Mayo reaches boys 14 final in National Clay Courts

   Top-seeded Keenan Mayo of Roseville in the Sacramento area beat third-seeded Robert Baylon of Buena Park 7-5, 6-4 on Thursday to reach the final of the USTA Boys 14 National Clay Court Championships in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
   Mayo will face 12th-seeded Bradley Frye, an Overland Park, Kan., resident who defeated seventh-seeded Christian Alshon of Boca Raton, Fla., 6-3, 6-3.
   Mayo's brother, Aidan, was seeded second in the National Clay Court 12s in Winston-Salem, N.C. He fell to 11th-seeded Faris Khan of San Antonio 6-1, 6-4 in the semifinals.
   In the girls 12 quarterfinals in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., top-seeded Katie Volynets of Walnut Creek in the San Francisco Bay Area outlasted eighth-seeded Alexa Noel of Summit, N.J., 1-6, 6-4, 6-2.
   Volynets also reached the doubles quarterfinals with Charlotte Owensby of Boca Raton. They are seeded first.
   Other Northern California players advancing in doubles at the National Clay Courts were:
   -- Unseeded William Griffith of Fresno and Cameron Klinger of Elk Grove to the boys 18 round of 16 in Delray Beach, Fla.
   -- Top-seeded Vasil Kirkov of Tampa, Fla., and Sam Riffice of Roseville to the boys 16 quarterfinals in Delray Beach.
   -- Seventh-seeded Brandon Nakashima of San Diego and Andrew Ton of Milpitas to the boys 14 final in Fort Lauderdale.
   -- Ninth-seeded Sarah Bahsoun of Los Gatos and Niluka Madurawe of Sunnyvale to the girls 14 semifinals in Plantation, Fla.  

Mayo falls in Int'l Teen singles, gains doubles final

   Keenan Mayo of Roseville in the Sacramento area lost in the singles quarterfinals but won in the doubles semifinals today in the Nike Junior International Teen Tennis boys 14s in Bolton, England.
   Fourth-seeded Felix Auger Aliassime of Canada topped the unseeded Mayo 0-6, 6-3, 6-4, but Mayo avenged the loss in doubles. Fourth-seeded Roscoe Bellamy, from Pacific Palisades in the Los Angeles area, and Mayo nipped second-seeded Auger Aliassime and countryman Nicaise Muamba 6-7 (4), 6-4 [10-7].
   Bellamy and Mayo will play third-seeded Nicola Kuhn of Germany and Carlos Sanchez Jover of Spain for the title. Kuhn and Sanchez Jover edged sixth-seeded Andrew Fenty and Axel Nefve, both Americans, 6-1, 1-6 [10-7].
   Mayo won the boys 12 singles title in the 2012 USTA National Winter Championships in Tucson, Ariz., and ended the year ranked No. 1 nationally in the division. 

Stanford men win opener; Mayo reaches quarters

   The Stanford men defeated visiting Pacific 6-1 today to open the college spring season.
   The Tigers' point came at No. 1 singles as No. 105 Sem Verbeek topped John Morrissey 6-4, 4-6, 6-2.
   The Cardinal is coming off a season in which it lost in the first round of the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 35 appearances.
   The Stanford men have won 15 NCAA team titles in tennis, almost double any other school's total. USC is next with eight, including four in a row from 2009 through 2012.   But Stanford's last NCAA team crown came in 2000, when the Cardinal won its fifth championship in six years.
   Juniors -- Unseeded Keenan Mayo of Roseville in the Sacramento area beat seventh-seeded Daniel Michalski of Poland 6-3, 6-3 to reach the quarterfinals of the Nike Junior International Teen Tennis boys 14s in Bolton, England.
   Mayo, one of two unseeded players and four Americans in the quarterfinals, will face fourth-seeded Felix Auger Aliassime of Canada. Auger Aliassime dispatched Zhao Lingxi of China 6-3, 6-3.
   Mayo also advanced to the doubles semifinals with Roscoe Bellamy of Pacific Palisades in the Los Angeles area. Seeded fourth, they edged seventh-seeded Lingxi and Tomas Soares of Portugal 6-4, 2-6 [10-5].
   Bellamy and Mayo will meet second-seeded Auger Aliassime and Nicaise Muamba of Canada. Auger Aliassime and Muamba dismissed eighth-seeded Tomasz Dudek of Poland and Michalski 6-1, 6-3.
   Mayo won the boys 12 singles title in the 2012 USTA National Winter Championships in Tucson, Ariz., and ended the year ranked No. 1 nationally in the division. 

Roseville's Mayo wins in international junior tourney

   Unseeded Keenan Mayo of Roseville in the Sacramento area beat 10th-seeded Jake Hersey of Great Britain 6-1, 1-0, retired on Monday in the second round of the Nike Junior International Tennis Tennis boys 14s in Bolton, England.
   Mayo is scheduled to face seventh-seeded Daniel Michalski of Poland today for a berth in the quarterfinals. Michalski outlasted Radu Andrei Taica of Romania 2-6, 6-1, 6-3.
   Mayo also reached the doubles quarterfinals with Roscoe Bellamy of Pacific Palisades in the Los Angeles area. Seeded fourth, they downed unseeded Emile Hudd and Brandon Murphy of Great Britain 7-5, 6-3.
   Mayo won the boys 12 singles title in the 2012 USTA National Winter Championships in Tucson, Ariz., and ended the year ranked No. 1 nationally in the division. 

Two NorCal boys gain quarters in Winter Nationals

   William Griffith of Fresno and Logan Staggs of Tracy reached the boys 18 quarterfinals in the USTA National Winter Championships in Scottsdale, Ariz., on Monday.
   The third-seeded Griffth, who's headed to Cal, dispatched unseeded Oliver Sec of New York 6-1, 6-2. The fifth-seeded Staggs -- a 5-foot-7 (1.70-meter), 135-pound (61.2-kilogram) left-hander who will attend Northwestern -- topped ninth-seeded McClain Kessler of Calhoun, Ga., 7-5, 4-6, 6-1.
   Today, Griffith will face seventh-seeded Aron Hiltzik of Wilmette, Ill., and Staggs will meet 15th-seeded Walker Duncan of Atlanta.
   In the boys 14 quarterfinals in Tucson, Ariz., top-seeded Patrick Kypson of Greenville, N.C., dominated 16th-seeded Keenan Mayo of Roseville 6-3, 6-1.
   Ninth-seeded Randy Cory of Salinas and Andrew Ton of Milpitas reached the boys 14 doubles semifinals, and unseeded Isabella Harvison of Cardiff and Katie Volynets of Walnut Creek advanced to the girls doubles semis.

Roseville junior to play in elite European tourneys

   Keenan Mayo of Roseville in the Sacramento area recently earned berths in two prestigious junior tournaments in Europe in January.
   Mayo, 13, qualified for Teen Tennis in Bolton, England, and Les Petit As (The Little Champions) in Tarbes, France, by reaching the final of a playoff tournament in Boca Raton, Fla., last week.
   Mayo lost to Andrew Fenty of College Park, Md., 6-4, 6-2. Fenty's father, Adrian, served as the mayor of Washington, D.C., from 2007 to 2011.
   Past winners of Les Petit As include Rafael Nadal, Michael Chang, Martina Hingis and Kim Clijsters.
   Mayo won the boys 12 singles title in the USTA National Winter Championships last December in Tucson, Ariz., and ended the year ranked No. 1 nationally in the division.

Tursunov hurt; so what else is new? Rankings, etc.

Dmitry Tursunov, shown at Indian Wells in March, will miss one to
two weeks with a strained hamstring muscle. Photo by Paul Bauman

   Right on cue, Dmitry Tursunov got hurt.
   But the injury appears to be minor.
   After winning the Munich doubles title on May 5 and with the French Open approaching, the Moscow native, now based in the Sacramento area, retired from his first-round singles qualifying match at the Italian Open in Rome.
   Trailing 3-4 against Illya Marchenko of Ukraine, Tursunov quit with a pulled left hamstring muscle. He hopes to return for next week's Power Horse Cup in Dusseldorf and is confident he'll play in the French Open, which begins May 26.
   Tursunov, 30, reached the French Open doubles semifinals in 2008 and quarterfinals in 2007 and 2009, all with fellow Russian Igor Kunitsyn. Tursunov's best singles results at Roland Garros are third-round appearances in 2006 and 2008.
   Tursunov has spent much of the past four years battling injuries. Since Feb. 1, however, he has improved from No. 123 to No. 57 in the world in singles and from No. 283 to No. 148 in doubles. He reached career highs of No. 20 in singles in 2006 and No. 36 in 2008.
   Bryans triumph -- Top-seeded Bob and Mike Bryan won their fifth Madrid Open title and 87th overall Sunday, defeating seventh-seeded Alexander Peya of Austria and Bruno Soares of Brazil 6-2, 6-3.
   The identical twin sons of Wayne Bryan, the longtime coach of the Sacramento Capitals in World TeamTennis, turned 35 on April 29. They won the 1998 NCAA doubles title as Stanford sophomores, then turned pro.
   Junior showdown -- The recent Rio del Oro Junior Championships in Sacramento featured a showdown  between two players who ended 2012 ranked in the nation's top 10 in the boys 12s.
   The match lived up to its billing as then-No. 1 Keenan Mayo of Roseville outlasted then-No. 9 Jenson Brooksby of Sacramento 6-4, 2-6, 7-5 in the boys 14 semifinals.
   The second-seeded Mayo then beat top-seeded Austen Huang of Elk Grove 6-4, 4-6, 6-0 in the final.

PRO 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 -- Career-high No. 1 in doubles (no change), unranked in singles.

   Mike Bryan, 1998 NCAA doubles champion from Stanford -- Career-high No. 1 in doubles (no change), unranked in singles.
   Mardy Fish, Sacramento Capitals of World TeamTennis (2012-13) -- No. 40 in singles (+2), No. 334 in doubles (+4).
   Bradley Klahn, 2010 NCAA singles champion and 2011 NCAA doubles runner-up from Stanford -- No. 185 in singles (+2), No. 343 in doubles (+3).
   Scott Lipsky, 2002 NCAA doubles runner-up from Stanford -- Career-high No. 24 in doubles (+2), unranked in singles.
   Sam Querrey, San Francisco native, Capitals (2012-13) -- No. 19 in singles (-1), No. 98 in doubles (+11).
   Ryan Sweeting, Capitals (2012-13) -- No. 268 in singles (+2), No. 834 in doubles (-5).
   Dmitry Tursunov, Folsom resident from Russia -- No. 57 in singles (no change), No. 148 in doubles (-2).

Women

   Mallory Burdette, NCAA singles runner-up in 2012 and NCAA doubles champion in 2011 and 2012 from Stanford -- No. 85 in singles (-1), No. 367 in doubles (-3). 
   Raquel Kops-Jones, 2003 NCAA doubles champion from Cal -- No. 14 in doubles (no change), No. 1,135 in singles (-2).

   Megan Moulton-Levy, Capitals (2013) -- No. 65 in doubles (-2), unranked in singles.

   Maria Sanchez, Modesto product -- No. 126 in singles (-2), No. 125 in doubles (-2).

   Taylor Townsend, Capitals (2013) -- No. 349 in singles (no change), No. 537 in doubles (-4). 

TV SCHEDULE

(All times PDT)
Wednesday

   Rome (men), early rounds, Tennis Channel, 3 a.m.-12:30 p.m. (live), 6 p.m.-midnight (repeat).

Thursday 

   Rome (men), early rounds, Tennis Channel, 3 a.m.-2 p.m. (live), 2 p.m.-midnight (repeat).

Friday

   Rome (men), quarterfinals, Tennis Channel, 3-9 a.m. (live), 9:30-11 a.m. (repeat), noon-2 p.m. (live), 6-10 p.m. (repeat).
   Rome (women), quarterfinals, Tennis Channel, 2-6 p.m. (delay).

Saturday

   Rome (women), semifinals, Tennis Channel, 3-7 a.m. (live). 
   Rome (men), semifinals, Tennis Channel, 7-9:30 a.m. (live), 11 a.m.-1:30 p.m. (live).
   Rome (men and women), semifinals, Tennis Channel, 1:30-10:30 p.m. (repeat).

Sunday

   Rome (women), final, Tennis Channel, 4:30-7 a.m. (live), 10:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. (repeat), 7:30-9:30 p.m. (repeat).
   Rome (men), final, Tennis Channel, 7-9:30 a.m. (live), 12:30-3 p.m. (repeat), 5-7:30 p.m. (repeat).

 CALENDAR

   Thursday-May 21 -- NCAA Men's and Women's Team Championships, round of 16 through finals, Urbana, Ill., www.ncaa.com, www.fightingillini.com.
   May 22-27 -- NCAA Men's and Women's Individual Championships, Urbana, Ill., www.ncaa.com, www.fightingillini.com.
   May 26-June 9 -- FRENCH OPEN, www.rolandgarros.com. 2012 champions: Rafael Nadal, Maria Sharapova, Max Mirnyi-Daniel Nestor, Sara Errani-Roberta Vinci.
   June 24-July 7 -- WIMBLEDON, www.wimbledon.com. 2012 champions: Roger Federer, Serena Williams, Jonathan Marray-Frederik Nielsen, Serena Williams-Venus Williams.
   June 29-July 6 -- $50,000 Gold River Women's Challenger, Gold River Racquet Club, Gold River, Calif., www.usta.com. 2012 champions: Maria Sanchez, Asia Muhammad-Yasmin Schnack.
   July 6-8 -- West Coast Junior Championships, Rio del Oro Racquet Club, 119 Scripps Dr., Sacramento 95825, www.norcal.usta.com.
   July 7 -- Sacramento Capitals open season vs. Texas Wild in World TeamTennis, Capitals Stadium at Sunrise Mall in Citrus Heights, Calif., 7:35 p.m., www.saccaps.com.   
   July 22-28 -- Bank of the West Classic, Stanford, www.bankofthewestclassic.com. 2012 champions: Serena Williams, Marina Erakovic-Heather Watson. 
   July 25 -- World TeamTennis conference championships at highest seeds, www.wtt.com.

   July 28 -- World TeamTennis Finals at Eastern Conference champion, www.wtt.com.
   Aug. 5-11 -- $100,00 Comerica Bank Challenger, Seascape Sports Club, Aptos, Calif., www.seascapesportsclub.com/challenger. 2012 champions: Steve Johnson, Rik de Voest-John Peers.

Harbatsiuk has bad luck; Tsodikov falls in juniors

   The tennis gods were not on Kiryl Harbatsiuk's side Tuesday.
   But the former Sacramento State star made the best of it.
   On the first day of the $10,000 Edwardsville (Ill.) Futures, Harbatsiuk lost to the second seed in singles but teamed with Boris Nicola Bakalov of Bulgaria to knock off the top seeds in doubles.
   Harbatsiuk, a native of Minsk, Belarus, fell to Blake Strode 6-4, 6-3 but won 7-6 (6), 6-2 against Erik Crepaldi of Italy and Tal Eros of Israel.
   Harbatsiuk, arguably the best men’s tennis player in Sac State history, turned pro in June after completing his eligibility. A three-time Big Sky Conference MVP and first-team all-conference selection all four years, he  also was named Sac State’s Male Student-Athlete of the Year in April.
   Strode, a former University of Arkansas All-American, has deferred his acceptance to Harvard Law School to play professional tennis.
   USTA junior nationals -- Seventeenth-seeded Anthony Tsodikov of San Francisco lost to top-seeded Jack Sock of Lincoln, Neb., 6-1, 6-1 in the fourth round of 18 singles at the USTA Boys National Championships in Kalamazoo, Mich.
   Sock, the defending champion and 2010 U.S. Open boys champion, turned pro two weeks ago after graduating from high school. He will face 10th-seeded Emmett Egger of Issaqua, Wash., in the round of 16.
   Egger won the boys 18 singles title in the West Coast Junior Championships at the Rio del Oro Racquet Club in Sacramento last month. He will play on scholarship at the University of Washington in the fall.
   In 16 singles in Kalamazoo, top-seeded Connor Farren of Hillsborough defeated 18th-seeded Elliott Orkin of Marietta, Ga., 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 to reach the round of 16.
   In San Diego, 10th-seeded Ellen Tsay of Pleasanton and unseeded Mary K. Closs of Menlo Park advanced to the round of 16 in 18 and 16 singles, respectively, at the USTA Girls National Championships.
   In San Antonio, second-seeded Cameron Klinger of San Jose moved into the boys 14 singles quarterfinals, but 13th-seeded Victor Pham of Saratoga lost to sixth-seeded Catalin Mateas of Braintree, Mass., 6-2, 6-1.
   In North Little Rock, Ark., eighth-seeded Sam Riffice of Roseville gained the boys 12 singles quarterfinals, in which he will face top-seeded Nathan Perrone of Mount Laurel, N.J. Jenson Brooksby of Sacramento and Keenan Mayo of Roseville fell in the second round earlier in the tournament.  
   In Alpharetta, Ga., top-seeded Catherine Bellis of Atherton and fifth-seeded Michaela Gordon of Los Altos Hills reached the girls 12 singles quarterfinals. However, 16th-seeded Katya Tabachnik of San Francisco lost to fourth-seeded Anna Bright of Fort Worth, Texas, 6-1, 6-1 in the round of 16.   


      

NorCal juniors seeded in USTA nationals

   Connor Farren of Hillsborough is seeded first in boys 16 singles in the USTA National Championships, Friday through Aug. 14 in Kalamazoo, Mich.
   Anthony Tsodikov of San Francisco and Eric Johnson of San Jose are seeded 17th and 32nd, respectively, in boys 18 singles in Kalamazoo.
   Meanwhile, Ellen Tsay of Pleasanton is seeded 10th in national girls 18 singles, Saturday through Aug. 14 in San Diego. No Northern Californians are seeded in girls 16 singles in San Diego.
   The nationals in lower age groups are scheduled for Sunday through Aug. 12 at various sites across the country. Seeded players from Northern California are:
   --No. 2 Cameron Klinger of San Jose, No. 13 Victor Pham of Saratoga and No. 17 Kenneth Tao of San Jose in the boys 14s in San Antonio.
   --No. 8 Sam Riffice of Roseville in the boys 12s in North Little Rock, Ark.
   --No. 1 Catherine Bellis of Atherton, No. 5 Michaela Gordon of Los Altos Hills, No. 16 Katya Tabachnik of San Francisco and No. 17 Alexa Corcoleotes of Hillsborough in the girls 12s in Alpharetta, Ga.
   Unseeded singles players from the Sacramento area include:
   --Matthew Alves in the boys 18s.
   --Brandon Sutter in the boys 16s.
   --Tiffany Pham, Kamila Kecki and Karolina Kecki in the girls 18s.
   --Kassidy Jump in the girls 16s.
   --Jenson Brooksby and Keenan Mayo in the boys 12s.