Brooksby breakthrough highlights top stories of 2021

Jenson Brooksby waits to return serve during practice at the BNP Paribas Open
in Indian Wells in October. Photo by Paul Bauman

   Amid the ongoing pandemic, it was a banner year in Northern California tennis.

   Two players won prestigious ATP awards, and a former Sacramento Capital in World TeamTennis reached the French Open final.

   A coach with strong NorCal ties helped a WTA player soar into the top 10 and reach the title match in the WTA Finals, and two doubles stars qualified for the season-ending tournament for the first time.

   A Sacramento native helped his team win the NCAA team championship, then snagged the singles title.

   And more.

   Here are my picks for the top 10 stories of 2020 with 10 honorable mentions:

   1. Brooksby voted ATP Newcomer of Year — Jenson Brooksby, a lifelong Sacramento-area resident who turned 21 in October, skyrocketed from No. 307 to No. 56 in 10 months. He reached his maiden ATP Tour final in Newport, R.I., in his first tournament ever on grass, losing to two-time Grand Slam runner-up Kevin Anderson, and the round of 16 in the U.S. Open, steamrolling Novak Djokovic 6-1 in the first set before falling in four sets.

   Fifteen days after the Newport final, Brooksby beat the 6-foot-8 (2.03-meter) Anderson en route to the semifinals in Washington, D.C. Brooksby also advanced to the Antwerp semis in October as a qualifier.

Mackenzie McDonald lines up a forehand during his first-
round victory over James Duckworth in the BNP Paribas
Open. Photo by Paul Bauman

   2. McDonald voted ATP Comeback Player of Year — Mackenzie McDonald, a 26-year-old product of Piedmont in the San Francisco Bay Area, underwent right hamstring surgery in June 2019 and fell as low as No. 272 in March 2020.

   This year, McDonald reached the round of 16 in the Australian Open, advanced to his first ATP final in Washington, D.C., and climbed to a career-high No. 54 on Nov. 1.

   3. Ex-Capital reaches French Open final — Unseeded Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic outlasted No. 31 seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia 6-1, 3-6, 6-4 in the first Grand Slam final for both players.

   Pavlyuchenkova, who played for the Sacramento Capitals of World TeamTennis as the world's top junior at 15 in 2006, hurt her left leg late in the second set.

   4. Kontaveit cracks top 10, reaches WTA Finals title match under Tursunov — After hiring coach Dmitry Tursunov in August, Anett Kontaveit of Estonia won four titles, jumped from No. 30 to No. 7 and advanced to the WTA Finals for the first time.  

   Garbiñe Muguruza, seeded sixth, defeated Kontaveit, seeded eighth, 6-3, 7-5 in the final of the season-ending tournament in Guadalajara, Mexico. Tursunov, a 39-year-old Moscow native, trained in Northern California as a junior and professional. 

   5. Shibahara, Olmos qualify for WTA Finals — Doubles specialists Ena Shibahara, who was born in the Bay Area, and Giuliana Olmos, who grew up there, qualified for the season-ending tournament for the first time separately. Second-seeded Shuko Aoyama and Shibahara advanced to the semifinals, while eighth-seeded Sharon Fichman and Olmos were eliminated in round-robin play. 

   Aoyama and Shibahara won a tour-leading five titles, including the Miami Open, in 2021. They also reached the Wimbledon semifinals and Australian Open quarterfinals. Fichman and Olmos won the Italian Open, gained the Australian Open quarterfinals and advanced to the round of 16 at Wimbledon.

Sam Riffice, far left, poses 10 years ago at age 12 with Roger
Federer at the La Quinta Resort in the Palm Springs area. Also
shown are Riffice's coach, Amine Khaldi (second from left), and
Khaldi's friend Steve Mohibi. Photo courtesy of Amine Khaldi

   6. Riffice helps Florida win NCAA title, adds singles crown — Sam Riffice, who was born in Sacramento and grew up in suburban Roseville, won at No. 2 singles and doubles as the top-seeded Gators beat second-seeded Baylor 4-1 in Orlando, Fla., for the NCAA championship. 

   The sixth-seeded Riffice then topped second-seeded Daniel Rodrigues of South Carolina 3-6, 6-1, 6-4 for the singles title.

   7. Wimbledon champ commits to Stanford — Samir Banerjee, who won the Wimbledon boys singles title in July, verbally committed to Stanford.

   Banerjee, from Basking Ridge, N.J., defeated Victor Lilov of Raleigh, N.C., 7-5, 6-3 in the Wimbledon final. Both players were unseeded.

   8. Cal men's coach retires after 29 years — Peter Wright, a Berkeley native who turned 58 on Dec. 8, amassed a 383-256 record at Cal. He guided the Bears to the NCAA Championships 25 times, including a semifinal berth in 2016, and four appearances in the top 10.

   USC associate head coach Kris Kwinta, a 41-year-old Poland native, was chosen as Wright's replacement.

Fiery Danielle Collins exults after winning a point during the final of the
Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic in San Jose, Calif. Photo by Mal Taam

   9. Collins claims crown in San Jose — No. 7 seed Danielle Collins of St. Petersburg, Fla., defeated No. 4 seed Daria Kasatkina of Russia 6-3, 6-7 (10), 6-1 to win the Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic in San Jose, Calif.

   Collins, who turned 28 on Dec. 13, won her second consecutive title and the second of her career. She had surgery for endometriosis, a painful disorder in which tissue inside the uterus grows outside of it, in early April. Doctors removed a cyst the size of a tennis ball from her ovary.

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

   10. van Loben Sels ranked No. 1 nationally in 16s — The pandemic gave Emon van Loben Sels of Sacramento a needed break last year. He won a USTA Level 2 tournament in Newport Beach, Calif., in February and the Level 1 Spring Individual Championships in March in Mobile, Ala.

   Van Loben Sels' biggest asset is his passion for tennis, according to Kiryl Harbatsiuk, one of his coaches. The high school junior has verbally committed to UCLA.

   Honorable mention — Cameron Norrie, who won back-to-back Northern California Challengers in Tiburon and Stockton in 2017, won the prestigious BNP Paribas Open as the No. 21 seed.

   —Qualifier Mariia Kozyreva, a fifth-year senior at Saint Mary's College in Moraga in the Bay Area, shocked top-seeded Zheng Saisai, ranked No. 75, in the first round of the $60,000 Berkeley (Calif.) Challenger.

   —Katie Volynets, a resident of Walnut Creek in the Bay Area who turned 20 today, won her first professional title to crack the top 200.

   —Former Stanford star Nicole Gibbs retired at 27. The three-time NCAA champion (twice in singles and once in doubles) reached a career-high No. 68 in the world in 2016.

   —Johanna Konta, who won the 2016 Bank of the West Classic at Stanford, retired at 30.

   —Unseeded Usue Arconada won the Berkeley Challenger.

   —The Stanford women ended their longest losing streak in 40 years, three matches, with a 6-1 victory over USC in Los Angeles. 

   —Ethan Quinn of Fresno, Calif., reached the doubles final in the USTA Boys 18 National Championships in Kalamazoo, Mich., with Sebastian Gorzny and in the Orange Bowl in Plantation, Fla., with Nicholas Godsick.

   —Van Loben Sels advanced to the singles quarterfinals and doubles semifinals (with Dylan Tsoi of El Dorado Hills in the Sacramento area) in the USTA Boys 16 National Championships in Kalamazoo.

   —Wayne Thiebaud, a world-renowned artist from Sacramento who played tennis until just after his 100th birthday, died on Christmas at 101.

Muguruza conquers Kontaveit for title in WTA Finals

Garbiñe Muguruza excelled in the now-defunct Bank
of the West Classic at Stanford. 2017 photo by Mal Taam

   No. 6 seed Garbiñe Muguruza of Spain defeated No. 8 seed Anett Kontaveit of Estonia 6-3, 7-5 tonight to win the WTA Finals in Guadalajara, Mexico.

   Muguruza, a two-time Grand Slam singles champion, was the first Spaniard to reach the title match since Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario lost to Steffi Graf in 1993.

   Not only did Muguruza feel at home in Mexico, the 5,138-foot (1,566-meter) altitude accentuated the 6-foot (1.82-meter) veteran's powerful game.

   Muguruza won the Stanford doubles title in 2014 with just-retired Carla Suarez Navarro and reached the singles semifinals in the last year of the tournament in 2017 before it moved to San Jose.

   Kontaveit was seeking her third consecutive title. She won four championships in 10 weeks after hiring coach Dmitry Tursunov.

   In the doubles final, No. 1 seeds Barbora Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic beat No. 3 seeds Hsieh Su-Wei of Chinese Taipei and Elise Mertens of Belgium 6-3, 6-4.

   ATP Finals — No. 8 seed Casper Ruud of Norway outlasted alternate Cameron Norrie of Great Britain 1-6, 6-3, 6-4 in Turin, Italy.

   Ruud, a semifinalist in the 2018 Fairfield (Calif.) Challenger, improved to 1-1 in round-robin play. Norrie, who won Tiburon and Stockton back-to-back in 2017 Northern California Challengers, replaced Stefanos Tsitsipas (elbow injury).

   Ruud is scheduled to play No. 5 seed Andrey Rublev (1-1) of Russia on Thursday for a semifinal spot. Norrie cannot advance.

   Meanwhile, No. 2 doubles seeds Rajeev Ram of Carmel, Ind., and Joe Salisbury of Great Britain saved two match points in a 6-7 (7), 6-0 [13-11] victory over No. 3 seeds and 2019 champions Pierre Hugues-Herbert and Nicolas Mahut of France.

   Ram and Salisbury, who won the U.S. Open doubles title last month, moved to 2-0 but are not guaranteed to reach the semis.

   Ram took the doubles crown in San Jose on the ATP Tour in 2011 with former Stanford star Scott Lipsky. Salisbury captured the 2017 Stockton Challenger with Brydan Klein. 

Kontaveit handles Halep in final, will make top-10 debut

Anett Kontaveit has won 10 consecutive matches
and 26 of her last 28. 2016 photo by Paul Bauman

   Not even Simona Halep, a two-time Grand Slam singles champion and former world No. 1 playing in her home country, could stop Anett Kontaveit.

   The second-seeded Kontaveit won her second title in two weeks and fourth of the year today, overwhelming the top-seeded Halep 6-2, 6-3 in 70 minutes on an indoor hardcourt in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. 

   Kontaveit, a 25-year-old Estonian, did not drop a set in the tournament. She has won 10 consecutive matches and 26 of her last 28 with four titles under her new coach, Dmitry Tursunov, a 38-year-old Moscow native who trained in Northern California as a junior and professional.

   Kontaveit clinched the last spot in the WTA Finals, Nov. 10-17 in Guadalajara. She will make her top-10 debut on Monday, rising six spots to No. 8. 

   Halep returned to competition in August after missing three months with a calf tear.

   ATP Tour — Frances Tiafoe and Taylor Fritz, 23-year-old Americans who combined to win three singles titles in Northern California Challengers, lost to 6-foot-6 (1.98-meter) players in indoor hardcourt finals.

   No. 2 seed Alexander Zverev of Germany defeated Tiafoe, a qualifier, 7-5, 6-4 in Vienna for his fifth title of the year. Zverev improved to 25-2 since Wimbledon, including the singles gold medal in the Tokyo Olympics.

   Unseeded Marin Cilic of Croatia outlasted the fifth-seeded Fritz 7-6 (3), 4-6, 6-4 in St. Petersburg, becoming the sixth active player to win at least 20 career tour-level titles. Cilic, the 2014 U.S. Open champion, joined Roger Federer (103), Rafael Nadal (88), Novak Djokovic (85), Andy Murray (46) and Juan Martin del Potro (22).

   Cilic played in St. Petersburg for the first time since 2011, when he also captured the title.

   Fritz, who won Sacramento and Fairfield back to back at 17 in 2015, and Tiafoe, who claimed Stockton at 18 the following year, were seeking their second career ATP titles.

    In the second (final) round of qualifying for the Paris Masters, No. 3 seed Jenson Brooksby, 21, of Carmichael, Calif., in the Sacramento area defeated No. 14 seed Roberto Carballes Baena of Spain 5-7, 6-4, 6-3 in 3 hours, 2 minutes.

   Brooksby, who edged Peter Gojowczyk of Germany 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (4) in the first round, is scheduled to play 2016 champion Murray, a 34-year-old wild card with a metal hip, on Monday at 11:30 a.m. PDT (Tennis Channel) in the Masters 1000 tournament, the highest level besides the Grand Slams.
   Brooksby has been compared to Murray, a three-time Grand Slam singles champion, because of their outstanding defense. Murray won the first of his tour-level titles in San Jose at 18 in 2006 and repeated the next year.

   USTA Pro Circuit — No. 1 seed Rinky Hijikata, a University of North Carolina junior from Australia, beat unseeded Tristan Boyer, a Stanford sophomore from Altadena in the Los Angeles area, 3-6, 7-5, 6-2 to win the $25,000 USTA Men's Pro Tennis Championship of Calabasas in the L.A. region.

Kontaveit thriving under new coach Tursunov

Anett Kontaveit has gone 22-4 with three titles
since hiring coach Dmitry Tursunov in August.
2016 photo by Paul Bauman

   Anett Kontaveit has been on a rampage since hiring coach Dmitry Tursunov in August.

   The second-seeded Kontaveit, a 25-year-old Estonian, extended her winning streak to six matches today with a 6-3, 7-5 victory over Aleksandra Krunic of Serbia in the first round of the Transylvania Open, a WTA 250 tournament on an indoor hardcourt in Cluj-Napoca, Romania.

   In Kontaveit's first match under Tursunov, a 38-year-old Moscow native who trained in Northern California as a junior and professional, Kontaveit lost in the first round for the fourth consecutive tournament. Since then, Kontaveit has gone 22-3 with three titles.

   "She's a bit more aggressive, and I think that's a kind of built-in trait," Tursunov told tennis.com this month. "I felt she has this internal aggression in her game, suppressed in some way, and that's what I felt she should tap into.

   "So I wanted to bring that aggressive Anett on court more and just work on the things that can give her the confidence to be aggressive. If you try to be aggressive but don't have anything that supports it, you just get erratic and hit balls into the back fence."

   USTA Pro Circuit — Connor Farren, a 27-year-old San Francisco Bay Area product, defeated No. 3 seed and former USC teammate Raymond Sarmiento 7-6 (0), 7-6 (4) in the first round of the USTA Men's Pro Tennis Championship of Calabasas in the Los Angeles region.

   Qualifiers Ethan Quinn, 17, of Fresno, Calif., and Eric Hadigian, 21, of Sacramento, Calif., lost. 

   Advancing to the doubles quarterfinals were unseeded Farren and Adam El Mihdawy of the United States, No. 2 seeds Arthur Fery (Stanford) and Mark Whitehouse of Great Britain, No. 4 seeds Keenan Mayo of Sacramento and Reese Stalder of the U.S., and unseeded Pietro Orlando Fellin of Italy and Hadigian.

Unseeded Ferro upsets Kontaveit for Palermo title

   Continuing her rise in the WTA rankings, Fiona Ferro became the first post-pandemic champion today.

   The unseeded Frenchwoman beat fourth-seeded Anett Kontaveit of Estonia 6-2, 7-5 on clay to win the Palermo Ladies Open, the first WTA or ATP tournament since the tours shut down in March because of the coronavirus pandemic.

   "I think it was my best match of the week," Ferro, who lost only one set in five matches, told reporters. "I was feeling relaxed. I don't know why because it was a final. I wasn't really feeling pressure. 

   "It was a tough match because she's a really consistent player who doesn't give you too many points. I had a good intensity throughout the match. I didn't miss a lot, made a lot of winners, so I'm really happy to have the trophy with me."

   Ferro, who lost the first five games in her three-set semifinal victory over hard-hitting Camila Giorgi of Italy on Saturday, reeled off the last four games of the final. 

   Kontaveit, a first-time Grand Slam quarterfinalist in the Australian Open in January, saved one championship point at 5-6 by returning Ferro's second serve with a backhand passing shot down the line. In the same situation on Ferro's second championship point, Kontaveit's backhand return sailed long. 

   "At 3-5 in the second set, I just tried to fight for every point," Ferro, a member of France's Fed Cup championship team in 2019, said during the awards ceremony.

   It was the second meeting between Ferro and Kontaveit, who won in three sets in the second round of a minor-league tournament on hardcourts in Poitiers, France, in 2016.

   Ferro, 23, will crack the top 50 for the first time on Monday, rising nine spots to No. 44. She ended 2017 at No. 325, 2018 at No. 102 and 2019 at No. 63.

   Ferro, who won Lausanne on clay in July 2019, improved to 2-0 in WTA finals.

   The 24-year-old Kontaveit, who ousted top seed Petra Martic of Croatia in straight sets in the semis, will improve two notches to No. 20, six places off her career high in April 2019. She fell to 1-5 in WTA title matches.

   Two unseeded teams met in the doubles final. Arantxa Rus of the Netherlands and Tamara Zidansek of Slovenia topped Italians Elisabetta Cocciaretto, 19, and Martina Trevisan, a 5-foot-3 (1.60-meter) left-hander, 7-5, 7-5.  

   WTA Lexington – Top-seeded Kristie Ahn, a 28-year-old Stanford graduate, outlasted Gabriela Talaba of Romania 7-6 (4), 2-6, 7-5 in 3 hours, 3 minutes in the first round of qualifying for the inaugural Top Seed Open on hardcourts in Lexington, Ky. Ahn, ranked No. 96, saved a set point at 4-5 in the opening set.

   That match was not the longest of the day in the first WTA tournament in North America in almost one year. Fifth-seeded Francesca Di Lorenzo from Columbus, Ohio, edged 2017 Wimbledon junior singles champion Claire Liu of Thousand Oaks, Calif., in the Los Angeles area 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (5) in 3 hours, 10 minutes.

   Ahn will face Jovana Jovic (born Jaksic), a 26-year-old Sacramento, Calif., resident from Serbia, for a berth in the main draw. Jovic beat 11th-seeded Mayo Hibi of Japan 7-6 (4), 7-6 (4).  

   Eighth-seeded Olga Govortsova of Belarus eliminated Katie Volynets, an 18-year-old wild card from Walnut Creek in the San Francisco Bay Area, 3-6, 6-1, 6-2.

   The main draw features:

   –Top-seeded Serena Williams, who needs one more Grand Slam singles title to tie Margaret Court's record of 24.

   –Venus Williams, who has won five Wimbledon and two U.S. Open singles crowns.

   –Two-time Australian Open singles champion Victoria Azarenka.

   –Sloane Stephens, the 2017 U.S. Open champion who grew up in Fresno, Calif.

   –Amanda Anisimova, an 18-year-old rising star from Aventura, Fla.

   –Sixteen-year-old U.S. sensation Coco Gauff.

   –CiCi Bellis, a 21-year-old Bay Area product who was named the 2017 WTA Newcomer of the Year. 

   Venus Williams, 40, and Azarenka are scheduled to meet in the first round on Tuesday or Wednesday. The winner will face either Serena Williams or American Bernarda Pera.

   WTA Prague – Elena-Gabriela Ruse of Romania nipped sixth-seeded Aliaksandra Sasnovich of Belarus 6-7 (4), 6-4, 7-6 (3) in 3 hours, 15 minutes on clay in the second round of qualifying for the Prague Open. 

   Sasnovich, formerly ranked No. 30, reached the Palermo quarterfinals as a qualifier this week. Ruse will play third-seeded Tamara Korpatsch of Germany on Monday for a spot in the main draw. 

Kontaveit beats top seed Martic to reach Palermo final

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Martic, Kontaveit rally; Bellis gets U.S. Open wild card

   The top two remaining seeds in the Palermo Ladies Open lost the first set today but rallied to reach the quarterfinals.

   Top-seeded Petra Martic of Croatia defeated qualifier Liudmila Samsonova of Russia 5-7, 6-4, 6-2, and fourth-seeded Anett Kontaveit of Estonia beat Laura Siegemund of Germany 3-6, 6-2, 6-2. Samsonova, 21, took a medical timeout for a left thigh injury at 1-2 in the second set.

   The 15th-ranked Martic, 29, reached her first Grand Slam quarterfinal in last year's French Open. She also advanced to the fourth round at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open and the third round in the Australian Open in 2019.

   Kontaveit, ranked No. 22 at age 24, reached her first Grand Slam quarterfinal in the Australian Open in January, losing to fourth-seeded Simona Halep.

   Also advancing today in the first WTA or ATP tournament since the tours shut down in March because of the coronavirus were seventh-seeded Dayana Yastremska of Ukraine and unseeded Camila Giorgi of Italy.

   Yastremska, ranked No. 25 at age 20, downed lucky loser Oceane Dodin of France 6-2, 6-4. Yastremska reached her first Premier final in Adelaide in January, falling to top-ranked Ashleigh Barty, and upset Australian Open champion Sofia Kenin in the second round at Doha in February.

   Giorgi, one of three Italians in the quarters, held off qualifier Kaja Juvan of Slovenia 3-6, 6-2, 6-4. Juvan, 19, ousted second-seeded Marketa Vondrousova, the French Open runner-up to Barty last year, in the first round.  

   In Friday's first quarterfinal, Martic is scheduled to meet another qualifier, Aliaksandra Sasnovich of Belarus, at 7 a.m. PDT (Tennis Channel). Martic leads the head-to-head series 3-1, but two of her victories went to 6-4 in the third set.

   After the Martic-Sasnovich match, Kontaveit will face Italy's Elisabetta Cocciaretto, a 19-year-old wild card, for the first time.

   In Friday's last two quarterfinals, unseeded Fiona Ferro of France will meet Italy's Sara Errani, a 33-year-old wild card and two-time Palermo champion, and rising star Yastremska will play Giorgi, the top-ranked Italian at No. 89.

   Ferro defeated Errani 1-6, 6-3, 6-4 in the second round of qualifying in Rabat, Morocco, on clay last year in their only previous meeting.

   Yastremska and Giorgi, 28, have split two career meetings. Giorgi prevailed 6-7 (1), 6-2, 7-5 in the first round of qualifying in Strasbourg on clay in 2017, and Yastremska won 6-3, 6-3 in the first round at Wimbledon last year.

   In the doubles quarterfinals today in Palermo, Cocciaretto and countrywoman Martina Trevisan, a 5-foot-3 (1.60-meter) left-hander, knocked off top-seeded Georgina Garcia Perez and Sara Sorribes Tormo 6-3, 2-6 [10-5].

   Cocciaretto and Trevisan are set to play fourth-seeded Bibiane Schoofs and Rosalie Van Der Hoek of the Netherlands on Saturday.

   U.S. Open  – CiCi Bellis, a 21-year-old San Francisco native who grew up in nearby Atherton, is one of eight women who received a wild card in the U.S. Open.

   Bellis, who underwent three operations on her right wrist and one on her right elbow in 2018-19, will play in the U.S. Open for the first time since losing to Nao Hibino in the first round in 2017. Bellis burst onto the scene in the 2014 U.S. Open by stunning 12th-seeded Dominika Cibulkova at 15 in the opening round.

   Other women receiving wild cards in this year's tournament, Aug. 31 to Sept. 13, are three-time champion Kim Clijsters of Belgium and Americans Usue Arconada, Francesca Di Lorenzo, Caroline Dolehide, Ann Li, Robin Montgomery and Whitney Osuigwe.

   Men's wild cards went to 2012 champion Andy Murray and Americans Ulises Blanch, Maxime Cressy, Sebastian Korda, Thai-Son Kwiatkowski, Michael Mmoh, Brandon Nakashima and JJ Wolf.

   There will be no qualifying tournaments in this year's U.S. Open because of the COVID-19 pandemic.