Tursunov continues to haunt Brazil; new rankings

   Dmitry Tursunov is driving Brazil nuts.
   After giving host Russia a 3-2 Davis Cup victory over Brazil last month, the Folsom resident outlasted Brazilian No. 1 Thomaz Bellucci 6-7 (5), 6-4, 7-5 early today in the first round of the $3.24 million Shanghai Rolex Masters.
   Tursunov did not play Bellucci in the Davis Cup. In fact, they had never faced each other before today. They have similar rankings, Bellucci at No. 35 and Tursunov at No. 41. But Bellucci is a 23-year-old left-hander and Tursunov a 28-year-old right-hander.
   Bellucci probably would just as soon not see another Russian for a while. Mikhail Youzhny saved two match points to edge Bellucci 2-6, 6-3, 5-7, 6-4, 14-12 in five hours and even the Davis Cup series at 2-2, setting up Tursunov's heroics against Ricardo Mello.
   But Tursunov isn't in such an enviable position, either. He must face red-hot Andy Murray, who received a first-round bye as the second seed in Shanghai. Murray, ranked fourth, is coming off titles in Bangkok and Tokyo in the past two weeks In the Tokyo final Sunday, Murray beat Rafael Nadal 3-6, 6-2, 6-0.
   Murray, a 24-year-old Scotland native, is 5-0 lifetime against Tursunov. They will meet for the first time in three years.
   Tursunov's former teammate on the Sacramento Capitals, Mark Knowles, lost in the first round of doubles. The 40-year-old Bahamian teamed with Lukasz Kubot of Poland in a 2-6, 7-6 (5), 10-7 tiebreak decision against Marcel Granollers of Spain and Viktor Troicki of Serbia.
   WTA tour in Osaka, Japan --Third-seeded Raquel Kops-Jones, a former Cal star from Fresno, and Abigail Spears of San Diego defeated Japanese wild cards Misaki Doi and Kurumi Nara 6-2, 6-2 in the first round of doubles at the $220,000 HP Japan Women's Open.
   ATP Challenger Tour in Tiburon -- All first-round matches in the $100,000 First Republic Bank Tiburon Challenger were rained out.
   Seeded in singles are No. 1 Ryan Sweeting of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., No. 2 Ivo Karlovic of Croatia, No. 3 Sam Querrey of Las Vegas, No. 4 Bobby Reynolds of Acworth, Ga., No. 5 Vasek Pospisil of Canada, No. 6 Izak Van der Merwe of South Africa, No. 7 Wayne Odesnik of Weston, Fla., and No. 8 Bjorn Phau of Germany.
   The 6-foot-10 Karlovic won the singles title in last week's $100,000 RelyAid Natomas Racquet Club Challenger in Sacramento. Odesnik, who won the 2007 Sacramento Challenger, returned to action in January after serving a one-year suspension for importing human growth hormone into Australia.
   The doubles seeds are No. 1 Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah of Colombia, No. 2 Treat Conrad Huey of the Philippines and Van der Merwe, No. 3 Frederik Nielsen of Denmark and Travis Parrott of Portland, Ore., and No. 4 Jordan Kerr of Australia and David Martin of Huntington Beach.
   Martin returns to the San Francisco Bay Area, where he starred at Stanford from 2000 to 2003.
   New rankings -- Following are this week's world rankings of professional 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 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 -- No. 26 in doubles (-1), unranked in singles.
   Mark Knowles, Sacramento Capitals of World TeamTennis (2001-07, 2009-11) -- No. 43 in doubles (-3), unranked in singles.
   Dmitry Tursunov, Folsom resident -- No. 41 in singles (-1), No. 168 in doubles (-61).
   Sam Querrey, San Francisco native -- No. 120 in singles (no change), No. 34 in doubles (+1).
   David Martin, 2002 NCAA doubles runner-up from Stanford -- No. 94 in doubles (-4), No. 707 in singles (-5).
   John Paul Fruttero, Cal All-American in 2001 and 2002 -- Career-high No. 133 in doubles (+3), 1,249 in singles (-+11).
   Conor Niland, 2006 Pacific-10 Conference Player of the Year and two-time All-American at Cal -- No. 193 in singles (+10), unranked in doubles. 
   Jimmy Wang, Folsom resident -- No. 382 in singles (+9), No. 668 in doubles (-).
   Dusan Vemic, Capitals (2010-11) -- No. 503 in doubles (+5), No. 1,531 in singles (+5).
   Kiryl Harbatsiuk, three-time Big Sky Conference MVP (2009-11) at Sacramento State -- No. 731 in singles (+30), No. 1,256 in doubles (-5).

Women

   Vania King, Capitals (2010-11) -- No. 9 in doubles (no change), No. 83 in singles (-1).
   Raquel Kops-Jones, 2003 NCAA doubles champion from Cal -- No. 37 in doubles (+5), unranked in singles.
   Yasmin Schnack, Elk Grove resident, Sacramento Capitals of World TeamTennis (2011) -- No. 210 in doubles (+12), No. 386 in singles (+7).
   Maria Sanchez, Modesto resident -- No. 376 in doubles (+3), No. 697 in singles (+13).

Sock reaches quarterfinals despite sprained ankle

   Jack Sock was struggling in his match on two good ankles.
   On one, though, he played fine.
   Despite rolling his left ankle early in the third set, the 19-year-old wild card from Overland Park, Kan., beat Roman Borvanov of Moldova 6-1, 3-6, 6-3 Wednesday in the second round of the $100,000 Rely Aid Natomas Racquet Club Challenger in Sacramento.
   Sock, who later won his first-round doubles match with Nicholas Monroe of Chapel Hill, N.C., advanced to the quarterfinals of a Challenger for the second time. Making his Challenger debut last February while still a public high school student, he lost to Australia's Matthew Ebden in Dallas.
   Sock, an upset winner over eighth-seeded James Ward of Great Britain in the first round, is scheduled to meet either top-seeded James Blake of Tampa, Fla., or 6-foot-7 left-hander Chris Guccione of Australia on Friday. Their match was postponed by rain until Thursday at 11 a.m.
   In the only other singles match completed Wednesday, fourth-seeded Bobby Reynolds of Acworth, Ga., extended his winning streak to seven matches with a 6-2, 5-7, 6-2 victory over 2010 Sacramento quarterfinalist Frederik Nielsen of Denmark. Reynolds, 29, won the singles and doubles titles in the $50,000 Tulsa, Okla., Challenger three weeks ago.
  Two former All-Americans from Bay Area colleges advanced to the doubles quarterfinals.
   John Paul Fruttero, a two-time All-American at Cal (2001-02), and Raven Klaasen of South Africa upset top-seeded Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah, both of Colombia, 7-6 (6), 6-3. Fruttero, a right-hander who played with a strained ligament in his right index finger, and Klaasen won the last five points of the tiebreaker, saving three set points.
   David Martin, an NCAA singles semifinalist and doubles finalist for Stanford in 2002, and Jordan Kerr of Australia beat wild cards Junaid Hossain and Brian Martinez of Sacramento 6-4, 6-2. 
   Fruttero has reached the doubles final in Sacramento twice, teaming with Mirko Pehar in the inaugural tournament in 2005 and with native Sacramentan Sam Warburg in 2007. Pehar now coaches Croatian countryman Ivo Karlovic, seeded second in this year's Sacramento Challenger. Warburg retired two years ago. 
   Cabal reached the French Open doubles final this year with Eduardo Schwank of Argentina, and Farah won the 2008 NCAA doubles title with USC teammate Kaes Van't Hof.
   Sock, who turned pro in July and won the U.S. Open mixed doubles title with Melanie Oudin last month, appeared to be on his way to an easy victory when he served at 3-2 in the second set. But Borvanov reeled off the next four games to win the set.
   In the first game of the third set, Sock held serve after trailing 15-40 and later double-faulting twice in a row. After Sock served way long for the second double fault, he swatted a ball in the stands and received a warning.
   With Borvanov serving at 0-15 in the next game, Sock hurt his ankle returning a drop shot but won the point. After getting the ankle taped during a three-minute medical timeout, Sock pounded serves and groundstrokes to shorten the points. It worked. He broke serve for 2-0, and both players held the rest of the way.
    "I went for broke on his serve and tried to get free points on my serve (after the injury)," said Sock, who last year became the first American to win the U.S. Open junior boys title since fellow Nebraska native Andy Roddick in 2000. "I did (the latter) pretty well and was able to hold."
   As often happens, the injury seemed to hurt the opponent more than the victim.
   "I personally thought he rolled the ankle pretty bad," said Borvanov, a 29-year-old graduate of the University of Portland. "I tried too much to run him. I knew I had to be aggressive (regardless of the injury), and I think I got tighter.
   "It was already 0-30 in that game. He started slapping the ball -- that was the toughest thing. The quality of his forehand improved after the injury, and he put pressure on me. Also, his service percentage got better. In the second set, I was getting a lot of returns back, but in the third set, he started serving better."
   Sock said he didn't consider retiring from the match. He had a similar experience last December, when he rolled an ankle while leading Denis Kudla 6-2, 3-2 in the semifinals of the Australian Open wild-card playoff in Norcross, Ga. After taking a medical timeout, Sock completed a 6-2, 7-5 victory.
   "I hoped the same thing would happen today," said Sock, who lost to fellow 18-year-old Ryan Harrison 7-6 (3), 6-2, 6-7 (4), 6-4 the next day in the wild-card final. "I was fortunate to get the win."
   ATP World Tour -- In match between two players with Sacramento-area ties, Santiago Giraldo of Colombia defeated Dmitry Tursunov 6-4, 7-6 (4) in the second round of the Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships in Tokyo.
   Giraldo won the 2009 Sacramento Challenger, beating Jesse Levine of Boca Raton, Fla., in the final. Tursunov, a Moscow native, lives in Folsom.
    Scott Lipsky, Martin's partner in the 2002 NCAA doubles final, and longtime Sacramento Capital Mark Knowles lost in separate doubles matches in the first round of the China Open in Beijing.
   WTA tour -- Fresno's Raquel Kops-Jones, the 2003 NCAA doubles champion from Cal with Sacramento native Christina Fusano, and Abigail Spears of San Diego lost to second-seeded Liezel Huber and Lisa Raymond, who won the U.S. Open women's doubles title last month, 6-1, 3-6, 10-5 tiebreak in the quarterfinals of the China Open.  
   Fourth-seeded Vania King, a Capital who grew up in Long Beach, and Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazkhstan routed Italians Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci 6-1, 6-2 in the second round. 
   ITF Women's Circuit -- Wild cards Yasmin Schnack of Elk Grove and Maria Sanchez of Modesto lost in the first round of singles in the $50,000 Women's Pro Tennis Classic in Kansas City, Mo.
   Schnack fell to Ashley Weinhold of Spicewood, Texas, 6-2, 7-5, and Sanchez dropped a 7-6 (1), 1-6, 6-2 decision to qualifier Eugenie Bouchard of Canada.         

    RELY AID NATOMAS CHALLENGER

At Natomas Racquet Club

Second-round singles

   Bobby Reynolds (4), Acworth, Ga., def. Frederik Nielsen, Denmark, 6-2, 5-7, 6-2. Jack Sock, Overland Park, Kan., def. Roman Borvanov, Moldova, 6-1, 3-6, 6-3.

First-round doubles

   Sanchai Ratiwatana and Sonchat Ratiwatana, Thailand, def. Laurynas Grigelis, Lithuania, and Uladzimir Ignatik, Belarus, 6-2, 6-7 (2), 15-13 tiebreak. John Paul Fruttero, San Jose, and Raven Klaasen, South Africa, def. Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah (1), Colombia, 7-6 (6), 6-3. Vasek Pospisil, Canada, and Bobby Reynolds, Acworth, Ga., def. Steve Johnson, Orange, and Sam Querrey, Las Vegas, 5-7, 6-3, 17-15 tiebreak. Jordan Kerr, Australia, and David Martin (4), Huntington Beach, def. Junaid Hossain and Brian Martinez, Sacramento, 6-4, 6-2. Frederik Nielsen, Denmark, and Travis Parrott (3), Portland, Ore., def. Pierre-Ludovic Duclos, Canada, and Adam Hubble, Australia, 6-1, 6-4.

Thursday's schedule

(Beginning at 11 a.m.)

Center Court 

   Blake (1) vs. Guccione, Estrella vs. Karlovic (2), Gremelmayr vs. Querrey (3), Kerr and Martin (4) vs. Rettenmaier and Stadler.

Court 1

   Kuznetsov vs. Van der Merwe (6), Phau vs. Ignatik, Ratiwatana and Ratiwatana vs. Ball and Guccione.

Court 2

   De Bakker vs. Duclos, Pospisil and Reynolds vs. Nielsen and Parrott (3), Fruttero and Klaasen vs. Monroe and Sock.

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.

King cruises in women's doubles at U.S. Open

   Vania King of the Sacramento Capitals and Yaroslava Shvedova are rolling as they defend their U.S. Open women's doubles title.
   The third seeds dispatched Eleni Daniilidou of Greece and Polona Hercog of Slovenia 6-2, 6-2 in Flushing Meadows, N.Y., in the second round for their sixth consecutive victory. 
   King, a Long Beach product living in Boynton Beach, Fla., and Shvedova, from Kazakhstan, won the women's doubles title in Cincinnati two weeks ago. They have not lost more than two games in a set in this year's U.S. Open and next face American wild cards Jessica Pegula, 17, and Taylor Townsend, 15.
   Richard Williams, the father of Venus and Serena Williams, was quoted in the New York Times last week as saying Townsend, an African-American left-hander from Stockbridge, Ga., is better than his daughters were at the same age. Pegula's father, Terrence, owns the Buffalo Sabres of the NHL.
   King, meanwhile, lost in the first round of mixed doubles with Rohan Bopanna of India. The fifth seeds fell to Barbora Zahlavova Strycova of the Czech Republic and Philipp Petzschner of Germany 7-6 (1), 4-6, 10-7 tiebreak.
   King's teammate on the Capitals, Mark Knowles of the Bahamas,  advanced in men's doubles and mixed doubles.
   Knowles and Belgium's Xavier Malisse, seeded 15th in men's doubles, advanced to the third round with a 6-3, 6-3 victory over Martin Emmrich of Germany and Andreas Siljestrom of Sweden.
   The unseeded team of Knowles and Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia beat wild cards Christina Fusano, a Sacramento native and former NCAA women's doubles champion from Cal, and ex-Stanford All-American David Martin 6-2, 7-5 in the first round of mixed doubles.
   Raquel Kops-Jones, who won the 2003 NCAA women's doubles title with Fusano, and fellow American Rajeev Ram lost in the second round of mixed doubles to Czechs Lucie Hradecka and Frantisek Cermak 7-5, 7-5.
   Wild cards Hilary Barte and Mallory Burdette, the reigning NCAA women's doubles champions from Stanford, fell to unseeded Andreja Klepac of Slovenia and Anna Tatishvili of Georgia 6-2, 3-6, 6-3.     
  

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.

Niland's dream match ends quickly

   Even though he lost, Conor Niland fulfilled a dream Tuesday.
   After toiling in tennis' minor leagues for years, the former Cal All-American faced world No. 1 Novak Djokovic in Arthur Ashe Stadium at the U.S. Open.
   Trailing 6-0, 5-1 in the biggest tennis stadium in the world with a capacity of 22,547, Niland retired with food poisoning after 44 minutes in the first round at Flushing Meadows, N.Y.
   “To get to play Novak Djokovic, the No. 1 player in the world, is amazing,” the 29-year-old Irishman, who won three qualifying matches to enter the main draw, was quoted as saying on the ATP World Tour Web site before the match. “It was always my goal to get to these type of situations.
   "Being an Irish player, we did not have that many guys on tour, and it was always kind of exciting to think that maybe I could be the guy to get here. It took me a long time to do it. Had it not been for the support of my family, I am not sure if I would have continued. They always told me to back myself and keep believing.”
   Niland, who beat Roger Federer when they were 13 and was named the Pacific-10 Conference Player of the Year in 2006, is ranked No. 197 in the world in singles after reaching a career-high of No. 129 last December. He has singles records of 117-72 on the ITF Futures circuit, 68-77 on the ATP Challenger Tour, 9-10 on the ATP World Tour and 0-2 in Grand Slam tournaments.
   “Six months is a long time on the tennis tour,” said Niland, who also lost in the first round at Wimbledon in June as a qualifier. “And you can always turn your career around in that period of time. You can go from losing matches in Futures to winning a few in Challengers to qualifying for ATP 250s. And then you are in qualies of a Slam with the chance to play against great players.
   "Nobody knows this better than me. For all those guys playing Challengers this week, keep believing and keep trying for the biggest stages in tennis.”
  Also in men's singles at the U.S. Open, Folsom resident Dmitry Tursunov lost to Steve Darcis of Belgium for the second consecutive week. Tursunov fell 6-7 (4), 4-6, 7-5, 6-1, 7-6 (0) after succumbing 3-6, 6-1, 6-3 in the second round at Winston-Salem, N.C.
   In women's singles, Vania King of the Sacramento Capitals in World TeamTennis dispatched Greta Arn of Hungary 6-1, 6-4. King, who had won only one singles match in five tournaments since the French Open, will meet 29th-seeded Jarmila Gajdosova of Australia in the second round.
   King's teammate on the Capitals, Mark Knowles of the Bahamas, ended a four-match losing streak in doubles. Knowles and Belgium's Xavier Malisse, seeded 15th, defeated wild cards Jack Sock and Jack Withrow, both from Nebraska, 6-3, 6-7 (5), 6-1.
   Knowles, who will turn 40 Sunday, and Malisse, a comparative youngster at 31, won the Los Angeles title last month in their first tournament together. Sock and Withrow captured the boys 18 doubles title in the USTA National Championships in Kalamazoo, Mich., this month to earn an automatic berth in the U.S. Open.
   Another American wild-card team, Stanford senior Bradley Klahn and former Cardinal All-American David Martin, lost to seventh-seeded Robert Lindstedt of Sweden and Horia Tecau of Romania 6-4, 6-4. Lindstedt and Tecau have lost in the Wimbledon final for the past two years.

   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 change), no singles ranking.
   Mike Bryan, 1998 NCAA doubles champion from Stanford -- No. 1 in doubles (no change), no singles ranking.
   Scott Lipsky, 2002 NCAA doubles runner-up from Stanford -- No. 28 in doubles (no change), no singles ranking.
   Mark Knowles, Sacramento Capitals of World TeamTennis (2001-07, 2009-11) -- No. 40 in doubles (-2), no singles ranking.
   Dmitry Tursunov, Folsom resident -- No. 43 in singles (+1), No. 96 in doubles (-2).
   David Martin, 2002 NCAA doubles runner-up from Stanford -- No. 105 in doubles (-2), No. 701 in singles (no change).
   John Paul Fruttero, Cal All-American in 2001 and 2002 -- No. 152 in doubles (+2), 1,234 in singles (-5).
   Conor Niland, 2006 Pacific-10 Conference Player of the Year and two-time All-American at Cal -- No. 197 in singles (+2), no doubles ranking. 
   Jimmy Wang, Folsom resident -- No. 390 in singles (-7), No. 682 in doubles (-5).
   Dusan Vemic, Sacramento Capitals of World TeamTennis (2010-11) -- No. 503 in doubles (-5), No. 1,508 in singles (-4).
   Kiryl Harbatsiuk, three-time Big Sky Conference MVP (2009-11) at Sacramento State -- No. 767 in singles (-20), No. 1,225 in doubles (-2).

Women

   Vania King, Sacramento Capitals of World TeamTennis (2010-11) -- No. 7 in doubles (no change), No. 103 in singles (+2).
   Raquel Kops-Jones, 2003 NCAA doubles champion from Cal -- No. 53 in doubles (-2), no singles ranking.
   Christina Fusano, Sacramento native, Plymouth resident, 2003 NCAA doubles champion from Cal -- No. 174 in doubles (no change), no singles ranking.
   Yasmin Schnack, Elk Grove resident, Sacramento Capitals of World TeamTennis (2011) -- No. 220 in doubles (-1), No. 380 in singles (-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.  

Tursunov to meet familiar face in U.S. Open

   Dmitry Tursunov won't have to wait long for a chance at revenge.
   The Folsom resident, ranked 44th in the world, drew Belgium's Steve Darcis, ranked No. 102, on Thursday in the U.S. Open. Tursunov lost to Darcis 3-6, 6-1, 6-3 Tuesday in the second round of the Winston-Salem (N.C.) Open to even their career head-to-head record at 1-1.
   The winner of the Tursunov-Darcis match in the U.S. Open, which begins Monday in Flushing Meadows, N.Y., could play 24th-seeded Juan Ignacio Chela of Argentina in the second round. Tursunov is 0-2 lifetime against Chela.
   Tursunov has lost in the first round of the last two U.S. Opens. That he even played in them was a considerable achievement, considering that he underwent three operations on his left ankle or foot between April 2009 and February 2010.
   In fact, when Tursunov reached the second round at Wimbledon in June, he ended a streak of nine consecutive first-round singles losses in Grand Slam tournaments dating to the 2009 Australian Open. He had been on a string of three straight third-round showings.
  Tursunov, 28, will be playing in his ninth consecutive U.S. Open since debuting in 2003. His best results are third-round appearances in 2003, 2006 and 2008.
   Meanwhile, Vania King of the Sacramento Capitals will face Greta Arn of Hungary in the U.S. Open. The 5-foot-5 King, ranked No. 105 in singles, and the 5-11 Arn, ranked No. 62, have never met.
   The winner could play 29th-seeded Jarmila Gajdosova of Australia in the second round, and top-seeded Caroline Wozniacki looms in the third round. King is 0-1 against Gajdosova and 0-2 vs. Wozniacki.
   King, 22, will be playing in her seventh consecutive U.S. Open since debuting in 2005. Her best showing in singles was the third round in 2009. She will defend her doubles title with Yaroslava Shvedova.
   U.S. Open qualifying -- Stanford senior Bradley Klahn, last year's NCAA singles champion, defeated 14th-seeded Matthew Ebden of Australia 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-3 in the second round of qualifying at the U.S. Open.
   Klahn will meet unseeded Canadian veteran Frank Dancevic, ranked No. 183 after reaching a career-high No. 65 in 2007, today for a berth in the main draw.
   U.S. Open mixed doubles playoffs -- Sacramento-area players Christina Fusano, seeded first with former Stanford All-American David Martin of Tulsa, Okla., and Yasmin Schnack, unseeded with Sacramento's Eric Roberson, advanced to the semifinals of the U.S. Open National Playoffs in mixed doubles at New Haven, Conn.
   Fusano and Martin coasted to a 6-2, 6-3 victory over Marie-Eve Pelletier of Canada and Aleksander Vlaski of Serbia, while Schnack and Roberson eked out a 6-4, 6-7 (6), 12-10 tiebreak win over Imke Reimers of Minneapolis and Erik Donley of Duluth, Minn.
   The winner of the tournament will earn a wild card in the mixed doubles main draw of the U.S. Open.
 
    
  

Schnack seeks U.S. Open qualifying berth

   Second-seeded Yasmin Schnack of Elk Grove edged unseeded veteran Mashona Washington of Houston 3-6, 6-2, 6-4 Saturday in the semifinals of the U.S. Open National Playoffs  at New Haven, Conn.
   Schnack, who graduated from UCLA last year, will play incoming UCLA freshman Robin Anderson of Matawan, N.J., today for a berth in the U.S. Open qualifying tournament, Tuesday though Friday in Flushing Meadows, N.Y.
   In the men's final, top-seeded Blake Strode of St. Louis will meet unseeded Nathan Healey of Wyomissing, Pa. Strode, who has deferred his acceptance to Harvard Law School to play professional tennis, reached the final of the Chico Futures tournament in June.
   Healey advanced with a 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 victory over second-seeded David Martin, a former Stanford All-American living in Key Biscayne, Fla.
   ATP World Tour -- Top-seeded Bob and Mike Bryan, the 1998 NCAA doubles champions from Stanford, fell to third-seeded Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes of India 1-6, 7-6 (2), 10-7 in the semifinals of the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati.
  

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).