Sandgren reaches round of 16 in Australian Open

Tennys Sandgren defeated Maximilian Marterer in four sets
today in the third round of the Australian Open. File photo
by Paul Bauman

   Even though he's only 26, Tennys Sandgren has taken a long, hard road to success.
   A resident of Gallatin, Tenn., in the Nashville area, Sandgren has toiled for years in front of few fans for little prize money on the Challenger circuit in places like Stockton, Calif., Charlottesville, Va., and Champaign, Ill.
   In addition, Sandgren underwent left hip surgery in 2014, missing more than six months and plunging to No. 714 in the world rankings.
   Sandgren's persistence has paid off. He defeated German left-hander Maximilian Marterer 5-7, 6-3, 7-5, 7-6 (5) today to reach the round of 16 in the Australian Open in Melbourne.
   Sandgren had ousted ninth-seeded Stan Wawrinka, the 2014 champion, in straight sets in the second round. Wawrinka was playing in his first official tournament since having knee surgery five months ago.
   The last American man in singles, Sandgren will play fifth-seeded Dominic Thiem of Austria on Sunday PST for a quarterfinal berth.
   "He's a beast," Sandgren said in his on-court interview. "I'm looking forward to it."
   Even if Sandgren loses, he will take home $192,218 (U.S.) and jump from No. 97 in the world to about No. 67.
   As usual, Sandgren played all three stops on the Northern California Challenger circuit last fall, reaching the final in Tiburon and the quarterfinals in Stockton and Fairfield. Marterer played Fairfield, advancing to the semifinals.
   Sandgren, by the way, was not named after tennis. He was given his great grandfather's Swedish name.
   In the second round of men's doubles, Spaniards Pablo Carreno Busta and Guillermo Garcia-Lopez defeated former Stanford All-American Scott Lipsky, 36, of Irvine in the Los Angeles area and David Marrero, 37, of Spain 3-6, 7-6 (5), 6-3.
   Lipsky led Stanford to the NCAA team title in 2000 and reached the 2002 NCAA doubles final with David Martin. Two of Lipsky's 16 ATP doubles titles came in San Jose (2008 with Martin and 2011 with Rajeev Ram).
   Also today, 13th-seeded Daniela Vismane of Latvia beat Stanford-bound Niluka Madurawe of Sunnyvale in the San Francisco Bay Area 6-3, 6-4 in the first round of girls singles.

Aptos champ Evans almost pulls off major upset

Daniel Evans practices earlier this week.
Photo by Paul Bauman

   Daniel Evans, who won the $100,000 Nordic Naturals Challenger in Aptos, Calif., three weeks ago, came within one point of a huge upset in the U.S. Open on Saturday.
   The 26-year-old Briton lost to No. 3 seed Stan Wawrinka 4-6, 6-3, 6-7 (6), 7-6 (8), 6-2 in Louis Armstrong Stadium in the third round at Flushing Meadows, N.Y. Evans, 5-foot-9 (1.75 meters), held a match point at 6-5 in the fourth-set tiebreaker.
   Wawrinka, who has won two Grand Slam singles titles, will play unseeded Illya Marchenko of Ukraine in the fourth round. Marchenko led No. 14 seed Nick Kyrgios of Australia 4-6, 6-4, 6-1 when Kyrgios retired with a hip injury.
   Meanwhile, former Stanford star Nicole Gibbs won tight matches in the second round of women's doubles and first round of mixed doubles.
   Gibbs, 23, and Nao Hibino, 21, of Japan edged Michaella Krajicek of the Netherlands and Heather Watson of Great Britain 2-6, 6-3, 7-5. Hibino won the singles title in the inaugural $50,000 Stockton Challenger last year.
   Gibbs and Dennis Novikov of Milpitas in the San Francisco Bay Area beat Arantxa Parra Santonja and Marc Lopez of Spain 6-4, 3-6 [10-6]. In men's doubles, Lopez reached the final of the 2014 U.S. Open with Marcel Granollers and won his first Grand Slam title in this year's French Open with Feliciano Lopez (no relation). Granollers and Feliciano Lopez also are Spanish.
   Also in women's doubles, Modesto product Maria Sanchez and Mirjana Lucic-Baroni of Croatia fell to fourth-seeded Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka of the Czech Republic 6-4, 4-6, 7-5. Hlavackova and Hradecka won the 2013 U.S. Open and 2011 French Open.
   In the second round of mixed doubles, Alla Kudryavtseva of Russia and ex-Stanford All-American Scott Lipsky of Irvine in the Los Angeles area lost to Yung-Jan Chan of Taiwan and 40-year-old Nenad Zimonjic of Serbia 6-1, 6-2.

Gibbs falls to red-hot German in U.S. Open

Former Stanford star Nicole Gibbs, shown during her
first-round win over Aleksandra Krunic in the U.S. Open,
lost to 26th-seeded Laura Siegemund 6-3, 7-5 in the
second round. Photo by Paul Bauman

   Nicole Gibbs became Laura Siegemund's latest victim on Thursday night.
   Gibbs, a 23-year-old former Stanford All-American, lost to the red-hot Siegemund, seeded 26th, 6-3, 7-5 in the second round of the U.S. Open in Flushing Meadows, N.Y.
   Since losing to ninth-seeded Madison Keys in the first round at Wimbledon, Siegemund has reached the semifinals on clay in Bucharest, won her first career WTA title on clay in Bastad and advanced to the Olympic quarterfinals on hardcourts in Rio de Janeiro.  
   Gibbs, who lives in Marina del Rey in the Los Angeles area, lost in the second round of the U.S. Open for the second consecutive year. She reached the third round at Flushing Meadows in 2014, which remains her best Grand Slam result.
   Gibbs turned pro in 2013 after winning her second straight NCAA singles title as a junior.
   CiCi Bellis lives a five-minute drive from Stanford in Atherton. The 17-year-old amateur will make her Arthur Ashe Stadium debut tonight against second seed and reigning Australian Open champion Angelique Kerber of Germany. The match will follow the 4 p.m. (PST) encounter between fourth seed and two-time champion Rafael Nadal and Russia's Andrey Kuznetsov.  
   Another U.S. teenager, qualifier Jared Donaldson, continued his surprising run with a 7-5, 6-3, 6-3 victory over 32nd-ranked Viktor Troicki of Serbia. 
   The 122nd-ranked Donaldson, who stunned No. 12 seed David Goffin of Belgium in the first round, will meet No. 21 Ivo Karlovic, a 6-foot-11 (2.11-meter) Croatian, in the third round.
   Donaldson, a Rhode Island native now living in Irvine in the Los Angeles area, will turn 20 on Oct. 9. He was the runner-up to Taylor Fritz in the $100,000 Sacramento Challenger last October.
   Maria Sanchez, a 26-year-old Modesto product living in Los Angeles, won in the first round of women's doubles, but Bellis lost.
   Sanchez and Mirjana Lucic-Baroni of Croatia defeated Belinda Bencic of Switzerland and Kirsten Flipkens of Belgium 6-4, 6-4 to set up a match against fourth-seeded Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka of the Czech Republic. Hlavackova and Hradecka won the 2013 U.S. Open and 2011 French Open.
   Wild cards Bellis and Julia Boserup of Newport Beach in the Los Angeles area fell to third-seeded Timea Babos of Hungary and Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan 6-3, 6-0. Babos and Shvedova advanced to the Wimbledon final two months ago, losing to Serena and Venus Williams.
   Two players with Northern California connections lost in the first round of men's doubles.
   Seventh-seeded Rajeev Ram of Carmel, Ind., and Raven Klaasen of South Africa eliminated Eric Butorac of Cambridge, Mass., and Scott Lipsky, a former Stanford All-American based in Irvine, 6-3, 6-4.
   Robin Haase of the Netherlands and Artem Sitak, a Russia native who plays for New Zealand, beat wild cards Denis Kudla of Arlington, Va., and Tampa, Fla., and Dennis Novikov of Milpitas in the San Francisco Bay Area 6-4, 6-2.  

Lipsky title, college tourney finals, USTA 30 Indoors

   Fourth-seeded Eric Butorac and Scott Lipsky of the United States edged top-seeded Lukasz Kubot and Marcin Matkowski of Poland 6-4, 3-6 [10-8] today to win the Millennium Estoril Open in Portugal.
   Both champions are 34-year-old doubles specialists with Northern California connections.
   Butorac, a left-hander living in Cambridge, Mass., won the first of his 18 ATP World Tour doubles titles in the SAP Open in San Jose in 2007 with Jamie Murray, Andy's older brother who's now ranked No. 1 in men's doubles. Butorac also played for the Sacramento Capitals of World TeamTennis in 2008.
   The last SAP Open was played in 2013 after 125 years in Northern California under various names, and the Capitals were disbanded in 2014 after 28 years in Sacramento.
   Lipsky, a right-hander living in Irvine, Calif., led Stanford to the NCAA team title in 2000 and reached the 2002 NCAA doubles final with David Martin. Two of Lipsky's 15 ATP doubles titles came in San Jose (2008 with Martin and 2011 with Rajeev Ram).
   Entering Estoril, Lipsky was ranked 42nd and Butorac 48th.
   Lipsky won his second straight Estoril title and third overall. He triumphed with Butorac in 2009 and Treat Huey, a Washington, D.C., native who plays for the Philippines, last year.
   "I wish I new the secret of our success here, because then I could just do the same thing everywhere else," Lipsky said on atpworldtour.com. "I love the weather here. It reminds me of California, where I live. If we could do this every week, it'd be great."
   Butorac has won at least one doubles title in each of the past 10 years and Lipsky in each of the past nine. Estoril was their third title together; they also won Valencia last year.
   "Eric and I have been friends for a long time, and we played together for six or eight months back in 2009," Lipsky said. "We've talked about playing together again for a long time. After Wimbledon last year, we gave it a shot and have had good success. Being friends on and off the court helps a lot in doubles."
   Colleges -- The third-seeded UNLV women surprised top-seeded Fresno State 4-2 to win the Mountain West Conference Championships in Fort Collins, Colo.
   The Lady Rebels (24-1), ranked 72nd, earned an automatic bid in the NCAA Championships, which begin May 13 at campus sites. The Bulldogs (19-9), ranked 47th, could receive an at-large bid when the bracket is announced on Tuesday. The NCAA singles and doubles fields will be released on Wednesday.
   The top-seeded Weber State men and third-seeded Idaho women also earned automatic NCAA bids with titles in the Big Sky Conference Championships at the Gold River Racquet Club in the Sacramento area.
   The Wildcats edged second-seeded Idaho 4-3, and the Vandals coasted past top-seeded Northern Arizona 4-0 for their second straight crown.
   USTA 30 Indoors -- No. 3 seed Tyler Browne, 30, of Walnut Creek defeated No. 1 Jan Tiilikainen, 44, of Reno 6-3, 6-4 in the men's semifinals of the USTA National Men's, Women's & Mixed 30 Indoor Championships at the Spare Time Indoor Tennis Center in Gold River.
   Tiilikainen has won the title six times, including the last two.
   Browne, a former Cal standout and now the associate head coach of the Bears men, will face No. 2 seed Calle Hansen of Newbury Park in the Los Angeles region for the title on Monday at 11 a.m.
   Hansen, a 6-foot-5 (1.96-meter) former Pepperdine All-American, dominated unseeded Vittorio Fratta of Walnut Creek 6-0, 6-2.
   Hansen, 36, is playing in the USTA 30 Indoors for the first time since winning his second straight title in the tournament in 2013.
   On the women's side, No. 1 seed Evgenia Dockter of Atlanta and No. 2 seed and defending champion Marisue Jacutin-Mariona of Los Altos advanced to Monday's 9 a.m. final in contrasting fashion.
   Dockter crushed Brooke Biddle of Dallas 6-0, 6-1, while Jacutin-Mariona outlasted Francesca LaO of San Francisco 7-5, 4-6, 7-5.

Ex-Cal star gains first Slam doubles semifinal

Eighth-seeded Raquel Kops-Jones, above, and Abigail Spears
reached the women's doubles semifinals in the Australian Open.
2012 photo by Paul Bauman

   At age 31, Raquel Kops-Jones of Fresno reached her first Grand Slam women's doubles semifinal on Monday.
   Doubles specialists Kops-Jones and Abigail Spears, the eighth seeds, wore down unseeded Shahar Peer of Israel and Silvia Soler-Espinosa of Spain 6-4, 6-0 in the Australian Open in Melbourne.
   Peer and Soler-Espinosa had ousted No. 2 seeds Su-Wei Hsieh of Taiwan and Peng Shuai of China in the second round.
   Kops-Jones, a former Cal All-American, and Spears, 32, of San Diego will face third-seeded Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina of Russia.
   Makarova and Vesnina, last year's French Open champions, edged seventh-seeded Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic 6-2, 2-6, 7-6 (4).
   Kops-Jones won the 2003 NCAA women's doubles title with Sacramento native Christina Fusano.
   In Australian Open mixed doubles, former Stanford star Scott Lipsky of Huntington Beach in the Los Angeles area and Zheng Jie of China knocked off top-seeded Anna-Lena Groenefeld of Germany and Alexander Peya of Austria 2-6, 7-6 (5) [10-5] to reach the quarterfinals.
   Lipsky, 32, won the 2011 French Open mixed doubles title with Casey Dellacqua of Australia. Zheng, 30, took the 2006 Australian Open and Wimbledon women's doubles crowns with countrywoman Yan Zi. 
   In junior girls doubles, unseeded Lizette Cabrera and Zoe Hives of Australia beat seventh-seeded Michaela Gordon, 14, of Los Altos Hills in the San Francisco Bay Area and Katrine Steffensen of Scarsdale, N.Y., 6-1, 6-2.       

Bryan brothers clinch year-end No. 1 ranking again

   The honors keep rolling in for Bob and Mike Bryan.
   And they're not done yet.
   The former Stanford All-Americans clinched the year-end No. 1 ATP doubles team ranking for a record seventh time Wednesday with their victory in the $2.85 million Valencia (Spain) Open. They dismissed Lukas Dlouhy of the Czech Republic and Alexandr Dolgopolov of Ukraine 6-3, 6-2 in the first round.
   The Bryans won two Grand Slam titles (the Australian Open and Wimbledon) this year to give them 11 for their career, tying the Open Era record of International Tennis Hall of Famers Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde.
   Overall, the Bryans have won eight titles this year and an Open Era-record 75 for their career. Individually, the 33-year-old twin sons of Sacramento Capitals coach Wayne Bryan have been ranked No. 1 in doubles for 265 weeks and will surpass John McEnroe's record of 270 weeks on Dec. 12.
   The twins will compete in the season-ending Barclays ATP World Tour Finals, Nov. 20-27 in London.
   "We're obviously extremely pumped to finish at No. 1, especially with the quality of teams on the doubles tour," Bob said on the ATP's Web site. "It's always our ultimate goal when we start the year, and we'll definitely look back on 2011 with positive feelings. I want to congratulate our biggest rivals -- (Max) Mirnyi-(Daniel) Nestor, (Michael) Llodra-(Nenad) Zimonjic and the Indian Express (Mahesh Bhupathi-Lander Paes) on highly successful seasons, and we look forward to another awesome event with the eight best teams in London.
   "Breaking McEnroe's record is something that is hard to fathom. He's such a legend, and to achieve something like this won't truly set in for a while. Thanks (go) to our great coach; David Macpherson; my beautiful and supportive wife; our parents, who are always rooting from their computer screen back home; and all the tennis fans who get behind the great game of doubles."
  Added Mike: "It's always a special feeling finishing the year as the top team. I think it's more satisfying than winning a Slam because it represents the season as a whole. When we now look back at 2011, it will be with a lot of fond memories. The level of tennis always keeps getting stronger, so I'm most proud of our willingness to improve as we get older.
   "I especially want thank our coach and one of our best friends, David Macpherson, who always is there for us win or lose and always pushes us to strive for more."      
   In the first round of singles in Valencia, Folsom resident Dmitry Tursunov lost to sixth-seeded Juan Martin del Potro, the runner-up in Vienna last week and 2009 U.S. Open champion, 6-4, 6-1.
   Top seed and defending champion David Ferrer of Spain ousted qualifier Vasek Pospisil, a promising Canadian, 6-3, 6-3.
   Roddick vs. Radek -- Almost four years ago, Andy Roddick defeated Radek Stepanek to win the SAP Open in San Jose and mocked the Czech's trademark "worm dance" afterward.
   The Roddick vs. Radek show will resume Thursday in the second round of the $2.6 million Swiss Indoors in Basel.
   The seventh-seeded Roddick, a three-time SAP Open champion (2004, 2005 and 2008), beat Tommy Haas of Germany 6-3, 6-4, and the unseeded Stepanek, who won the 2009 SAP Open, breezed past Santiago Giraldo of Colombia 6-1, 6-3.
   Also in 2009, Haas and Stepanek won the doubles title in San Jose, and Giraldo captured the singles crown in the Sacramento Challenger.
   Roddick, 29, is 6-1 lifetime against Stepanek, 32.
   Second-seeded Andy Murray, the San Jose champion in 2006 and 2007, withdrew before his first-round match with a right gluteal strain.
    In doubles, former Stanford All-American Scott Lipsky suffered his fifth consecutive loss. The Huntington Beach resident and Santiago Gonzalez of Mexico fell to third-seeded Christopher Kas of Germany and Alexander Peya of Austria 7-6 (0), 6-2.
   Lipsky and Gonzalez became partners at Barcelona in April and saved four match points to beat the Bryans and win the title. Lipsky also won the doubles crown in the inaugural Sacramento Challenger in 2005 with former Stanford teammate David Martin, and Gonzalez reached the doubles final in Sacramento in 2009 with Travis Rettenmaier.
   Schnack beats ex-Capital -- Yasmin Schnack, a Sacramento-area resident, coasted past former Capital Tammy Hendler 6-2, 6-3 in the first round of the Grapevine (Texas) Women's $50,000 Tennis Classic.
   Hendler, a 19-year-old South Africa native, lives in Bradenton, Fla., and plays for Belgium. Her mother was born in the former Belgian Congo.
   Ilyushin wins twice -- Artem Ilyushin won twice in the $10,000 Bluewater Bay Professional Tournament in Niceville, Fla.
   Ilyushin, a Mississippi State senior from the Sacramento suburb of Granite Bay, outlasted qualifier Maverick Banes of Australia 6-4, 2-6, 6-2 in the first round of singles. Ilyushin then teamed with Gilad Ben Zvi of Israel to beat Benjamin Balleret of Monaco and Didier Lanne of France 7-5, 6-1 in the doubles quarterfinals.
   Kiryl Harbatsiuk, a former Sacramento State star from Belarus, and Boris Nicola Bakalov of Bulgaria lost to Americans Harrison Adams and Shane Vinsant 6-4, 7-5.

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.

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.

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, 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 falls to Wozniacki in U.S. Open

   At least Vania King can turn her full attention to defending her U.S. Open women's doubles title with Yaroslava Shvedova.
    King, who has played for the Sacramento Capitals in World TeamTennis for the past two seasons, lost to top-ranked Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark 6-2, 6-4 Saturday in the third round of the U.S. Open in Flushing Meadows.
   “To be honest, I felt like I was playing with her,” King, who had lost to Wozniacki 6-1, 6-0 the last time they had met, told reporters. “But she isn’t No. 1 without a good reason. She is used to winning. She has that confidence.”
   The match took place on a warm, windy day.
   “The wind, it was going everywhere,” said Wozniacki, the runner-up in the 2009 U.S. Open to Kim Clijsters. “You had to keep the margin over the net and away from the lines.”
   King, a Los Angeles-area native who's listed at 5-foot-5 but appears smaller, fell to 0-3 lifetime against the 5-10 Wozniacki.
   King was seeded fifth in mixed doubles with Rohan Bopanna of India, but they lost to Barbora Zahlavova Strycova of the Czech Republic and Philipp Petzschner of Germany 7-6 (1), 4-6, 10-7 tiebreak Friday in the first round.
   King and Shvedova, from Kazakhstan, will face American wild cards Jessica Pegula, 17, and Taylor Townsend, 15, in the third round of women's doubles. That match likely will be on Monday.
   Meanwhile, wild cards Melanie Oudin, 19, and Jack Sock, 18, stunned top seeds and defending champions Liezel Huber and Bob Bryan 2-6, 6-3, 10-6 tiebreak in the second round of mixed doubles.
   Bryan, a former Stanford All-American, has won four U.S. Open mixed doubles titles (all with different partners) and seven overall. He and his twin brother, Mike, lost in the first round of men's doubles in a Grand Slam tournament for the first time in 10 years last week.
   Scott Lipsky, another ex-Stanford All-American, also lost in mixed doubles. He and U.S. veteran Lisa Raymond fell to Jarmila Gajdosova of Australia and Bruno Soares of Brazil 6-4, 7-6 (3).
   Lipsky, who turned 30 last month, teamed with Casey Dellacqua of Australia to win the French Open mixed doubles title in June for his first Grand Slam crown. Raymond, 38, has won two U.S. Open mixed doubles titles (1996 and 2002) and four overall.

  
     
  

King scores upset, will face Wozniacki

   Vania King aced one test. Now comes a much bigger one.
   The Sacramento Capital reached the third round of the U.S. Open, equaling her best singles result there, by hammering 29th-seeded Jarmila Gajdosova of Australia 6-2, 6-0 Thursday in Flushing Meadows, N.Y.
   King's reward is a matchup with top-ranked Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark.
   “I’m American, so I know I’ll get some support out there,” King told reporters. “But she’s No. 1 in the
world, so she will, too.”
   Wozniacki is 2-0 against King, having won 5-7, 6-2, 6-4 (after trailing 4-1 in the third set) last year at Indian Wells and 6-1, 6-0 at the Australian Open in January.
   King, however, has something Wozniacki does not -- a Grand Slam title. King actually has two of them, the 2010 Wimbledon and U.S. Open women's doubles crowns with Yaroslava Shvedova.
   Wozniacki, much maligned for ascending to No. 1 without having won a Slam, was the singles runner-up to Kim Clijsters in the U.S. Open two years ago.
   King led a parade of victorious players with Northern California ties in the U.S. Open.
   Hilary Barte and Mallory Burdette, the NCAA women's doubles champions from Stanford, defeated Alexa Glatch and Jamie Hampton 6-4, 6-4 in a matchup of American wild cards in the first round of women's doubles.
   In mixed doubles, top-seeded Bob Bryan (Stanford) and Liezel Huber, unseeded Scott Lipsky (Stanford) and Lisa Raymond, and unseeded Raquel Kops-Jones (Cal) and Rajeev Ram advanced to the second round.
   The only player with Northern California connections to lose Thursday was Stanford sophomore Nicole Gibbs. She and Lauren Davis, the girls 18 doubles champions in the USTA National Championships last month,  fell to German veterans Julia Goerges and Andrea Petkovic 6-4, 6-1.
   Fusano to coach at UC Davis -- Professional doubles specialist Christina Fusano, a Sacramento native who lives in nearby Plymouth, will become an assistant coach for the UC Davis women's tennis team, head coach Bill Maze announced.
   Fusano, 30, played women's doubles in the U.S. Open twice and at Wimbledon once. Her best year was 2008, when she reached the second round of Wimbledon as a qualifier with Angela Haynes and climbed to a career-high No. 84 in doubles. Fusano won 13 career doubles titles on the ITF Women's Circuit.
  Fusano, a graduate of Ponderosa High School in Shingle Springs near Sacramento and 2003 NCAA doubles champion from Cal with Kops-Jones, teamed with former Stanford All-American David Martin to win the inaugural U.S. Open National Playoffs in mixed doubles last week.
   The title gave Fusano and Martin a wild card into the mixed doubles main draw at the U.S. Open. They are scheduled to face Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia and Mark Knowles of the Bahamas today in the first round. Fusano and Knowles were teammates on the Capitals for five matches in July.
  UC Davis will open its fall season Sept. 30 at, ironically, the Cal Invitational.

Bryans stunned in first round of U.S. Open

   For the first time in 10 years, Bob and Mike Bryan lost in the first round of a Grand Slam tournament.
   The top seeds and defending champions fell to 6-foot-10 Ivo Karlovic of Croatia and Frank Moser of Germany 6-4, 2-6, 6-2 Wednesday at the U.S. Open in Flushing Meadows, N.Y.
   The Bryan twins, the 1998 NCAA men's doubles champions as Stanford sophomores, had won the Australian Open and Wimbledon and reached the semifinals of the French Open this year. They hadn't lost in the opening round of a Grand Slam since the 2001 Australian Open.
   Meanwhile, neither Karlovic nor Moser had reached the second round of a Grand Slam in men's doubles.
   Also falling in the first round of men's doubles were 16th-seeded Scott Lipsky of Huntington Beach and Rajeev Ram of Carmel, Ind., and Folsom resident Dmitry Tursunov and Bulgaria's Grigor Dimitrov.
   Lipsky, another former Stanford All-American, and Ram, the singles runner-up in the 2006 Sacramento Challenger, lost to Germans Michael Kohlmann and Alexander Waske 5-7, 7-6 (6), 7-6 (5). Lipsky, who grew up in Merrick, N.Y., near the site of the tournament, fell to 0-5 in U.S. Open men's doubles.
   Dimitrov and Tursunov lost to eighth-seeded Eric Butorac of Rochester, Minn., and Jean-Julien Rojer of Netherlands Antilles 6-7 (3), 6-2, 6-0. Butorac played for the Sacramento Capitals in 2008. 
   Third-seeded Vania King, a current member of the Capitals who grew up in Long Beach, and Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan opened the defense of their women's doubles title with a 6-1, 6-2 victory over Czechs Petra Cetkovska and Renata Voracova.    
   Raquel Kops-Jones, the 2003 NCAA women's doubles champion from Cal, and Abigail Spears of Valley Center (north of San Diego) fell to fourth-seeded Liezel Huber of Houston and Lisa Raymond of Wayne, Pa., 6-2, 6-2.

Fusano earns U.S. Open mixed doubles berth

   Christina Fusano is on her way to the U.S. Open.
   The Sacramento native teamed with David Martin of Tulsa, Okla., to beat Yasmin Schnack of Elk Grove and Eric Roberson of Sacramento 2-6, 6-1, 10-5 tiebreak Saturday in the U.S. Open National Playoffs mixed doubles final at New Haven, Conn.
   The victory gave Fusano and Martin a wild card into the mixed doubles main draw of the U.S. Open. The year's final Grand Slam tournament is scheduled to begin Monday, with mixed doubles starting Wednesday.
   Fusano and Martin, who emerged from a field of almost 200 teams in the inaugural U.S. Open National Playoffs in mixed doubles, have several similarities.
   Both are 30. Both are former All-Americans at Bay Area colleges, Fusano at Cal and Martin at Stanford. Both have starred in doubles on the USTA Pro Circuit, Martin winning 20 titles and Fusano 11.
   And both reached their career-high world rankings in doubles in 2008, Martin at No. 38 and Fusano at No. 84. Currently, Martin is No. 103 and Fusano No. 174.
   However, Fusano is right-handed and Martin left-handed, which only adds to their effectiveness as a doubles team.
   Martin has competed in men's doubles in all Grand Slam tournaments, reaching the round of 16 at Wimbledon in 2007 as a qualifier with former Stanford teammate Scott Lipsky, but never in mixed doubles. Fusano has played women's doubles in two Grand Slam tournaments, losing in the first round of the U.S. Open in 2003 and 2008.
   Fusano and Schnack, meanwhile, are part-time doubles partners on the USTA Pro Circuit. They won the $25,000 USTA Challenger of Redding last September in Schnack's professional debut.
     

Sacramento-area residents eye U.S. Open berth

   Today's mixed doubles final in the U.S. Open National Playoffs will have a strong Sacramento-area flavor.
   Top-seeded Christina Fusano, a Sacramento native who lives in nearby Plymouth, and David Martin, a former Stanford All-American from Tulsa, Okla., will play unseeded Yasmin Schnack of Elk Grove and Eric Roberson of Sacramento in New Haven, Conn., for a berth in the mixed doubles main draw of the U.S. Open.
   Fusano and Martin demolished Brook Connelly of Yukon, Okla., and Dave Mullins of Norman, Okla., 6-1, 6-1 in Friday's semifinals, and Schnack and Roberson eliminated Amanda Rodgers of Bradenton, Fla., and Ellis Ferreira of South Africa 6-2, 7-6 (3).
   Fusano, a 30-year-old veteran and former NCAA doubles champion from Cal, and Schnack, a 23-year-old ex-UCLA star, are part-time doubles partners on the USTA Pro Circuit. They won the title in the $25,000 USTA Challenger of Redding last September.
    U.S. Open singles qualifying -- Stanford senior Bradley Klahn, last year's NCAA men's singles champion, lost to Canadian veteran Frank Dancevic 3-6, 6-1, 6-3 in the final round of qualifying at the U.S. Open in Flushing Meadows, N.Y.
   ATP World Tour doubles -- Former Stanford All-American Scott Lipsky of Huntington Beach and Colin Fleming of Great Britain lost to Jonathan Erlich and Andy Ram of Israel 6-4, 6-4 in the doubles semifinals of the $553,125 Winston-Salem (N.C.) Open.
   Lipsky and Martin reached the NCAA doubles final in 2002, losing to Andrew Colombo and Mark Kovacs of Auburn. Erlich and Ram won the 2008 Australian Open for their only career Grand Slam men's doubles title.  

Knowles suffers fourth straight loss

   Sacramento Capitals veteran Mark Knowles suffered his fourth consecutive doubles loss on the ATP World Tour on Wednesday.
   The third-seeded team of Knowles and Mahesh Bhupathi fell to Jonathan Erlich and Andy Ram of Israel 6-4, 6-3 in the first round of the $553,125 Winston-Salem (N.C.) Open.
   All four players have won Grand Slam men's doubles titles. Bhupathi has captured four, Knowles three, and Erlich and Ram one each.
   Knowles, who turns 40 on Sept. 4 and has three young children, has dropped to No. 38 in the world doubles rankings after being no lower than 11th from January 2002 through last August. He was No. 1 for parts of 2002, 2003 and 2005.
   In the doubles quarterfinals, former Stanford All-American Scott Lipsky of Huntington Beach and Colin Fleming of Great Britain beat Treat Conrad Huey, a Washington, D.C., native who plays for the Philippines, and Cory Parr of Jericho, N.Y., 7-6 (5), 6-4. Parr played on the courts where he starred at Wake Forest from 2005 through 2009.
   Two years ago, Huey reached the singles quarterfinals of the Sacramento Challenger as a qualifier and won the doubles title at the Tiburon Challenger with Harsh Mankad of India.
   U.S. Open qualifying -- Nicole Gibbs, a Stanford sophomore from Santa Monica, lost to Melinda Czink of Hungary 3-6, 7-6 (4), 6-0 in the first round of qualifying at the U.S. Open in Flushing Meadows, N.Y. Gibbs advanced to the NCAA singles semifinals in May on her home courts.
  
   

Kendrick suspension reduced, new rankings, etc.

   The Court of Arbitration for Sport reduced Robert Kendrick's one-year doping suspension to eight months Monday in Lausanne, Switzerland.
   The 31-year-old Fresno native is eligible to return Jan. 22, 2012, one week after the Australian Open begins. The full decision, with reasons, will come "in due course," the International Tennis Federation said in a news release.
    Kendrick must forfeit his 15,000 euros ($21,571) in prize money and 10 ATP ranking points from his first-round loss in the French Open. However, he may keep his 3,905 euros from a grass-court tournament in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands, in June.
   Kendrick tested positive for methylhexaneamine at the French Open on May 22. He appealed the ban by the ITF, saying he took a capsule to fight jet lag and had no intent to enhance his performance.
   The ITF accepted Kendrick's explanation but noted that he did not apply for a therapeutic-use exemption and that players are reponsible for anything they ingest.
   Ranked a career-high No. 69 in 2009, Kendrick has dropped to No. 120. He reached the singles final of the Sacramento Challenger in 2008 and 2010 and won the doubles title there with Brian Wilson in 2007.
   Seeing stars -- John McEnroe, Tracy Austin and Bob and Mike Bryan headline the field for the seventh annual Esurance Tennis Classic, Sept. 23-25 at the The Club at Harbor Point in Mill Valley. McEnroe and Austin will appear on Sept. 25 only.
   Proceeds benefit the To Celebrate Life Breast Cancer Foundation and the Youth Tennis Advantage.
   For more information, call (415) 383-6114 or visit http://www.tennisclassic.org/.
   Lipsky wins --  Unseeded Colin Fleming of Great Britain and Scott Lipsky, a former Stanford star living in Huntington Beach, stunned second-seeded Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski of Poland, 3-6, 7-6 (1), 10-4 tiebreak in the first round of doubles at the $625,000 Winston-Salem (N.C.) Open.  
   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 singles ranking.
   Mike Bryan, 1998 NCAA doubles champion from Stanford -- No. 1 in doubles, no singles ranking.
   Scott Lipsky, 2002 NCAA doubles runner-up from Stanford -- No. 28 in doubles (+1), no singles ranking.
   Mark Knowles, Capitals -- No. 38 in doubles (-7), no singles ranking.
   Dmitry Tursunov, Folsom resident -- No. 44 in singles (no change), No. 94 in doubles (no change).
   David Martin, 2002 NCAA doubles runner-up from Stanford -- No. 103 in doubles (-1), No. 701 in singles (-3).
   John Paul Fruttero, ex-Cal star -- No. 154 in doubles (+11), 1,229 in singles (-7).
   Jimmy Wang, Folsom resident -- No. 383 in singles (no change), No. 677 in doubles (-5).
   Dusan Vemic, Capitals -- No. 498 in doubles (-2), No. 1,504 in singles (-8).
   Kiryl Harbatsiuk, former Sacramento State star -- No. 747 in singles (-37), No. 1,223 in doubles (-196).

Women

   Vania King, Capitals -- No. 7 in doubles (no change), No. 105 in singles (-16).
   Raquel Kops-Jones, 2003 NCAA doubles champion from Cal -- No. 51 in doubles (+1), no singles ranking.
   Christina Fusano, Sacramento native, 2003 NCAA doubles champion from Cal, Plymouth resident -- No. 174 in doubles (+1), no singles ranking.
   Yasmin Schnack, Elk Grove resident -- No. 219 in doubles (+2), No. 378 in singles (+3).
   NorCal Hall adds four -- Larry Stefanki, Meredith McGrath, Larry Huebner and Carolyn Nichols were inducted into the Northern California Tennis Hall of Fame last month.
   Stefanki earned All-America status at Cal and reached No. 35 in the world in singles before coaching Marcelo Rios and Yevgeny Kafelnikov to No. 1 in the world. Stefanki currently coaches former world No. 1 Andy Roddick.
   McGrath won the 1990 NCAA women's doubles title with Stanford teammate Teri Whitlinger, attained career highs of No. 5 in the world in doubles and No. 18 in singles, and won the 1995 U.S. Open mixed doubles title with former Cal All-American Matt Lucena.
   Huebner was known was "Mr. Tennis" in his hometown of Fresno, and Nichols represents the United States around the world as a top senior player.
   Super Seniors to represent U.S. -- The USTA selected five Northern Californians to represent the United States in the ITF Super Senior International Team Championships, Oct. 10-15 in Antalya, Turkey.
   Picked for the team were Martha Downing of Shingle Springs, Dori deVries of Reno, Tony Dawson of Carmel, Charlie Hoeveler of Ross and Ken Robinson of San Carlos.
   The ITF Super Senior World Individual Championships are scheduled for Oct. 16-23 in Antalya.
   Donations sought -- The Fair Oaks Racquet Club, which will celebrate 50 years of tennis at Miller Park in 2012, seeks tax-deductible donations for improvements. Checks made out to the Fair Oaks Recreation Foundation can be mailed to the Fair Oaks Racquet Club, P.O. Box 672, Fair Oaks, CA, 95628.
   The club plans a fundraiser at Chevy’s in Gold River from noon to 9 p.m. Wednesday, a booth at the Fair Oaks Chicken Festival on Sept. 17 and a tournament on Oct. 15. Businesses are asked to donate prizes for the tournament.
   For more information, visit http://www.forctennis.com/.

King triumphs in doubles return

   Third-seeded Vania King, who completed her second season with the Sacramento Capitals last month, and Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan edged American wild cards Alexa Glatch and Christina McHale 3-6, 6-4, 1-0 (10-5 match tiebreaker) Wednesday in the second round of the $2.05 million Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati.
   It was King's first doubles match since a second-round loss with Shvedova at Wimbledon, where they were the defending champions. The pair received a first-round bye in Cincinnati.
   McHale, who won the USTA girls 18 national singles title two years ago in Berkeley at 17 years old, earlier stunned top-ranked Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark 6-4, 7-5 in the second round.
   King and Shvedova advanced to a quarterfinal showdown against fifth-seeded American veterans Liezel Huber and Lisa Raymond after today's 4 p.m. (PDT) match between Roger Federer and James Blake.
   Huber and Raymond, who became partners four months ago, won their first title together last week in Toronto. Huber, a naturalized U.S. citizen from South Africa who will turn 35 Sunday, has won four Grand Slam women's doubles titles; Raymond, who turned 38 last week, has captured five. King and Shvedova have won two each, including last year's U.S. Open.
   In men's doubles, former Stanford All-American Scott Lipsky and Bruno Soares of Brazil lost to seventh-seeded Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski of Poland 6-3, 7-6 (5) in the second round.
   Top-seeded Bob and Mike Bryan, the 1998 NCAA men's doubles champions from Stanford, will face unseeded Lukas Dlouhy of the Czech Republic and Alexandr Dolgopolov of Ukraine tonight in the second round.



   
 

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).