Raonic upsets Wawrinka to reach quarterfinals

Milos Raonic, playing at Indian Wells last year,
defeated Stan Wawrinka today for the first time
in five career matches. Photo by Paul Bauman

   Milos Raonic took a big step today in the quest for his first Grand Slam title.
   Raonic, seeded No. 13, outlasted No. 4 seed and 2014 champion Stan Wawrinka 6-4, 6-3, 5-7, 4-6, 6-3 in Melbourne to reach the Australian Open quarterfinals for the second straight year.
   Raonic, a 25-year-old Canadian, defeated Wawrinka for the first time in five career matches.
   Afterward, ESPN2 commentator Mary Joe Fernandez called Raonic, whose best Grand Slam result is the 2014 Wimbledon semifinals, "the ultimate professional. He does everything he can to be the best he can be."
   Both Raonic and Wawrinka were undefeated this year entering the match, which lasted 3 hours, 44 minutes. Raonic won the Brisbane title, defeating Roger Federer in the final, and Wawrinka took the Chennai (India) crown for the third consecutive year.
   Raonic will play No. 23 seed Gael Monfils, a 29-year-old Frenchman who beat unseeded Andrey Kuznetsov of Russia 7-5, 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (4) to reach the Australian Open quarterfinals for the first time in his 11th attempt.
   Raonic never lost a set in 13 career matches in the SAP Open in San Jose, winning the last three titles. The tournament was discontinued in 2013 after 125 years in the San Francisco Bay Area.
   In the other quarterfinal in the bottom half of the Australian Open draw, No. 2 Andy Murray of Great Britain will meet No. 8 David Ferrer of Spain.
   Murray also went undefeated in San Jose, winning the first of his 35 tour-level titles (fourth among active players) there at 18 in 2006 and repeating in 2007 in his only two appearances.
   In the top half of the Australian Open draw, No. 1 Novak Djokovic will face No. 7 Kei Nishikori, and No. 3 Federer will take on No. 6 Tomas Berdych.
   On the women's side, unseeded Johanna Konta became the first British woman since Jo Durie 32 years ago to reach a Grand Slam quarterfinal. Konta, a 24-year-old Sydney native, edged No. 21 Ekaterina Makarova, a semifinalist last year, 4-6, 6-4, 8-6.
   Konta will face Chinese qualifier Zhang Shuai, who defeated No. 15 Madison Keys 3-6, 6-3, 6-3. Keys, a semifinalist last year at 19, suffered a leg injury in the second set.
   Zhang was 0-14 in majors before stunning No. 2 Simona Halep in the first round.
   Halep revealed on Sunday that she has been struggling with nose, ear and stomach infections. She said she will have nose surgery and be out of action until March.    
   Also in the bottom half, No. 7 Angelique Kerber will meet No. 14 Victoria Azarenka, the Australian Open champion in 2012 and 2013. Azarenka and Kerber won the singles title in the Bank of the West Classic at Stanford in 2010 and last year, respectively.
   In the top half in Melbourne, No. 1 Serena Williams will play No. 5 Maria Sharapova in a rematch of last year's final, and No. 4 Agnieszka Radwanska will meet No. 10 Carla Suarez Navarro.
   Williams defeated Sharapova for her sixth Australian Open title last year. Sharapova won her only Australian Open crown in 2008.
   Williams is 18-2 against Sharapova with a 17-match winning streak.
   Meanwhile, Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan lost in the third round of men's doubles for the third straight year after winning their sixth Australian Open title in 2013. The No. 3 seeds and former Stanford stars fell to No. 13 Raven Klaasen of South Africa and Rajeev Ram of Carmel, Ind., 3-6, 6-3, 6-4.
   Ram, 31, won the SAP Open doubles title in 2011 with Scott Lipsky, another ex-Stanford star.

Tragedy, health scare mar Day 6 of Australian Open

Canada's Milos Raonic, serving at Indian Wells last year,
dedicated his third-round victory in the Australian Open
to shooting victims in Saskatchewan. Photo by Paul Bauman

   Off-the-court issues overshadowed Day 6 of the Australian Open.
   During the day session on Friday (PST) in Melbourne, No. 13 seed Milos Raonic of Canada dedicated his 6-2, 6-3, 6-4 victory over No. 21 Viktor Troicki of Serbia in the third round to shooting victims in a remote community in Saskatchewan. Four people died, and at least two were injured.
   "Today, before I stepped out on court, it was a difficult day back home," the 25-year-old Raonic, from Thornhill, Ontario, in the Toronto area, told the crowd. "I want to take a moment and give thoughts to that community. Today's victory was for that community, and a quick recovery and all of Canada, and I'm sure the world is behind you."
   During the night session (early today PST), the third-round match between No. 15 Madison Keys of Boca Raton, Fla., and No. 20 Ana Ivanovic of Serbia was suspended for an hour after Ivanovic's coach, Nigel Sears, collapsed in the stands at Rod Laver Arena.
   Sears, the father-in-law of No. 2 seed Andy Murray, was removed on a stretcher and taken to a hospital. He reportedly was alert and sitting up.
   Murray was playing No. 32 Joao Sousa of Portugal at Margaret Court Arena at the time and apparently unaware of the emergency. His wife, Kim Sears, is back home in Great Britain awaiting the birth of their first child.

   Ivanovic, the 2008 Australian Open runner-up to Maria Sharapova, led 6-4, 1-0 when play was halted. But Keys, a semifinalist in last year's Australian Open at 19, rallied to win 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 after trailing 3-0 in the third set. Murray won 6-2, 3-6, 6-2, 6-2.

Ana Ivanovic's match against Madison Keys
was suspended for an hour after her coach,
Nigel Sears, collapsed in the stands. Keys
eventually won. 2014 photo by Paul Bauman

   Early on Day 6, two top-10 women's seeds lost. No. 3 Garbine Muguruza of Spain fell to Barbora Strycova of the Czech Republic 6-3, 6-2, and No. 9 Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic exited against No. 21 Ekaterina Makarova of Russia 6-3, 6-2.
   Muguruza, the runner-up at Wimbledon last year, won the doubles title in the 2014 Bank of the West Classic at Stanford with countrywoman Carla Suarez Navarro.
   Pliskova was the singles runner-up to Angelique Kerber of Germany in last year's Bank of the West Classic.
   Kerber is the highest remaining seed in the bottom half of the Australian Open draw, but No. 14 seed Victoria Azarenka looms as the biggest threat to No. 1 Serena Williams in either half.
   Azarenka, the 2012 and 2013 Australian Open champion, appears to have regained her form after battling injuries for two years.
   In the second night match at Rod Laver Arena, No. 16 Bernard Tomic defeated fellow Australian John Millman, who won the 2015 Aptos and 2010 Sacramento Challengers, 6-4, 7-6 (4), 6-2.
   Millman became the first No. 1 seed in the 28-year history of the Aptos tournament, the longest-running Challenger in the United States, to win the title.

AUSTRALIAN OPEN 

In Melbourne

(Northern California results only)

Men's doubles

Second round

   Dominic Inglot, Great Britain, and Robert Lindstedt (11), Sweden, def. Eric Butorac and Scott Lipsky (former Stanford All-American), United States, 7-6 (5), 6-7 (5), 6-4.

Women's doubles

Second round

   Mirjana Lucic-Baroni, Croatia, and Barbora Strycova, Czech Republic, def. Raquel Atawo (San Jose resident, former Cal All-American) and Abigail Spears (6), United States, 6-7 (4), 6-1, 6-2.
   Caroline Garcia and Kristina Mladenovic (3), France, def. Maria Sanchez (Modesto native), United States, and Stephanie Vogt, Switzerland, 6-2, 6-1.

Mixed doubles

First round

   Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Bob Bryan (former Stanford All-American) (2), United States, def. Jessica Moore and Marc Polmans, Australia, 6-2, 6-1.

Aussie Open Day 11: Serena finally subdues Keys

Serena Williams practices during the Bank of the West
Classic at Stanford last July. Williams won the title for
the third time. Photo by Paul Bauman

   Women's semifinals -- Serena Williams won the match, but Madison Keys won legions of admirers with her power and persistence.
   The top-seeded Williams needed nine match points to conquer the 19-year-old sensation 7-6 (5), 6-2 today in an all-American semifinal at Melbourne Park. Keys saved seven match points serving at 1-5 in the second set in an 11-minute game and one at 2-5. Williams finally ended the match with her 13th ace. 
   Neither player appeared hindered by her health problem. Williams is recovering from a respiratory infection, and Keys again played with her left thigh taped after hurting it in her quarterfinal victory over Venus Williams.
   Maria Sharapova, seeded fourth, improved to 6-0 against fellow Russian Ekaterina Makarova, seeded 10th, with a 6-3, 6-2 victory. In the second round, Sharapova saved two match points against Russian qualifier Alexandra Panova. 
   Men's semifinals -- Andy Murray, who's 0-3 in Australian Open finals, earned another shot at the title with a 6-7 (6), 6-0, 6-3, 7-5 victory over seventh-seeded Tomas Berdych.
   The sixth-seeded Murray, a two-time Grand Slam singles champion, will face the winner of Friday's match between top-seeded Novak Djokovic and fourth-seeded Stan Wawrinka, the defending champ. ESPN will televise the showdown live at 12:30 a.m. (California time).
   Djokovic leads the series 16-3 and will meet Wawrinka in the Australian Open for the third straight year, each time one round later. The first two encounters were marathons. Djokovic prevailed 12-10 in the fifth set in 5 hours, 2 minutes in the fourth round in 2013, and Wawrinka triumphed 9-7 in the fifth in 4 hours in last year's quarterfinals to snap a 14-match losing streak to the Serb.
   Notable -- Two unseeded teams will meet for the men's doubles title. Italians Simone Bolelli and Fabio Fognini will play Frenchmen Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut on Saturday at 2:30 a.m. (California time) on Tennis Channel.
   Mahut, 33, is best known for playing in the longest match ever. After 11 hours, 5 minutes over three days, John Isner prevailed 70-68 in the fifth set in the first round at Wimbledon in 2010.
   Stars and stripes -- In the women's doubles final, unseeded Bethanie Mattek-Sands of Phoenix and Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic will face 14th-seeded Yung-Jan Chan of Taiwan and Jie Zheng of China. Tennis Channel will televise the match on Thursday not before 9 p.m. California time.
   Mattek-Sands, the 2012 Australian Open mixed doubles champion with Horia Tecau of Romania, underwent hip surgery last April and missed six months.
   All remaining U.S. juniors were eliminated. Third-seeded Taylor Fritz and 11th-seeded Raveena Kingsley lost in the boys and girls singles quarterfinals, respectively, and the third-seeded team of Miomir Kecmanovic of Serbia and Michael Mmoh of Temple Hills, Md., fell in the boys doubles semifinals.
   Northern California connection -- Serena Williams won her third Bank of the West Classic title at Stanford last year. Sharapova was the runner-up to Victoria Azarenka in the 2010 Bank of the West Classic.
   Murray, a two-time Grand Slam singles champion, won the first of his 31 career titles in San Jose at 18 in 2006 and repeated the following year. He never returned, and the tournament folded after 2013.
   Fast facts -- Serena Williams, 33, can tie Helen Wills Moody for third place on the all-time list with 19 Grand Slam singles titles. Margaret Court has 24 and Steffi Graf 22. Williams is 5-0 in Australian Open finals and 16-2 against Sharapova with a 15-match winning streak.
   Sharapova and Makarova met in the Australian Open for the third time in four years, and the scores have been almost identical. Sharapova won 6-2, 6-3 in 2012 and 6-2, 6-2 in 2013.  
   Quote -- Serena Williams: "It's an honor for me to play someone who will be No. 1 in the future."

U.S. Open Day 10 highlights: Nishikori survives again

   Match and upset of the day -- No. 10 seed Kei Nishikori became the first Japanese man to reach the semifinals of the U.S. championships since 1918, outlasting No. 3 seed and reigning Australian Open champion Stan Wawrinka of Switzerland 3-6, 7-5, 7-6 (7), 6-7 (5), 6-4 in 4 hours, 15 minutes.
   Nishikori advanced to his first Grand Slam semifinal after his second straight marathon. He topped No. 5 Milos Raonic of Canada 4-6, 7-6 (4), 6-7 (8), 7-5, 6-4 in 4 hours, 19 minutes in a match that ended at 2:26 a.m. Tuesday EDT, tying the latest finish in U.S. Open history.

Novak Djokovic reached his eighth consecutive U.S. Open
semifinal. 2012 photo by Paul Bauman

   Notable -- Top-ranked Novak Djokovic reached his eighth consecutive U.S. Open semifinal, wearing down eighth-seeded Andy Murray 7-6 (1), 6-7 (1), 6-2, 6-4.
   Djokovic also avenged a 6-4, 7-5, 6-4 loss to Murray in last year's Wimbledon final, which ended Great Britain's 77-year men's title drought in the tournament. Murray underwent back surgery last September.
   Top-ranked Serena Williams advanced to the U.S. Open semifinals for the fourth straight year, dismissing 11th-seeded Flavia Pennetta of Italy 6-3, 6-2. Williams is trying to become the first woman to win three consecutive U.S. Open titles since Chris Evert won four in a row from 1975 through 1978.
   No. 17 seed Ekaterina Makarova of Russia outsteadied No. 16 Victoria Azarenka 6-4, 6-2 to reach her first Grand Slam semifinal. Makarova, a 26-year-old left-hander, had played in four major quarterfinals. Azarenka, the runner-up to Williams in the past two U.S. Opens, has battled injuries this year.
   Women's semifinal matchups (seedings in parentheses) -- Caroline Wozniacki (10) vs. Peng Shuai on Friday. Wozniacki leads the head-to-head series 5-1 with five straight wins.
   Williams vs. Makarova (17) on Friday. Williams leads the series 3-1, all on hardcourts. In the players' two Grand Slam meetings, both in 2012, Makarova won 6-2, 6-3 in the fourth round of the Australian Open and lost 6-4, 6-0 in the third round of the U.S. Open.
   Men's semifinal matchups -- Djokovic (1) vs. Nishikori (10) on Saturday. Djokovic leads the head-to-head series 2-1, including a withdrawal by Nishikori in the Miami semifinals in March because of a groin injury.
   The other U.S. Open semifinal will be determined on Thursday, when Tomas Berdych (6) faces Marin Cilic (14) not before 10:30 a.m. PDT and Roger Federer (2) plays Monfils (20) not before 5 p.m.
   Both matches will be televised live on ESPN.
   U.S. report -- Abigail Spears of San Diego and Santiago Gonzalez of Mexico reached the mixed doubles final for the second straight year, beating Americans Taylor Townsend and Donald Young 6-3, 6-4.
   Spears and Gonzalez, who lost to Andrea Hlavackova and Max Mirnyi last year, will face top-seeded Sania Mirza of India and Bruno Soares of Brazil.
    Northern California connection -- Top-seeded CiCi Bellis of Atherton in the San Francisco Bay Area and Marketa Vondrousova of the Czech Republic advanced to the girls doubles quarterfinals with a 6-1, 7-6 (3) victory over Hungarians Anna Bondar and Dalma Galfi.
    Bellis and Vondrousova are both 15. They fell just short of winning the French Open girls doubles title in June as the seventh seeds, losing to unseeded Ioana Ducu and Ioana Loredana Rosca of Romania 6-1, 5-7 [11-9].
   Fast fact -- Murray was born seven days before Djokovic. Both are 27.
   Quote -- Murray, on his loss to Djokovic: "He appeared fresher than me. Whether he was or not I don't know. Maybe he does a better job of hiding (fatigue) than me."

U.S. Open Day 8 highlights: Nishikori win ties record

Kei Nishikori loses to Andy Murray in the 2012
Australian Open quarterfinals. Nishikori reached
the last eight in a Grand Slam tournament for the
first time since then by beating Milos Raonic in
a match that ended at 2:26 a.m. New York time.
Photo by Paul Bauman

   Match of the day -- Score one for the little guy. It rarely happens in this era of power.
   No. 10 seed Kei Nishikori, a gutsy 5-foot-10 (1.78-meter) Japan native, outlasted No. 5 Milos Raonic, a 6-foot-5 (1.96-meter) Canadian with a pulverizing serve, 4-6, 7-6 (4), 6-7 (6), 7-5, 6-4 in a fourth-round match that ended at 2:26 a.m. New York time.
   That tied the latest finish in U.S. Open history. Also ending at 2:26 a.m. were Philipp Kohlschrieber's third-round victory over John Isner in 2012 and Mats Wilander's second-round win over fellow Swede Mikael Pernfors in 1993.
    Nishikori, 24, reached his second Grand Slam quarterfinal and first at the U.S. Open. He missed most of the tuneup tournaments for Flushing Meadows with a severely infected right big toe and had his foot re-wrapped early in the fourth set of the 4-hour, 19-minute battle.
   Nishikori is coached by Michael Chang, an International Tennis Hall of Famer and the 1996 U.S. Open runner-up.
  Upset of the day -- In the latest women's surprise, No. 17 seed Ekaterina Makarova of Russia ousted No. 7 Eugenie Bouchard of Canada 7-6 (2), 6-4 in the fourth round.
   Bouchard, the runner-up at Wimbledon last month, took a medical timeout in the second set for dizziness in the heat and extreme humidity. She failed to reach a Grand Slam semifinal for the first time this year.
   Among the top nine women's seeds, the only quarterfinalist is No. 1 Serena Williams.
   Notable -- Top-ranked Novak Djokovic, the 2011 U.S. Open champion, advanced to the quarterfinals for the eighth consecutive year at Flushing Meadows and 22nd straight Grand Slam tournament. He outplayed the 22nd-seeded Kohlschreiber of Germany 6-1, 7-5, 6-4.
   Williams, who has won 17 Grand Slam singles titles, reached her first major quarterfinal of the year with a 6-3, 6-3 victory over unseeded Kaia Kanepi of Estonia.
   No. 16 seed Victoria Azarenka, the U.S. Open runner-up to Williams for the past two years, eliminated qualifier Aleksandra Krunic of Serbia 4-6, 6-4, 6-4. Krunic had knocked out No. 3 Petra Kvitova, who won her second Wimbledon title last month, in the third round.
   Sixth-seeded Leander Paes and Radek Stepanek, the defending men's doubles champions, lost to 11th-seeded Marcel Granollers and Marc Lopez 6-2, 4-6, 6-1 in the third round.
   Eighth-seeded Vasek Pospisil and Jack Sock, the reigning Wimbledon champs, fell to unseeded Carlos Berlocq and Leonardo Mayer of Argentina 6-2, 6-2 in the third round.
   Women's quarterfinal matchups (seedings in parentheses) -- Williams (1) vs. Flavia Pennetta (11), Azarenka (16) vs. Makarova (17), Peng Shuai vs. Belinda Bencic, Caroline Wozniacki (10) vs. Sara Errani (13).
   Men's quarterfinal matchups -- Djokovic (1) vs. Andy Murray (8), Stan Wawrinka (3) vs. Nishikori (10). The other encounters will be determined today. If the seedings hold, they will be Tomas Berdych (6) vs. Marin Cilic (14) and Roger Federer (2) vs. Grigor Dimitrov (7).
   Northern California connection -- Top-seeded CiCi Bellis, 15, of Atherton in the San Francisco Bay Area routed Renata Zarazua of Mexico 6-1, 6-3 in the first round of girls singles. Bellis stunned 12th-seeded Dominika Cibulkova, the Australian Open runner-up in January, in the first round of women's doubles before losing to Zarina Diyas of Kazakhstan in the second round.
   In an all-American men's doubles match, top-seeded Bob and Mike Bryan beat Bradley Klahn and Tim Smyczek 6-3, 7-6 (5) to reach the quarterfinals. All except Smyczek (pronounced SMEE-check) played at Stanford, but only Klahn graduated. Klahn, 24, is 12 years younger than the Bryan twins.
   Fast fact -- For the first time since 1977, eight different women will have played in a year's Grand Slam finals.
   Quote -- Makarova, on what was going through her mind during Bouchard's medical timeout: "Well, actually, I thought, 'Thanks,' because I also was tired."

Veteran Harkins makes unusual career move

Macall Harkins moved from the Los Angeles
area to Redding to train under Jeremiah Walsh
and Jo Campbell. Photo by Paul Bauman

    REDDING, Calif. -- Every September for three years, Macall Harkins made the eight-hour drive up Interstate 5 from her home in the Los Angeles area to Redding for the women's Challenger.
   Even though both cities are in California, Harkins might as well have been traveling to a different planet.
   With a population of more than 13 million, sprawling Los Angeles is the second-largest metropolitan area in the United States behind New York. L.A. is known for freeways, smog, Hollywood, Disneyland, the Dodgers and the Lakers.
   Harkins, 27, grew up in the suburb of Palos Verdes and played at the Jack Kramer Club, the former home of Tracy Austin, Pete Sampras and Lindsay Davenport.
   Redding is (choose one):
   a. A city of 92,000 people.
   b. A furnace in the summer.
   c. An outdoor paradise.
   d. All of the above.
   If you chose "d," you win a brand new Mercedes-Benz, as Sacramento Capitals coach Wayne Bryan often jokes with players at his clinics.
   Harkins, though, doesn't have to make the trek anymore. She and her husband moved to Redding in March, Harkins said Thursday after losing to No. 2 seed Ksenia Pervak of Russia 6-2, 6-3 in the second round of the $25,000 The Ascension Project Women's Challenger at Sun Oaks Tennis & Fitness.
   Say what? Move from a tennis mecca to remote Redding?

Ksenia Pervak reached No. 37 in the world
in 2011. Photo by Paul Bauman

   At last year's Challenger, Harkins met Jeremiah Walsh and Jo Campbell, the director of tennis and tennis coordinator at Sun Oaks, respectively.
   "I believe they can take my game to the next level (so I can) play at the WTA level," Harkins explained. "We moved here so I can get more one-on-one time with (Walsh)."
   Walsh serves as Harkins' tennis coach and Campbell as her mental coach.
   Whereas Harkins was a classic small fish in a big pond in Palos Verdes, the opposite is true in Redding. And let's face it -- the cost of housing in Redding is a fraction of that in Los Angeles.
   Harkins was accorded rock-star status during her match against Pervak. A crowd of about 100 fans -- an excellent turnout for a second-round Challenger match at 10 a.m. on a weekday -- erupted with cheers for her winners and groaned after her misses.
   Despite the one-sided score, Harkins put up a good fight, engaging Pervak in many hard-hitting rallies. Unfortunately for Harkins, Pervak won most of them.
   "Her defense was incredible," Harkins said. "She got to a lot of balls that I thought were going to be unreturnable or I would get a weak ball, but she managed to get a lot of balls back. So it made me hit more and more. That was really good on her part."
   Pervak, a 5-foot-7 (1.70-meter) left-hander, climbed to a career-high No. 37 in the world in 2011 after advancing to the fourth round at Wimbledon and winning a WTA tournament in Tashkent. Hampered by injuries this year, the 22-year-old Pervak has fallen to No. 142.
   Harkins, who played at the University of Illinois and Texas Christian University, is ranked No. 249 in doubles with nine career minor-league titles and No. 761 in singles with three career minor-league crowns. She needs to crack the top 100 to play regularly on the WTA tour, the major leagues of women's tennis.
   Like Pervak, Harkins is left-handed. Plus, she's 6 feet (1.84 meters) tall. That gives her two enormous advantages, and Walsh calls her "a tremendous ball-striker."
   So what's the problem? Basically, impatience and shot selection.
   "It's at a place of decision-making," Walsh said. "We're at a place where (she's) learning how to make choices in milliseconds and process and let go of feelings and stick to plans and return to plans.
   "You watched her match? She's not far off. That gal was 37 in the world, and you can see why. The opportunities did present themselves. It's just a matter of learning how to get deeper into a match (when) things might open up for you. Some players have a hard time with that. We're getting to the place where Macall is going to recognize opportunities even if it takes a set and half to get to them."
   Harkins, added Walsh, "has spent a career hitting hard and flat. You get to a certain level, and that doesn't get you through anymore. She's learning to recognize when to change the flight patterns and how to adjust to a difficult ball.
   "Sometimes her old instinct is, 'Oh, no, I'm in trouble; I better hit this hard,' instead of, 'I'm in trouble; I better work my way out of this spot.' It's not such a panic decision. That's what I mean by decision-making in that millisecond."
   Why doesn't hitting hard and flat work?
   "Cuz there's a net, and it's three feet high," Walsh quipped. " ... You don't just get to hit hard and flat cuz you want. If the ball is low, if the ball is difficult, you may not be able to create the right trajectory with pace."
   Harkins got a measure of revenge against Pervak later Thursday. The fourth-seeded team of Harkins and American Sanaz Marand, another left-hander, defeated Pervak and Yasmin Schnack of Elk Grove in the Sacramento area 6-4, 6-4 in the doubles quarterfinals.
   Harkins reached last year's doubles final with Chieh-Yu Hsu. They fell to Jacqueline Cako and Marand 7-6 (5), 7-5 in an All-American battle.
   The 25-year-old Schnack launched a comeback in Redding, where she won the doubles title in 2010 and 2011, after leaving the tour last fall. She is deferring her acceptance to nursing school for at least six months. The 2010 UCLA graduate reached career highs of No. 140 in doubles and No. 371 in singles last year.
   Unseeded Robin Anderson, who advanced to the NCAA doubles final as a UCLA sophomore in May, beat fourth-seeded Veronica Cepede Royg of Paraguay 5-7, 6-4, 6-3 to reach the singles quarterfinals at Sun Oaks.
   Christina Makarova, a 17-year-old qualifier from San Diego, outlasted Cako 3-6, 6-2, 6-4 to gain her first Challenger quarterfinal.
   Top-seeded Olivia Rogowska of Australia and unseeded Julia Boserup, the 2011 Redding champion, each won 6-2, 6-0. In two matches, Boserup has lost only four games and Rogowska six.
   Boserup, who turned 22 on Monday, missed the first six months of the year with a bulging disc.
   Here are links to the singles and doubles draws and today's schedule:
   http://assets.usta.com/assets/1/15/singles_draw283.PDF
   http://assets.usta.com/assets/1/15/doubles_draw284.PDF
   http://assets.usta.com/assets/1/15/schedule284.PDF

Junior champions span West Coast

   The USTA West Coast Junior Championships lived up to its name in boys and girls 18 singles.
   Emmett Egger of Issaquah, Wash., near Seattle, and Christina Makarova of San Diego, took the titles Tuesday at the Rio del Oro Racquet Club in Sacramento. Both players were seeded No. 1.
   Egger, ranked fourth nationally in the 18s, wore down his good friend, second-seeded Connor Farren of Hillsborough, 7-6 (5), 6-3 in the final. Farren is No. 2 in the United States in the boys 16s.
   Egger and Farren recently returned to the United States after traveling to European tournaments together for seven weeks.
   In the first set of the final, "there was a little nervous tension after spending that much time together," said Egger, 18. "I hit some key serves at good times (in the match), which helped me because Connor has such good returns."
   Makarova, ranked second nationally in the girls 16s, outsteadied unseeded Alison Ho, a left-hander from Thousand Oaks, 6-4, 6-3 for the title.
   "She gave me a lot of free points by hitting too hard," said Makarova, 15.
   Like Egger, Makarova admitted to being nervous in the first set, which had been tied 4-4. She resorted to hitting moonballs.
   "I was trying to be aggressive, but I guess I got tight because it was a final and fell into that," she said.
   Egger's parents, recreational players, introduced him to tennis when he was 7. He said growing up in the rainy Pacific Northwest did not hurt his tennis development because he has spent most of his time at academies in Florida, Texas and California since he was 14.
   Egger, who studied at an online high school, will play on scholarship at the University of Washington in Seattle beginning in the fall.
   "I liked the coach, Matt Anger," Egger said of the former touring pro who reached a career-high No. 23 in the world in 1986. "That's what sold me. I like the way he coaches and what he thought about my game. He changes (his style according) to the player. He's definitely not 'one size fits all.' He (talked about) mixing it up and keeping it deep, and he's helping me with my volley."
   If Egger becomes a successful pro player, as he hopes, he will not be the first from Washington.
   Tom Gorman of Seattle reached the semifinals at Wimbledon, the U.S. Open and the French Open in the early 1970s and coached the U.S. Davis Cup team to titles in 1990 and 1992.             
   Patrick Galbraith of Tacoma reached No. 1 in the world in doubles in 1993, and Jan-Michael Gambill of the Spokane area in eastern Washington climbed to No. 14 in singles 10 years ago.
   Makarova was born in Montreal to Russian parents and moved with her family to San Diego when she was 4 because of her father's job. Michael Popkov is a scientist. Christina's mother and coach, Luda, was once the highest-ranked woman in the Soviet Union.
   Makarova, who will be a sophomore at an online high school in the fall, will either turn pro in the next few years or attend college.            
   "It depends on how things go," she said.
   Champions from Northern California in the West Coast Junior Championships were:
   --Eighth-seeded Sarah Hu of Oakland in girls 16 singles.
   --Unseeded Katya Tabachnik of San Francisco in girls 14 singles.
   --Second-seeded Richard Pham of Saratoga and Brandon Sutter of El Dorado Hills in boys 18 doubles.
   --Unseeded Kristy Jorgensen of San Carlos and Christi Tain of Milpitas in girls 16 doubles.
   --Top-seeded Grace Lin of South San Francisco and Karina Vyrlan of Sacramento in girls 14 doubles.