Nestor of Canada.
  Ilyushin eliminated -- Unseeded Artem Ilyushin, a Mississippi State senior from Granite Bay, lost to top-seeded Nicolas Devilder of France 6-4, 6-2 Friday in the quarterfinals of the $10,000 Players' Choice Open in Birmingham, Ala. 

TEB BNP PARIBAS WTA CHAMPIONSHIPS

In Istanbul

Singles semifinals

   Petra Kvitova (3), Czech Republic, def. Samantha Stosur (7), Australia, 5-7, 6-3, 63. Victoria Azarenka (4), Belarus, def. Vera Zvonareva (6), Russia, 6-2, 6-3.

Doubles semifinals 

   Kveta Peschke, Czech Republic, and Katarina Srebotnik (1), Slovenia, def. Vania King, Boynton Beach, Fla., and Yaroslava Shvedova (3), Kazakhstan, 6-3, 6-4.
    Liezel Huber, Houston, and Lisa Raymond (2), Wayne, Pa., def. Gisela Dulko, Argentina (4), and Flavia Pennetta, Italy, 4-6, 6-3, 10-7 tiebreak.

Sunday's schedule

(Beginning at 5:30 a.m. PDT)

   Peschke and Srebotnik (1) vs. Huber and Raymond (2), Kvitova (3) vs. Azarenka (4) not before 7 a.m. PDT.

King, Shvedova to face Peschke, Srebotnik

   Vania King and Yaroslava Shvedova figure to be the underdogs when they play Kveta Peschke and Katarina Srebotnik on Saturday in the semifinals (first round) of doubles at the TEB BNP Paribas WTA Championships in Istanbul.
  Peschke, a 36-year-old Czech, and Srebotnik, a 30-year-old Slovenian, have won a WTA-high six titles this year. Among them was Wimbledon for their first Grand Slam crown.
   Peschke and Srebotnik became the first team to qualify for the WTA Championships, featuring the top eight singles players and top four doubles teams in this year's standings. They also reached last year's final, losing to Gisela Duko of Argentina and Flavia Pennetta of Italy.
   King, a 22-year-old American who plays for the Sacramento Capitals of World TeamTennis, and Shvedova, a 24-year-old Moscow native who competes for Kazakhstan, have won two titles this year (Cincinnati in August and Moscow last week). They also lost a heartbreaker in the U.S. Open final as the defending champions.
   King and Shvedova are 2-1 lifetime against Peschke and Srebotnik but lost the most recent meeting 6-4, 6-4 indoors in the Beijing semifinals three weeks ago. The WTA Championships also are indoors.
   "We've played them a few times and had a good match against them in Beijing so we can't wait to play!" Shvedova blogged at wtatennis.com.
   In the other semifinal, Australian Open champions Dulko and Pennetta will face U.S. Open winners Liezel Huber and Lisa Raymond.
   Below are this week's singles results and Friday's schedule (live on Tennis Channel at 7 a.m. PDT and taped at 4 p.m.).
   Bryans survive -- No. 1 seeds and former Stanford All-Americans Bob and Mike Bryan saved one match point in a 6-7 (9), 7-6 (4), 11-9 tiebreak victory over Christopher Kas of Germany and Alexander Peya of Austria in the first round of doubles at the $905,000 Erste Bank Open in Vienna.
   The Bryans are playing in Vienna for the second time after a nine-year absence.
   Tursunov ousted -- Eighth-seeded Dmitry Tursunov, a Moscow native living in Folsom, lost to Potito Starace of Italy 6-2, 6-4 in the second round of the $663,750 St. Petersburg (Russia) Open.
   Tursunov, a semifinalist in St. Petersburg last year, fell to 0-3 lifetime against Starace. The first two matches were on clay. St. Petersburg is played on an indoor hardcourt.
   Ilyushin advances -- Artem Ilyushin, a senior at Mississippi State from Granite Bay, beat wild card Austin Smith of Atlanta 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 in the second round of the $10,000 Players' Choice Open in Birmingham, Ala.
   Ilyushin will meet top-seeded Nicolas Devilder of France in Friday's quarterfinals.

TEB BNP PARIBAS WTA CHAMPIONSHIPS

In Istanbul

Tuesday's results

Round Robin -- Red Group

   (1) Caroline Wozniaki (DEN) d. (8) Agnieszka Radwanska (POL) 5-7, 6-2, 6-4. 

   (3) Petra Kvitova (CZE) d. (6) Vera Zvonareva (RUS) 6-2, 6-4.

Round Robin -- White Group

   (7) Samantha Stosur (AUS) d. (2) Maria Sharapova (RUS) 6-1, 7-5.

Wednesday's results

Round Robin -- Red Group

   (6) Vera Zvonareva (RUS) d. (1) Caroline Wozniaki (DEN) 6-2, 4-6, 6-3.

Round Robin -- White Group

   (5) Li Na (CHN) d. (2) Maria Sharapova ((RUS) 7-6 (4), 6-4.

   (4) Victoria Azarenka (BLR) d. (7) Samantha Stosur (AUS) 6-2, 6-2.

Thursday's results
Singles

Round Robin -- Red Group

(3) Petra Kvitova (CZE) d. (1) Caroline Wozniacki (DEN) 64 62 (Kvitova qualifies for semifinals).
(8) Agnieszka Radwanska (POL) d. (6) Vera Zvonareva (RUS) 16 62 75 (saved three match points).

Round Robin - White Group

(4) Victoria Azarenka (BLR) d. (5) Li Na (CHN) 62 62 (Azarenka qualifies for semifinals).

Friday's schedule
(Beginning at 7 a.m. PDT)

1. Li Na vs. Samantha Stosur.
2. Petra Kvitova vs. Agnieszka Radwanska.
3. Marion Bartoli (substitute for injured Maria Sharapova) vs. Victoria Azarenka.

Lipsky continues skid after strong first half of year

   Scott Lipsky had an outstanding first half of the year.
   The second half has been another story.
   The doubles specialist and former Stanford All-American suffered his fourth consecutive first-round loss Wednesday, falling with Rajeev Ram to Oliver Marach of Austria and David Marrero of Spain 7-6 (7), 6-1 in the $905,000 Erste Bank Open in Vienna.
   Playing primarily with Ram, Lipsky won three ATP World Tour titles (San Jose, Delray Beach and Barcelona) and three Challenger crowns (Singapore, Dallas and Athens) and reached another ATP final (Johannesburg) from January through April.
   In the Barcelona final on clay, Lipsky and first-time partner Santiago Gonzalez of Mexico saved four match points and beat Bob and Mike Bryan, arguably the greatest doubles team in history, 5-7, 6-2, 12-10 tiebreak.
   Lipsky, the doubles champion of the inaugural Sacramento Challenger in 2005 with ex-Stanford teammate David Martin, also reached the French Open quarterfinals with Ram and won the mixed doubles title there with Casey Dellacqua of Australia for his first Grand Slam crown.
   Since then, however, Lipsky's best results have been two semifinals on the ATP World Tour. The 30-year-old Huntington Beach resident is ranked 27th in doubles, down from his career high of No. 25 on Oct. 3.
   WTA Championships -- As Vania King of the Sacramento Capitals noted in her blog from the TEB BNP Paribas WTA Championships in Istanbul, the doubles draw will be held Thursday. King is playing with Kazakhstan's Yaroslava Shvedova, who's also blogging at wtatennis.com.
   The four-team doubles field also features Kveta Peschke of the Czech Republic and Katarina Srebotnik of Slovenia, Americans Liezel Huber and Lisa Raymond, and defending champions Gisela Dulko of Argentina and Flavia Pennetta of Italy.
   Ilyushin falls in doubles -- Artem Ilyushin, a senior at Mississippi State from Granite Bay, and Gilad Ben Zvi of Israel lost to Andrei Daescu of Romania and Milan Pokrajac of Canada 7-6 (6), 6-3 in the doubles quarterfinals of the $10,000 Players' Choice Open in Birmingham, Ala.
   Ilyushin is scheduled to meet wild card Austin Smith of Atlanta on Thursday in the second round of singles.

Sacramento finalists lose early in Vienna

   It was a bad day for the finalists of the recent $100,000 Sacramento Challenger.
   Champion Ivo Karlovic and runner-up James Blake lost Tuesday in the first round of the $905,000 Erste Bank Open in Vienna.
   The 6-foot-10 Karlovic, 32, retired with a back injury after losing the first set 7-6 (4) to qualifier Aljaz Bedene of Slovenia. Karlovic was playing in his first tournament since winning Sacramento and the $100,000 Tiburon Challenger back to back.
   Blake, 31, fell to Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain 6-2, 5-7, 6-4 in their first meeting in six years.
   Tursunov advances -- Eighth-seeded Dmitry Tursunov, a Moscow native living in Folsom, improved to 4-0 against qualifier Teymuraz Gabashvili, a Georgia native who plays for Russia, with a 7-5, 6-3 victory in the first round of the $663,750 St. Petersburg (Russia) Open.
   Tursunov, a semifinalist in St. Petersburg last year, will face Potito Starace of Italy for the first time in five years in the second round. Starace, 30, is 2-0 against Tursunov, but both matches were on clay.
   King, Shvedova blog -- Vania King of the Sacramento Capitals and Yaroslava Shvedova are blogging daily from Istanbul, where they'll compete in doubles this week in the WTA Championships. Here's the link to their latest post:
www.wtatennis.com/blog/20111025/vania-slavas-istanbul-blog-tuesday_2257191_2494282
   Ilyushin triumphs -- Artem Ilyushin, a senior at Mississippi State from Granite Bay, upset his doubles partner, seventh-seeded Gilad Ben Zvi of Israel, 7-5, 7-5 in the first round of the $10,000 Player's Choice Open in Birmingham, Ala.

   Ben Zvi and Ilyushin, meanwhile, knocked off second-seeded Haydn Lewis of Barbados and Marvin Rolle of the Bahamas 6-4, 3-6, 10-3 tiebreak in the first round of doubles.

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.