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.
Veteran journalist Paul Bauman, based in Sacramento, covers Northern California professional, collegiate and junior tennis. Contact him at norcaltennisczar@gmail.com and follow him on Bluesky @paulbauman.bsky.com.
Showing posts with label Las Vegas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Las Vegas. Show all posts
Saturday, October 1, 2011
Friday, September 30, 2011
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.
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.
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
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.
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.
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
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):
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).
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).
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).
Capitals' King scores another upset
One week after beating a top-10 singles player for the first time, Vania King pulled off another big victory Monday night.
In a matchup of current and former Sacramento Capitals, the 90th-ranked King knocked off No. 16 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-4, 7-6 (6) in the second round of the $2.05 million Toray Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo.
King, a Long Beach product who has played for the Capitals for the last two seasons, is known primarily as a doubles star. The 22-year-old veteran, quick but lacking power at 5-foot-5, and 5-11 Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan won Wimbledon and the U.S. Open last year and narrowly lost in the U.S. Open final this year.
But King stunned No. 10 Marion Bartoli, the 2007 Wimbledon runner-up, last week in the second round of the Hansol Korea Open in Seoul, South Korea.
Pavlyuchenkova, seeded 11th in Tokyo, played for the Capitals in 2006 just after turning 15. The 5-10 Russian, now 20, reached her first Grand Slam singles quarterfinals this year at the French Open and the U.S. Open.
Next for King is reigning Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova, a 6-foot Czech who dispatched Mandy Minella of Luxembourg 6-2, 6-3. Kvitova beat King 6-4, 6-2 in the third round of this year's French Open in their only career meeting.
Tursunov advances -- Folsom resident Dmitry Tursunov, seeded seventh at No. 41 in the world, defeated Paul Capdeville of Chile 6-2, 2-6, 6-1 in the first round of the $850,000 Malaysian Open in Kuala Lumpur.
Tursunov, a 28-year-old Moscow native, was coming off a victory in the deciding match for host Russia against Brazil in the Davis Cup two weeks ago. He next faces 20-year-old wild card David Goffin, a 5-4 Belgian ranked No. 276.
Goffin's countryman, Steve Darcis, beat Tursunov in consecutive weeks last month in the second round at Winston-Salem, N.C., and the first round of the U.S. Open.
Tursunov could face second-seeded Viktor Troicki, who gave Serbia its first Davis Cup title with a victory in the deciding match against France last year, in the quarterfinals. Tursunov is 0-3 lifetime against the 15th-ranked Troicki.
Schnack loses in qualifying -- Eighth-seeded Yasmin Schnack of Elk Grove lost to Gabriela Dabrowski, 19, of Canada 6-4, 7-5 in the second round of qualifying for the $50,000 Lexus of Las Vegas Open.
Schnack, 23, and Maria Sanchez of Modesto are scheduled to face second-seeded Kathrin Woerle of Germany and Irena Pavlovic of France today in the first round of the doubles main draw.
Schnack and Sanchez won the Redding doubles title two weeks ago.
In a matchup of current and former Sacramento Capitals, the 90th-ranked King knocked off No. 16 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-4, 7-6 (6) in the second round of the $2.05 million Toray Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo.
King, a Long Beach product who has played for the Capitals for the last two seasons, is known primarily as a doubles star. The 22-year-old veteran, quick but lacking power at 5-foot-5, and 5-11 Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan won Wimbledon and the U.S. Open last year and narrowly lost in the U.S. Open final this year.
But King stunned No. 10 Marion Bartoli, the 2007 Wimbledon runner-up, last week in the second round of the Hansol Korea Open in Seoul, South Korea.
Pavlyuchenkova, seeded 11th in Tokyo, played for the Capitals in 2006 just after turning 15. The 5-10 Russian, now 20, reached her first Grand Slam singles quarterfinals this year at the French Open and the U.S. Open.
Next for King is reigning Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova, a 6-foot Czech who dispatched Mandy Minella of Luxembourg 6-2, 6-3. Kvitova beat King 6-4, 6-2 in the third round of this year's French Open in their only career meeting.
Tursunov advances -- Folsom resident Dmitry Tursunov, seeded seventh at No. 41 in the world, defeated Paul Capdeville of Chile 6-2, 2-6, 6-1 in the first round of the $850,000 Malaysian Open in Kuala Lumpur.
Tursunov, a 28-year-old Moscow native, was coming off a victory in the deciding match for host Russia against Brazil in the Davis Cup two weeks ago. He next faces 20-year-old wild card David Goffin, a 5-4 Belgian ranked No. 276.
Goffin's countryman, Steve Darcis, beat Tursunov in consecutive weeks last month in the second round at Winston-Salem, N.C., and the first round of the U.S. Open.
Tursunov could face second-seeded Viktor Troicki, who gave Serbia its first Davis Cup title with a victory in the deciding match against France last year, in the quarterfinals. Tursunov is 0-3 lifetime against the 15th-ranked Troicki.
Schnack loses in qualifying -- Eighth-seeded Yasmin Schnack of Elk Grove lost to Gabriela Dabrowski, 19, of Canada 6-4, 7-5 in the second round of qualifying for the $50,000 Lexus of Las Vegas Open.
Schnack, 23, and Maria Sanchez of Modesto are scheduled to face second-seeded Kathrin Woerle of Germany and Irena Pavlovic of France today in the first round of the doubles main draw.
Schnack and Sanchez won the Redding doubles title two weeks ago.
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