Former Pacific star falls in Los Cabos doubles final

Sem Verbeek returns serve in doubles in the 2016 Stockton (Calif.) Challenger.
Verbeek starred at the University of the Pacific in Stockton. Photo by Paul Bauman

   Hans Hach Verdugo of Mexico and John Isner of the United States beat Hunter Reese of Knoxville, Tenn., and Sem Verbeek (University of the Pacific, 2013-16) of the Netherlands 5-7, 6-2 [10-4] tonight in the Mifel Open, an ATP 250 hardcourt tournament in Los Cabos, Mexico.

   Both teams were unseeded. Reese, 28, and Verbeek, 27, played in their first ATP final, together or separately.

   The 6-foot-10 (2.08-meter) Isner, 36, made his pro debut in a $15,000 Futures tournament in the Sacramento, Calif., suburb of Shingle Springs in 2007 and won the singles title. Hach Verdugo took the doubles crown in the 2018 Tiburon Challenger in the San Francisco Bay Area with Luke Saville of Australia. 

   In the Los Cabos singles final, top-seeded Cameron Norrie of Great Britain dominated unseeded Brandon Nakashima, 19, of San Diego 6-2, 6-2 for his first ATP title.

   Norrie, who won back-to-back Northern California Challengers in Tiburon and Stockton in 2017, will rise only one notch to a career-high No. 29. 

   Olympics — In the first round of doubles, Belinda Bencic and Viktorija Golubic of Switzerland stunned No. 2 seeds Shuko Aoyama and Ena Shibahara of Japan 6-4, 6-7 (5) [10-5] on a hardcourt in Tokyo. Shibahara, 23, was born in Mountain View in the Bay Area, starred at UCLA and lives in Rancho Palos Verdes in the Los Angeles area.

   Paula Badosa and Sara Sorribes Tormo of Spain eliminated Giuliana Olmos and Renata Zarazua of Mexico 6-2, 6-7 (4) [10-7]. Olmos, 28, was born in Austria, grew up in Fremont in the Bay Area and played at USC.

   Sorribes Tormo earlier ousted top-ranked Ashleigh Barty, coming off her Wimbledon title, 6-4, 6-3 in the opening round of singles. Badosa, 23, reached the singles quarterfinals of the French Open and the fourth round at Wimbledon this year. 

   ATP Challenger Tour — Dennis Novikov of San Jose, Calif., won his third Cary (N.C.) Challenger title and second straight in doubles.

   Top-seeded Novikov and Christian Harrison of Bradenton, Fla., outclassed unseeded Petros Chrysochos of Cyprus and Michail Pervolarakis of Greece 6-3, 6-3 on a hardcourt in the $52,080 Atlantic Tire Championships.

   Novikov won his ninth Challenger doubles championship, first of the year and first with Harrison. Novikov won the Cary doubles title last November with Teymuraz Gabashvili of Russia and took the singles title in 2015.

NorCal native, NCAA champ Riffice loses in $52K Cary

No. 2 seed Prajnesh Gunneswaran of India beat wild card Sam
Riffice in straight sets to reach the quarterfinals in Cary, N.C.
2018 photo by Paul Bauman

   No. 2 seed Prajnesh Gunneswaran, a 31-year-old left-hander from India, defeated Sam Riffice, a 22-year-old wild card originally from Sacramento, Calif., 6-2, 6-4 today in the second round of the $52,080 Atlantic Tire Championships on hardcourts in Cary, N.C. 

   Gunneswaran reached the Cary final last November and the semifinals of the $100,000 Tiburon (Calif.) Challenger in 2017.

   Riffice, now based in Orlando, Fla., won the NCAA singles title in May as a University of Florida junior after helping the Gators capture the team championship.

   Riffice also lost in the Cary doubles quarterfinals. The unseeded pair of Riffice and Ulises Blanch of Orlando fell to top seeds Christian Harrison of Bradenton, Fla., and Dennis Novikov of San Jose, Calif., 6-3, 7-5. 

   Novikov won the Cary singles title in 2015 and the doubles crown last year with Teymuraz Gabashvili of Russia. 

   ATP Tour — At least one player with strong ties to Northern California will reach the doubles final in Los Cabos, Mexico.

   Wild cards and San Francisco Bay Area natives Mackenzie McDonald and Sam Querrey are scheduled to play unseeded Hunter Reese of Knoxville, Tenn., and Sem Verbeek (University of the Pacific, 2013-16) of the Netherlands in Friday's semifinals. Querrey won the singles title in 2017. 

   Reese and Verbeek edged top seeds Luke Bambridge and Ken Skupski of Great Britain in the first round on Tuesday. Querrey won the singles title in 2017.

   USTA Pro Circuit — Qualifier William Griffith, a former University of California, Berkeley standout from Fresno, Calif., topped No. 7 seed Dusty Boyer, a native of Grand Forks, N.D., 4-6, 7-6 (6), 6-1 to reach the quarterfinals of the $15,000 Edwardsville (Ill.) Futures on hardcourts.

Medvedev dominates Djokovic in ATP Finals

Novak Djokovic, practicing at Indian Wells last year,
remains in the running for his sixth title in the ATP
Finals. Photo copyright by Harjanto Sumali

   Fourth-seeded Daniil Medvedev beat top-seeded Novak Djokovic 6-3 6-3 today in the round-robin phase of the Nitto ATP Finals in London.

   Medvedev, a 6-foot-6 (1.98-meter) Russian, defeated Djokovic, who's still in the running for his sixth title in the ATP Finals, for the third time in their last four matches.

   Medvedev clinched a berth in Saturday's semifinals at 2-0 in the indoor hardcourt tournament. Djokovic will meet Alexander Zverev, both of whom are 1-1, on Friday for the other semifinal spot in the four-man Tokyo 1970 Group. The ATP Finals began 50 years ago in Tokyo.

   The fifth-seeded Zverev, who has denied recent accusations of domestic abuse, eliminated Diego Schwartzman 6-3, 4-6, 6-3.

   In doubles, second-seeded Rajeev Ram, a volunteer assistant coach at the University of California, Berkeley from Carmel, Ind., and Joe Salisbury of Great Britain are scheduled to play third-seeded Kevin Krawietz and Andreas Mies of Germany on Thursday at 10 a.m. PST (Tennis Channel) for a semifinal berth.

   ATP Challenger Tour — This time, Teymuraz Gabashvili and Dennis Novikov's opponents went on a run to win a match tiebreaker. 

   Playing their fifth consecutive match tiebreaker, Gabashvili of Russia and Novikov, a 27-year-old San Jose, Calif., product, fell to second-seeded Andrey Golubev and Aleksandr Nedovyesov of Kazakhstan 6-7 (4), 6-2 [10-5] in the first round of the $52,080 Orlando (Fla.) Open on a windy day at the USTA National Campus. 

   Gabashvili and Novikov won the doubles title in last week's $52,080 Atlantic Tire Championships in Cary, N.C., prevailing in match tiebreakers in all four of their contests. They reeled off the last nine points against fourth-seeded Golubev and Nedovyesov in the quarterfinals and the last four points against Hunter Reese of Knoxville, Tenn., and Sem Verbeek (University of the Pacific, 2013-16) of the Netherlands in the semifinals.

   Reese and Verbeek also lost today, 6-4, 4-6 [10-7] to Sadio Doumbia and Fabien Reboul of France.

   In singles, eighth-seeded Mackenzie McDonald, a 25-year-old product of Piedmont in the San Francisco Bay Area, is set to play Elias Ymer of Sweden on Thursday at 7 a.m. for a quarterfinal berth. The match on McDonald's adopted home courts will be streamed live. 

   ITF Women's Circuit — Second-seeded Maiar Sherif Ahmed Abdelaziz (Fresno State, 2015-16) of Egypt beat wild card Marina Bassols Ribera of Spain 6-2, 7-6 (1) in the opening round of the $25,000 Open Gran Canaria on clay in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, off the coast of northwestern Africa.

   Sherif won a $100,000 clay-court tournament in Charleston, S.C., as a qualifier two weeks ago.

   Kaia Kanepi, 35, of Estonia is seeded first in the Open Gran Canaria. She has reached the quarterfinals of the French Open, Wimbledon and U.S. Open twice each and been ranked as high as No. 15 in 2012. 

San Jose product Novikov claims Cary crown in doubles

Unseeded Dennis Novikov (above) and Teymuraz Gabash-
vili won all four of their matches in the Cary, N.C., Challen-
ger in match tiebreakers. 2018 photo by Paul Bauman

   Here's a shocker: the doubles title in the Cary, N.C., Challenger was decided by a match tiebreaker.

   Unseeded Teymuraz Gabashvili, a Georgia native who plays for Russia, and Dennis Novikov, a San Jose, Calif., product who was born in Moscow, nipped top-seeded Luke Bambridge of Great Britain and Nathaniel Lammons of Dallas 7-5, 4-6 [10-8] today in the Atlantic Tire Championships.

   All six matches played by the finalists in the $52,800 hardcourt tournament went to match tiebreakers. Bambridge and Lammons won by walkover in the semifinals.

   Gabashvili and Novikov, playing in his first tournament since late February, led 5-2 in the match tiebreaker before Bambridge and Lammons reeled off four consecutive points. Novikov netted two forehands during the run but came up big late.

   With Bambridge serving at 7-7, Novikov ripped a forehand passing shot down the middle and pounded a service winner to earn two championship points. Lammons saved the first one, crushing a backhand winner on Novikov's first serve, but Novikov converted the second one with another forehand passing shot down the middle.

   In Sunday's singles final, second-seeded Denis Kudla, 28, of Arlington, Va., is scheduled to meet fourth-seeded Prajnesh Gunneswaran, a 31-year-old left-hander from India, for the first time at 9 a.m. PST. The match will be streamed live.

   Kudla, the runner-up in the 2015 Tiburon (Calif.) Challenger, outlasted third-seeded Daniel Elahi Galan of Colombia 6-7 (6), 6-1, 6-4. Gunneswaran, a semifinalist in the 2017 Tiburon (Calif.) Challenger, beat unseeded Mikael Torpegaard, a former three-time NCAA runner-up (singles, doubles and team) at Ohio State from Denmark, by walkover.

   Gabashvili, 35, and Novikov, 27, split $3,100 after winning their first title together. Bambridge, 25, and Lammons, 27, shared $1,800.

   Novikov, the Cary singles champion in 2015 and a singles semifinalist in the $100,000 San Francisco Challenger in 2018, won his seventh career Challenger doubles title and second of the COVID-shortened season. Novikov and Goncalo Oliveira, a left-hander from Portugal, took the Dallas crown in early February. 

   Gabashvili, a former top-50 singles player who has reached the fourth round of the French Open twice, claimed his 10th career Challenger doubles title and first of the year.

   Bambridge has won three ATP doubles titles, most recently Auckland in January with former University of California, Berkeley star Ben McLachlan. Bambridge also owns seven Challenger doubles crowns, including Fairfield, Calif., in 2017 with David O'Hare of Ireland.

   Novikov will jump 22 places to No. 156 in doubles in Monday's new world rankings, and Gabashvili will rise six spots to No. 149. Bambridge will remain No. 62, and Lammons will improve four notches to No. 99. All of the finalists have been ranked higher in doubles.

   Novikov played junior hockey for six years and tennis at UCLA for two years, helping the Bruins reach the 2013 NCAA final. Lammons played at Southern Methodist University in Dallas from 2013 to 2016 while earning a degree in mechanical engineering.

NorCal product reaches doubles final in Cary Challenger

Dennis Novikov (above), who grew up in San Jose,
Calif., and Teymuraz Gabashvili have won all three
of their matches in Cary, N.C., in match tiebreakers.
2018 photo by Paul Bauman

   Dennis Novikov apparently likes playing in Cary, N.C.

   The 27-year-old San Jose, Calif., product, who won the Cary singles title in 2015, reached Saturday's doubles final in the Atlantic Tire Championships.

   Novikov, who was born in Moscow, and Teymuraz Gabashvili, a 35-year-old Georgia native who plays for Russia, edged Hunter Reese of Knoxville, Tenn., and Sem Verbeek (University of the Pacific, 2013-16) of the Netherlands 7-5, 6-7 (6) [10-8] today in a battle of unseeded teams. 

   Not only have all three of Novikov and Gabashvili's victories in the $52,080 hardcourt tournament come in match tiebreakers, they have finished with a bang in their last two matches. They won the last four points today after reeling off the last nine in the quarterfinals.

   Reese, who won the 2018 Cary doubles title with countryman Evan King, and Verbeek, a 27-year-old left-hander, saved a match point with Reese serving at 5-6, 40-40 in the second set. 

   Gabashvili, a former top-50 player in singles, and Novikov, playing in his first tournament since late February, are scheduled to face top-seeded Luke Bambridge of Great Britain and Nathaniel Lammons of Dallas on Saturday at 9 a.m. PST. The final will be streamed live.

   Bambridge — who has won three doubles titles on the ATP Tour, the major leagues of men's tennis — and Lammons beat unseeded Americans Nathan Pasha and Martin Redlicki by walkover. Bambridge and Lammons' two other victories came in match tiebreakers.

   Novikov seeks his seventh Challenger doubles title overall and second of the abbreviated season. He and Goncalo Oliveira, a left-hander from Portugal, won the Dallas crown in early February.

Novikov, Verbeek to meet in Cary doubles semifinals

Dennis Novikov, a 27-year-old San Jose, Calif.,
product, will face Sem Verbeek, a former Univ-
ersity of the Pacific star from the Netherlands,
in the doubles semifinals in Cary, N.C. 2018
photo by Paul Bauman

   Two players with Northern California ties are set to meet in the doubles semifinals in the Atlantic Tire Championships in Cary, N.C.

   Teymuraz Gabashvili of Russia and Dennis Novikov, a 27-year-old San Jose product, beat fourth-seeded Andrey Golubev and Aleksandr Nedovyesov of Kazakhstan 4-6, 6-4 [10-3] today in the $52,080 hardcourt tournament. Gabashvili, 35, and Novikov, the Cary singles champion in 2015, won the last nine points in the match tiebreaker.

   Earlier today, Hunter Reese of Knoxville, Tenn., and Sem Verbeek (University of the Pacific, 2013-16) of the Netherlands eliminated Peter Polansky of Canada and Dmitry Popko of Kazakhstan 7-6 (6), 7-5. Reese and Verbeek, a 26-year-old left-hander, saved a set point at 5-6 in the tiebreaker.  

   The winners are scheduled to meet on Friday at about noon PST in the hardcourt tournament. Live streaming will be available. Today's matches were moved indoors because of rain.

   In the other doubles semifinal, top-seeded Luke Bambridge of Great Britain and Nathaniel Lammons of Dallas will play the unseeded American team of Nathan Pasha and Martin Redlicki.

   Golubev and Popko were born in Russia, and Nedovyesov hails from Ukraine. Kazakhstan, backed by billionaire Bulat Utemuratov, has become a tennis paradise offering extensive financial support, world-class facilities and top fitness trainers.

   Reese, a 27-year-old former Tennessee All-American, recently reached back-to-back Challenger doubles finals on clay, winning with Jan Zielinski of Poland in Sibiu, Romania, and losing with Andre Goransson (University of California, Berkeley, 2011-14) of Sweden in Split, Croatia.

   Reese and Polansky, 32, have won one Cary doubles title apiece. Reese triumphed in 2018 with countryman Evan King, and Polansky prevailed in 2016 with since-retired Philip Bester of Canada.

   Polansky was severely injured in a three-story fall from his hotel room in Mexico in 2007. He needed 550 stitches in his legs and back after having a night terror and trying to escape through the window.

   Doctors initially suggested amputating one of Polansky's legs. Four months later, he reached the boys singles final in the U.S. Open.

   ITF women — In a clash of Californians, Hanna Chang defeated Katie Volynets 0-6, 6-4, 6-4 in the first round of a $25,000 hardcourt tournament in Orlando, Fla.

   Chang, 22, of Fontana in the Los Angeles area evened her record against Volynets, 18, of Walnut Creek in the San Francisco Bay Area at 1-1. In their first meeting, Volynets led 4-6, 7-5, 3-1 in the final round of qualifying for the 2018 Stockton (Calif.) Challenger when Chang retired after suffering a head injury in a nasty fall during the second set. They fought for 2 hours, 37 minutes as the temperature rose to 80 degrees (26.7 Celsius).

Ex-Cal star wins 1st ATP doubles title, will crack top 100

Andre Goransson, right, of Sweden and Florian Lakat of France pose after
winning the doubles title in the 2017 Tiburon (Calif.) Challenger. Goransson
and Lakat played together at the University of California, Berkeley. Photo by
Paul Bauman

   Andre Goransson achieved one milestone today and will reach another on Monday.
   The 26-year-old former University of California, Berkeley star from Sweden won his maiden ATP doubles title as the unseeded pair of Goransson and Christopher Rungkat of Indonesia edged third-seeded Jonathan Erlich, 42, of Israel and Andrei Vasilevski of Belarus 6-2, 3-6 [10-8] in Pune, India.
   Goransson will crack the top 100 in the world doubles rankings for the first time on Monday, jumping 27 places to No. 81.
   Goransson and Rungkat split $30,900, and Erlich and Vasilevski shared $15,840.
   Rungkat, who also earned his first ATP doubles crown, reached the doubles final in the 2018 Stockton (Calif.) Challenger with Sanchai Ratiwatana of Thailand.
   Erlich won the doubles title in the Aptos (Calif.) Challenger with countryman Andy Ram in 2013 and with Neal Skupski of Great Britain in 2017.
   In the Pune singles final, unseeded Jiri Vesely of the Czech Republic held off eighth-seeded Egor Gerasimov of Belarus 7-6 (2), 5-7, 6-3. Gerasimov advanced to the Aptos semifinals last August.
   ATP Challenger Tour – Dennis Novikov, a 26-year-old San Jose product, won the Dallas Challenger doubles title for the second consecutive year.
   Unseeded Novikov and Goncalo Oliveira of Portugal beat third-seeded Luis David Martinez of Venezuela and Miguel Angel Reyes-Varela of Mexico 6-3, 6-4 in the $108,320 RBC Tennis Championships.
   Novikov and Oliveira each collected $3,100, while Martinez and Reyes-Varela received $1,800 apiece.
   Novikov, who took last year's crown with former UCLA teammate Marcos Giron, will drop one spot to No. 168 in Monday's doubles rankings. He earned his sixth Challenger doubles title.
   Reyes-Varela won the doubles title in the $81,240 Aptos Challenger last August with Marcelo Arevalo of El Salvador. In the first round, they nipped Novikov and compatriot Donald Young 6-2, 3-6 [14-12].
   An unseeded player also won the Dallas singles title as 20-year-old Jurij Rodionov of Austria topped fifth-seeded Denis Kudla of Arlington, Va., 7-5, 7-6 (10).
   Kudla reached the final of the 2015 Tiburon (Calif.) Challenger, losing a heartbreaker to friend and countryman Tim Smyczek. Kudla held four championship points in a 1-6, 6-1, 7-6 (7) loss.

Fed Cup woes, Novikov doubles title, Stanford thriller

Danielle Collins, shown in the 2017 Sacramento Challenger, and Nicole Melichar
of the United States lost to Ashleigh Barty and Priscilla Hon of Australia 6-4, 7-5
today in the deciding match in the first round of the Fed Cup in Asheville, N.C.
Australia won 3-2. Photo by Rob Vomund

   Wondering why the International Tennis Federation changed the Davis Cup format, beginning this year, from four weekends throughout the year to one week in November?
   Look no further than the first round of the Fed Cup. Only three of the top-10 singles players in the world competed this weekend.
   Romania had No. 3 Simona Halep, while the Czech Republic, the defending champion, was missing No. 2 Petra Kvitova. Guess which team won 3-2 on the road. Correct, Romania.
   Belarus had No. 9 Aryna Sabalenka, while Germany was missing No. 6 Angelique Kerber. Guess which team won 4-0 on the road. Right, Belarus.
   Australia does not have a top-10 singles player. But Ashleigh Barty -- the nation's top singles and doubles player at No. 13 and No. 6, respectively -- played against the United States, last year's runner-up. The U.S., meanwhile, was missing its top two singles players, No. 4 Sloane Stephens and No. 11 Serena Williams. Guess which team won 3-2 on the road. Yes, Australia.
   By the way, Halep, Sabalenka and Barty went a combined 7-0 in their matches.
   Halep dominated Katerina Siniakova 6-4, 6-0 and pulled out a 6-4, 5-7, 6-4 victory over No. 5 Karolina Pliskova in 2 hours, 37 minutes.
   Sabalenka, coached by former Northern California resident Dmitry Tursunov of Russia, lost five games total in her two singles matches.
   Barty did not lose a set in her three matches (two singles and one doubles).
   In the April 20-21 semifinals, France will host Romania, and Australia will host Belarus. The United States will face an opponent to be determined on the same weekend for the right to play in the World Group next year.
   The ITF has no plans to change the Fed Cup format -- yet.
   ATP Challenger Tour -- One former UCLA star from NorCal won a title in the $135,400 RBC Tennis Championships of Dallas, at least.
   Wild cards and ex-Bruins teammates Marcos Giron and Dennis Novikov, a 25-year-old San Jose product, defeated unseeded Ante Pavic of Croatia and Ruan Roelofse of South Africa 6-4, 7-6 (3).
   It was Novikov's fifth Challenger doubles title and first since 2016.
   In the singles final, 14th-seeded Mitchell Krueger, playing in his hometown, beat top-seeded Mackenzie McDonald, a 23-year-old product of Piedmont in the San Francisco Bay Area, 4-6, 7-6 (3), 6-1.
    McDonald, who swept the NCAA singles and doubles titles as a UCLA junior in 2016, had been 4-1 against Krueger, 25. But Krueger, in addition to having the home-court advantage, was more rested physically and mentally than McDonald.
   Krueger advanced by walkover in Saturday's semifinals, while the 5-foot-10 (1.78-meter) McDonald beat 6-foot-11 (2.11-meter) Reilly Opelka, seeded third, 6-4, 7-6 (13) in a night match. McDonald converted his fourth match point and saved four set points in the tiebreaker.
   ITA National Women's Team Indoors -- No. 14 Emily Arbuthnott defeated Fernanda Labrana 6-4, 4-6, 6-1 on Court 4 to give top-ranked Stanford, the defending NCAA champion, a 4-3 victory over No. 6 Texas in the quarterfinals of the ITA National Team Indoor Championships in Seattle.
   No. 23 Michaela Gordon, a Stanford sophomore from Saratoga in the Bay Area, defeated Bianca Turati 6-4, 6-3 on Court 1. No. 13 Arbuthnott and Gordon were tied 5-5 with twins Anna and Bianca Turati when their match was abandoned.
   No. 13 Melissa Lord and Niluka Madurawe, a Cardinal freshman from Sunnyvale in the Bay Area, topped Katie Poluta and Tijana Spasojevic 7-5 on Court 3 to clinch the doubles point for Stanford.
   The Cardinal (5-0) will face No. 5 Georgia (5-0), which edged No. 2 Vanderbilt 4-3.

Fed Cup, Dallas Challenger, college women's tourney

Madison Keys, shown in 2017, beat Kimberly Birrell
6-2, 6-2 today in Asheville, N.C., to even the United
States' series against Australia at 1-1 in the first round
of the Fed Cup. Photo by Mal Taam

   The first day of the Fed Cup tie between the United States and Australia went according to form.
   Ashleigh Barty, ranked 13th, held off 37th-ranked Sofia Kenin, 6-1, 7-6 (2) in 79 minutes today to give Australia a 1-0 lead in the first round of the best-of-five-match competition on an indoor hard court in Asheville, N.C.
   Madison Keys, ranked 17th, pulled the United States even with a 6-2, 6-2 victory over Kimberly Birrell, ranked 157th, in 63 minutes.
   Absent from the tie are the United States' top two singles players, No. 4 Sloane Stephens and No. 11 Serena Williams, and Australia's second-highest-ranked singles competitor, No. 41 Ajla Tomljanovic.
   The United States leads all nations with 18 Fed Cup titles. The Czech Republic is second with 11, followed by Australia with seven.
   The U.S. has reached the last two Fed Cup finals, beating host Belarus in 2017 and losing at the Czech Republic last November. Australia seeks its first title since 1974 and first berth in the finals since 1993.
   The 5-foot-5 (1.66-meter) Barty, a quarterfinalist in last month's Australian Open, pounded 10 aces to Kenin's one and won 91 percent of the points on her first serve (29 of 32).
   With Barty serving for the match at 5-4 in the second set, Kenin saved two match points and broke on a double fault.
   Kenin, a Moscow native who moved to Florida as a young child, has excelled in Northern California Challengers, winning titles in 2016 (Sacramento), 2017 (Stockton) and last year (Berkeley).
   Kenin won her first WTA title in Hobart in early January and lost to then-No. 1 Simona Halep in the second round of the Australian Open after leading 4-2 in the third set.
   Keys, who won the last Bank of the West Classic at Stanford in 2017, never faced a break point against Burrell, who underwent elbow surgery in 2016 and lost in the first round of the Berkeley Challenger last July to Modesto product Maria Sanchez.
   Kenin and Birrell, both 20, were chosen over higher-ranked, older players.
   Danielle Collins, an Australian Open singles semifinalist ranked 23rd at age 25, is scheduled to play doubles only for the United States on Sunday in her Fed Cup debut. Kenin fell to 0-3 in the Fed Cup, including two close singles losses in last year's final.
   Birrell stunned then-No. 10 Daria Kasatkina in the first round in Brisbane in the first week of January and reached the third round of the Australian Open. Meanwhile, 47th-ranked Daria Gavrilova is 0-4 this year.
   Gavrilova, a 24-year-old Moscow native, won the doubles title in the 2014 Sacramento Challenger with compatriot Storm Sanders. It was Gavrilova's first tournament since undergoing surgery for a torn ACL only eight months beforehand.
   In Sunday's reverse singles, Keys is scheduled to face Barty at 10 a.m. PST (Tennis Channel), followed by Kenin against Birrell.
   Keys defeated Barty 6-3, 6-2 in the first round of the 2017 French Open in their only career meeting. Kenin and Birrell have not played each other.
   In the fifth rubber, Collins and Nicole Melichar are set to take on Barty and Gavrilova.
   ATP Challenger Tour -- No. 14 seed Mitchell Krueger, playing in his hometown, reached the final of the $135,400 RBC Tennis Championships of Dallas when No. 6 seed Bjorn Fratangelo of Orlando, Fla., withdrew because of a quadriceps injury.
   Fratangelo won the $100,000 Fairfield (Calif.) Challenger last October.
   Krueger, 25, will face top-seeded Mackenzie McDonald, a 23-year-old product of Piedmont in the San Francisco Bay Area.
   McDonald, who's featured in Tennis Channel's "My Tennis Life" this year, beat third-seeded Reilly Opelka, 21, of Palm Coast, Fla., 6-4, 7-6 (13) in a late match. McDonald converted his fourth match point and saved four set points in the tiebreaker.
   At 6-foot-11 (2.11 meters), Opelka towers over the 5-foot-10 (1.78-meter) McDonald, a former UCLA star who won the 2017 Fairfield Challenger.
   McDonald, ranked No. 91, is 4-1 against Krueger, ranked No. 209. They met two weeks ago in the second round of the $162,480 Newport Beach Challenger, with McDonald winning 6-3, 6-4.
   In the doubles semifinals, U.S. wild cards and former UCLA teammates Marcos Giron and Dennis Novikov nipped second-seeded Romain Arneodo of Monaco and Andrei Vasilevski of Belarus 6-7 (4), 6-4 [11-9].
   Giron and Novikov, a 25-year-old San Jose product, will meet unseeded Ante Pavic of Croatia and Ruan Roelofse of South Africa. They edged unseeded Ruben Gonzales of the Philippines and Alex Lawson of Tempe, Ariz., 6-4, 5-7 [10-8].
   McDonald and Giron won three NCAA individual championships combined. McDonald swept the singles and doubles titles in 2016, and Giron took the singles crown in 2014.
   ITA National Women's Team Indoors -- Today's quarterfinals in the ITA National Team Indoor Championships in Seattle were postponed because of dangerous road conditions. The Seattle area received more than six inches of snow on Friday.
   Top-ranked Stanford (4-0), the defending NCAA champion, is scheduled to play No. 6 Texas (4-1) on Sunday at 10 a.m. The Cardinal routed No. 18 LSU 4-0 on Friday in the opening round.

Gibbs romps in U.S. Open qualifying to end skid

Ex-Stanford star Nicole Gibbs, playing in last month's Berkeley
Challenger, routed Tereza Mrdeza of Croatia 6-1, 6-1 today in
the first round of U.S. Open qualifying. Photo by Paul Bauman

    All Nicole Gibbs needed was a trip back to Flushing Meadows to snap out of her funk.
    The 10th-seeded Gibbs (Stanford, 2011-13) routed Tereza Mrdeza of Croatia 6-1, 6-1 in 61 minutes today in the first round of U.S. Open qualifying.
   Gibbs, a 25-year-old resident of Venice in the Los Angeles area, ended a four-match losing streak that began with a 6-0, 6-4 loss to 19-year-old American Sofia Kenin in the final of last month's $60,000 Berkeley Challenger. Kenin was seeded first and Gibbs second.
   Gibbs has reached the second round of the main draw in the U.S. Open for the past three years, and she advanced to the third round at Flushing Meadows four years ago.
   The 115th-ranked Gibbs is scheduled to play No. 181 Tamara Korpatsch of Germany for the first time on Thursday. Korpatsch, 23, topped Deniz Khazaniuk of Israel 4-6, 6-4, 6-3.
   Gibbs' former Stanford teammate, Kristie Ahn, also advanced to the second round of qualifying. Ahn, 26, defeated Katarina Zavatska of Ukraine 6-4, 6-3.
   Ahn, ranked No. 145, will face Tunisia's Ons Jabeur, seeded ninth with a world ranking of No. 114. Jabeur, the 2011 French Open girls singles champion, dismissed Katy Dunne of Great Britain 6-2, 6-1 in 49 minutes.
   Jabeur defeated Ahn 6-4, 6-4 on clay in the quarterfinals of an $80,000 tournament in Indian Harbour Beach, Fla., in April 2017 in their only previous meeting.
   Two other former Stanford players, one woman and one man, fell today. Carol Zhao, 23, lost to fellow Canadian Eugenie Bouchard, seeded 16th, 6-0, 6-1 in 54 minutes.
   Zhao, ranked No. 161, is 0-6 since reaching the second round of a $125,000 clay-court tournament in Bol, Croatia, in early June.
   Bouchard, the runner-up to Petra Kvitova at Wimbledon four years ago, has plummeted from a career-high No. 5 in October 2014 to No. 123. She suffered a head injury in a training room fall during the 2015 U.S. Open, sued the United States Tennis Association and reached a settlement last February.
   Tom Fawcett, 22, of Winnetka, Ill., lost to Alexey Vatutin of Russia 6-4, 3-6, 6-1.
   Also in men's qualifying, 18-year-old Sebastian Korda upset 24-year-old San Jose product Dennis Novikov 4-6, 7-5, 6-2 in a matchup of 6-foot-4 (1.93-meter) U.S. wild cards. Novikov, now based in Los Angeles, led by a set and an early service break.
   Korda won this year's Australian Open boys singles title 20 years after his father, Petr, captured the men's singles title in Melbourne.
   Novikov, ranked No. 258 after climbing to a career-high No. 119 two years ago, fell to 1-9 since April. He reached the second round of the main draw in the 2012 U.S. Open after receiving a wild card as the USTA boys 18 national champion.
   Collin Altamirano, a 22-year-old wild card from Sacramento, is scheduled to open against Tomislav Brkic, 28, of Bosnia and Herzegovina on Wednesday. Brkic is ranked No. 256, and Altamirano is at a career-high No. 345.

Six NorCal players entered in U.S. Open qualifying

   Six players with Northern California ties are set to compete in U.S. Open qualifying, which will begin on Tuesday at 8 a.m. California time (Tennis Channel).
   Four ex-Stanford stars will be in action on Tuesday. In the women's draw, No. 10 seed Nicole Gibbs (2011-13) of Venice in the Los Angeles area will face Tereza Mrdeza of Croatia. Gibbs reached the third round of the 2014 U.S. Open. Carol Zhao (2014-16) will take on No. 16 Eugenie Bouchard in an all-Canada matchup, and Kristie Ahn (2011-14) will meet Katarina Zavatska of Ukraine. On the men's side, Tom Fawcett (2015-18) of Winnetka, Ill., will play Alexey Vatutin of Russia.
   Also in the men's draw, San Jose product Dennis Novikov will face American Sebastian Korda, the 18-year-old son of former world No. 2 Petr Korda of the Czech Republic, on Tuesday, and Collin Altamirano of Sacramento will meet Tomislav Brkic of Bosnia and Herzegovina on Wednesday.
   Fawcett, 22, Novikov, 24, and Altamirano, 22, are wild cards.
   The U.S. Open men's and women's draws will be held Thursday, and the tournament is scheduled for Monday through Sept. 9.

U.S. men flop in French Open qualifying

Denis Kudla was the only American man out of
seven to win today in the first round of French
Open qualifying. File photo by Paul Bauman

   American men went 1-6 today in the first round of qualifying for the French Open in Paris.
   No. 7 seed Denis Kudla of Arlington, Va., and Tampa, Fla., topped Guilherme Clezar of Brazil 6-3, 6-7 (1), 7-5 in 2 hours, 23 minutes.
   Losing were No. 11 Tim Smyczek, San Jose product Dennis Novikov, Ernesto Escobedo, Donald Young, Evan King and Christopher Eubanks.
   Duckhee Lee of South Korea beat Novikov, a 24-year-old former UCLA standout who lives in Los Angeles, 6-2, 6-2.
   Four more U.S. men will play their qualifying openers on Tuesday: ex-Stanford All-American Bradley Klahn, 6-foot-11 (2.11-meter) Reilly Opelka, Stefan Kozlov and Kevin King.
   Women's qualifying will begin Tuesday, with two other former Stanford stars scheduled to play. No. 8 Nicole Gibbs of Venice in the Los Angeles area will face Han Xinyun of China, and No. 23 Carol Zhao of Canada will take on 37-year-old Italian Francesca Schiavone, the 2010 champion.

San Jose product Novikov wins 50K Morelos title

   Third-seeded Dennis Novikov, a 24-year-old San Jose product, defeated Christian Garin of Chile 6-4, 6-3 today to win the $50,000 Morelos (Mexico) Open.
   The 6-foot-4 (1.93-meter), 200-pound (91-kilogram) Novikov, now based in Los Angeles, pounded 11 aces and saved nine of 10 break points against him.
   Novikov jumped 45 places to No. 165 with his third career Challenger singles title and first since he won Cary (N.C.) and Columbus (Ohio) back-to-back in 2015. He reached a career-high No. 119 in August 2016.
   Garin, 21, won the French Open boys singles title five years ago, beating Alexander Zverev in the final. Zverev is now ranked fifth and Garin 242nd.

German routs NorCal's Novikov in 100K S.F. semis

   Dominik Koepfer of Germany dismissed San Jose product Dennis Novikov 6-3, 6-1 in 51 minutes today in a semifinal matchup of unseeded players in the $100,000 Kunal Patel San Francisco Open.
   Koepfer, a 23-year-old left-hander, has not lost a set in the indoor tournament at the Bay Club SF Tennis Center, surviving two tiebreakers.
  The former All-American at Tulane in New Orleans advanced to his first Challenger singles final. He won the $75,000 Columbus (Ohio) Challenger doubles crown with American Denis Kudla last September.
   Today's other semifinal also featured unseeded players. Jason Jung, a Los Angeles-area native who plays for Taiwan, beat Miomir Kecmanovic, an 18-year-old Serb, 7-6 (5), 4-6, 6-2 in 1 hour, 58 minutes. Jung, only 5-foot-11 (1.80 meters), had 11 aces and only one double fault.
   Kecmanovic had needed 2 hours, 38 minutes to subdue third-seeded Michael Mmoh on Friday night, while Jung had breezed past sixth-seeded Noah Rubin in 52 minutes in the following match.
  Jung, 28, seeks his third Challenger singles title and first outside of China. He will face Koepfer, also 5-foot-11, for the first time on Sunday at 4 p.m.
   Jung is ranked No. 205, 80 spots above Koepfer. Their career highs are No. 143 (October 2016) and No. 239  (last October), respectively.
   Here are the singles and doubles draws and Sunday's schedule.
   Fed Cup -- Sorana Cirstea defeated former Stanford star Carol Zhao, making her Fed Cup singles debut, 6-2, 6-2 as Romania took a 2-0 lead over Canada in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, in World Group II. In the second match, Irina-Camelia Begu beat 17-year-old Bianca Andreescu 6-3, 6-7 (4), 6-2.
   Zhao, ranked No. 138, will try to keep Canada alive in the best-of-five-match competition when she faces Begu, ranked No. 37, in Sunday's first match.
   Romania is missing its top singles player, No. 2 Simona Halep, and Canada is without its top two singles players, No. 116 Eugenie Bouchard and No. 123 Francoise Abanda.
   Bouchard reached the 2014 Wimbledon final and climbed to a career-high No. 5 later that year. Abanda won the $25,000 Redding (Calif.) Challenger in 2016 at age 19.
   The four victorious nations in World Group II will play the four losers in the World Group for berths in next year's World Group, which determines the Fed Cup champion.

Four unseeded players oust seeds in S.F. quarters

   Seedings meant nothing on an extraordinary day in the $100,000 San Francisco Open.
   An unseeded player beat a seed in every quarterfinal today in the indoor tournament at the Bay Club SF Tennis Center. Falling were No. 3 Michael Mmoh, No. 5 Bradley Klahn, No. 6 Noah Rubin and No. 7 Filip Peliwo.
   Miomir Kecmanovic, an 18-year-old Serb, outslugged Mmoh, a semifinalist last year at 19 years old, 7-6 (3), 6-7 (4), 6-1 in 2 hours, 38 minutes. The match featured an epic 53-point rally. Both players train in Bradenton, Fla.
   Germany's Dominik Koepfer, a former Tulane All-American, beat Southern California's Klahn, a 2012 Stanford graduate, 6-2, 7-6 (6) in a matchup of left-handers.
   Jason Jung, a Los Angeles-area native who plays for Taiwan, routed New York-area resident Rubin, the 2014 Wimbledon boys singles champion, 6-3, 6-1 in 52 minutes.
   And Dennis Novikov, a 24-year-old San Jose product, held off Canada's Peliwo, the 2012 Wimbledon boys singles champion, 7-5, 7-5.
   In Saturday's semifinals, the 215th-ranked Novikov will meet No. 285 Koepfer for the first time at 5:30 p.m., followed by No. 194 Kecmanovic vs. No. 205 Jung.
   Jung crushed Kecmanovic 6-1, 6-1 in 48 minutes last week in the quarterfinals of the $125,000 Dallas Challenger in their first meeting. Kecmanovic was coming off a 7-6 (4), 6-7 (5), 7-6 (4) victory over American Austin Krajicek, also in 2 hours, 38 minutes.
   Here are the San Francisco singles and doubles draws and Saturday's schedule.

Jung stuns No. 2 seed McDonald in S.F. Open

   Jason Jung, a Los Angeles-area native who plays for Taiwan, stunned second-seeded Mackenzie McDonald, a San Francisco Bay Area product, 1-6, 7-6 (3), 6-2 tonight to reach the quarterfinals of the $100,000 Kunal Patel San Francisco Open.
   McDonald, the runner-up to Kei Nishikori last week in Dallas, double-faulted on Jung's second match point in the indoor tournament at the Bay Club SF Tennis Center.
   Jung, 28, graduated from the University of Michigan in political science in 2011 and worked for an oil company in his native Torrance for one month before being laid off. He planned to go to law school but didn't do as well on the admission test as he had hoped, so he launched his professional tennis career.
   Jung, who lost to Nishikori in the Dallas semifinals, will face sixth-seeded Noah Rubin of Long Island, N.Y., in Friday night's late match.
   Rubin, the 2014 Wimbledon boys singles champion, defeated qualifier Jared Hiltzik of Orlando, Fla., 6-1, 6-4.
   In another quarterfinal, San Jose product Dennis Novikov will take on seventh-seeded Filip Peliwo of Canada.
   Novikov, 24, survived his second straight three-setter. He outlasted Daniel Elahi Galan of Colombia 5-7, 6-3, 6-4 after ousting top-seeded Alexander Bublik of Kazakhstan 7-6 (10), 3-6, 6-2 on Tuesday night.
   The 6-foot-4 (1.93-meter), 200-pound (91-kilogram) Novikov pounded 15 aces and committed three double faults against Galan. Novikov won 53 percent of the points on his second serve (19 of 36) to only 36 percent for Galan (12 of 33).
   Peliwo, the 2012 Wimbledon boys singles champion, dismissed wild card Danny Thomas, an 18-year-old left-hander based in Wesley Chapel, Fla.
   Here are the singles and doubles draws and Friday's schedule.

NorCal's Novikov ousts top seed in $100K S.F. Open

Dennis Novikov serves in doubles during the 2016
U.S. Open. Photo by Paul Bauman

   SAN FRANCISCO — Patience paid off for Dennis Novikov in a wild first-set tiebreaker on Tuesday night.
   Top-seeded Alexander Bublik of Kazakhstan double-faulted on the 24-year-old San Jose product's eighth set point, and Novikov went on to win 7-6 (10), 3-6, 6-2 in the first round of the $100,000 Kunal Patel San Francisco Open indoors at the Bay Club SF Tennis Center. Novikov won the last four games.
   Bublik, 20, had a set point serving at 7-6 in the tiebreaker, but his backhand slice down the line sailed wide.
   Novikov admitted it was difficult to keep his composure in the tiebreaker.
   "Definitely," he said. "He let me off the hook a little bit as well when he was serving for it and didn't convert. Tennis can go either way based on a couple of points. I just tried to stick with it."
   Bublik, who according to at least one pro has top-10 potential, double-faulted three times in the tiebreaker and twice at 2-3, 30-30 in the third set. He finished with 18 aces and 11 double faults.
   "That's the way he plays," Novikov said of Bublik going for big second serves. "He also had some games where he hit big second serves, and he came back with them in games where I should have broken. When you play like that, it kind of comes and goes. You take it as it is."
   It's the third consecutive week in which Novikov played the top seed in the opening round. He ousted former world No. 4 Kei Nishikori, who had been out since August with a right wrist injury, 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 two weeks ago in Newport Beach and lost to Nishikori 6-3, 6-3 in Dallas. Nishikori went on to win the Dallas title, beating San Francisco Bay Area product Mackenzie McDonald in the final.
   "It's unlucky, I guess," Novikov said. "But I know if I come out and play to my level, it doesn't matter what seed it is. At the end of the day, you have to go through all of them to win the tournament. Obviously, it would be nice to play them in the final and get a little easier draw, but either way, you've got to beat them, so I was ready."
   Novikov lives in downtown Los Angeles, but his parents reside in Milpitas in the Bay Area.
   "I'm up here visiting pretty often," he said. "I still consider myself from the Bay Area."
   Bublik, who was not available for comment, lost in the first round of a Challenger for the second consecutive week and fell to 2-5 this year after reaching a career-high No. 95 last September.
   Russia natives Bublik, 6-foot-5 (1.96 meters) and only 167 pounds (76 kilograms), and Novikov, 6-foot-4 (1.93) and 200 pounds (91), met for the second time. Bublik won 6-1, 6-4 in the quarterfinals at Aptos, 82 miles (132 kilometers) south of San Francisco, en route to the title last August. Novikov had sprained an ankle playing in Cabo San Lucas the previous week.
   After the Aptos final, runner-up Liam Broady of Great Britain said of the hard-hitting Bublik, "I don't see why he can't be top 10."
   Unlike in Aptos, the right-handed Bublik wore a sleeve on his right arm on Tuesday night. However, the arm did not appear to trouble him.
   Bublik qualified for the Australian Open and Wimbledon last year, upsetting then-No. 16 Lucas Pouille of France in the first round in Melbourne and falling in straight sets to then-No. 1 and defending champion Andy Murray at the All-England Club.
   Bublik also reached the quarterfinals indoors in Moscow on the ATP World Tour in 2016 and 2017, ousting then-No. 23 Albert Ramos-Vinolas of Spain in the second round last year.
  Novikov advanced to the second round at the U.S. Open in 2012 and Wimbledon in 2016. He gained his first ATP quarterfinal last July on grass in Newport, R.I.
   Bublik, who lost in the second round of qualifying in the Australian Open this year, has dropped to No. 132. Novikov is No. 215, down from his career high of No. 119 in August 2016.
   In Tuesday night's last match, the second-seeded McDonald beat wild card Florian Lakat of France 6-4, 6-4 in a matchup of 22-year-olds. McDonald was born and raised in Piedmont, across the bay from San Francisco, and Lakat starred at Cal, a 15-minute drive north of Piedmont.
   All four seeds in action during the day session, including three Americans, won in straight sets.
   No. 3 Michael Mmoh, a semifinalist last year at 19, dispatched wild card Christian Garin of Chile 6-2, 6-3 in their first career meeting.
   Mmoh, the American son of former Nigerian pro Tony Mmoh, reached his first quarterfinal on the ATP World Tour in Brisbane, Australia, last month as a qualifier. He took out then-No. 33 Mischa Zverev of Germany in the second round.
   Garin qualified for Wimbledon last year and fell to Jack Sock, ranked eighth at the time, in the opening round. Garin also won the French Open boys singles title five years ago, beating Alexander Zverev (Mischa's younger brother) in the final. In the current rankings, 6-foot-6 (1.98-meter) Alexander Zverev is No. 5 at 20 years old, and the 6-foot-1 (1.85-meter) Garin is No. 298 at age 21.
   No. 5 Bradley Klahn, who graduated from Stanford in 2012, topped Marcelo Arevalo of El Salvador 7-6 (1), 6-3 in a battle of 27-year-olds to even their head-to-head series at 1-1. Arevalo, a former Tulsa star, won 7-5, 6-4 in the first round of qualifying at a $50,000 Challenger on outdoor clay in Vicenza, Italy, last May.
   Arevalo reached the doubles final in the $100,000 Tiburon Challenger last fall with Miguel Angel Reyes-Varela of Mexico. The lost to Lakat and his former Cal teammate Andre Goransson of Sweden. Affluent Tiburon is situated across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco.
   Two former Wimbledon boys champions, Noah Rubin (2014) and Canada's Filip Peliwo (2012), also advanced.
   Rubin, seeded sixth, beat Jose Hernandez-Fernandez of the Dominican Republic 6-1, 3-0, retired (right thigh). Peliwo, seeded seventh, eliminated 34-year-old qualifier Maximo Gonzalez of Argentina 6-4, 6-2.
   Here are the San Francisco Open singles and doubles draws and today's schedule.

Novikov to face top seed (again) in S.F. Challenger

   With Dennis Novikov's luck, he shouldn't bet on the Super Bowl.
   The 24-year-old San Jose product drew the top seed for the third consecutive week in the Kunal Patel San Francisco Open. Novikov will face Alexander Bublik of Kazakhstan in the $100,000 tournament, which begins Monday at the Bay Club SF Tennis Center.
   Novikov upset former world No. 4 Kei Nishikori, who had been out since August with a right wrist injury, in the opening round in Newport Beach two weeks ago and lost to Nishikori last week in Dallas.
   Nishikori, the 2014 U.S. Open runner-up, went on to defeat Mackenzie McDonald, from Piedmont across the bay from San Francisco, 6-1, 6-4 in the Dallas final on Saturday.
   Bublik, a 20-year-old Russia native, won a $100,000 Challenger in Aptos, 82 miles (132 kilometers) south of San Francisco, last August.
   McDonald, seeded second, will meet wild card Florian Lakat, a 22-year-old former Cal star from France.
   McDonald won the $100,000 Fairfield Challenger near San Francisco last October and reached the second round of the Australian Open as a qualifier last month.
   Lakat won the doubles title in the $100,000 Tiburon Challenger with former Cal teammate Andre Goransson of Sweden last fall. Tiburon is located across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco.
   Third-seeded Michael Mmoh, a San Francisco semifinalist last year at 19, will play wild card Christian Garin of Chile. Fifth-seeded Bradley Klahn, a 27-year-old former Stanford star, drew Marcelo Arevalo of El Salvador.
   Neither 2017 champion Zhang Ze of China nor runner-up Vasek Pospisil of Canada is entered this year.
   Here are the San Francisco Open singles qualifying and main draws and today's schedule.

Novikov loses to 6-foot-11 Opelka in 150K Challenger

   Reilly Opelka, a 6-foot-11 (2.11-meter) wild card from Palm Coast, Fla., defeated qualifier Dennis Novikov, a San Jose product, 6-4, 6-4 today to reach the quarterfinals of the $150,000 Oracle Challenger Series in Newport Beach, Calif.
   Opelka, 20, blasted 19 aces in the match. Novikov had beaten top-seeded Kei Nishikori in the first round. Nishikori, the 2014 U.S. Open runner-up, was playing his first match since suffering a right wrist injury in August.
   Bradley Klahn, the 2010 NCAA singles champion from Stanford, beat fellow American Mitchell Krueger 6-3, 1-6, 6-4.
   Klahn, who's rebounding from his second back operation, will meet 18-year-ld Miomir Kecmanovic of Serbia. Kecmanovic ousted second-seeded Frances Tiafoe in the opening round and another top U.S. prospect, Stefan Kozlov, in the second round.
   On the women's side, Nicole Gibbs of Venice in the Los Angeles area held off Anna Schmiedlova of Slovakia 7-6 (6), 6-4.
   Gibbs, the 2012 and 2013 NCAA singles champion from Stanford, will play seventh-seeded Ajla Tomljanovic of Croatia. Tomljanovic, a former top-50 player rebounding from right shoulder surgery, dispatched Canada's Carol Zhao, the 2016 NCAA singles runner-up from -- you guessed it -- Stanford, 6-1, 6-3.
   Tomljanovic withdrew from the final of the $60,000 Sacramento Challenger against 15-year-old U.S. phenom Amanda Anisimova last July with a right shoulder injury.

Kerber dominates Keys; Chung beats Sandgren

   The match shaped up as a battle between resurgent Angelique Kerber and rising Madison Keys.
   Instead, the 21st-seeded Kerber demolished the 17th-seeded Keys 6-1, 6-2 in 51 minutes today in the Australian Open quarterfinals in Melbourne.
   "It was more Kerber playing so well than Keys playing badly," Tennis Channel commentator Martina Navratilova said of the matchup between the Bank of the West Classic champions at Stanford in 2015 (Kerber) and last year (Keys).
   Kerber, a 5-foot-8 (1.73-meter) German left-hander who turned 30 last week, admittedly played spectacular defense, as usual. But the 5-foot-10 (1.78-meter) Keys, an American who will turn 23 on Feb. 17, had no aces and four double faults and made numerous errors, especially backhands down the line into the net.
   The match was reminiscent of last year's U.S. Open final, in which Fresno product Sloane Stephens whipped Keys 6-3, 6-0 in 61 minutes in the first major title match for both players.
   Kerber improved to 10-0 this year, including a run to the Sydney title. After winning her first two Grand Slam titles, the Australian Open and U.S. Open, and rising to No. 1 in 2016, she failed to reach the quarterfinals of a major in 2017 (losing in the first round in Melbourne and at Wimbledon) and ended the year at No. 21.
   Kerber will play top-seeded Simona Halep, a 6-3, 6-2 winner over sixth-seeded Karolina Pliskova, on Wednesday PST. Kerber is 4-4 against Halep with four wins in the last five meetings.
   In a men's quarterfinal between unseeded players, Hyeon Chung, 21, of South Korea defeated Tennys Sandgren, 26, of Gallatin, Tenn., in the Nashville area 6-4, 7-6 (5), 6-3 at Rod Laver Arena.
   Chung. who needed six match points, will face either second seed and defending champion Roger Federer or 10th-seeded Tomas Berdych (Wednesday at 12:30 a.m. PST on ESPN2). Chung is 0-0 against Federer and 0-2 against Berdych.
   Sandgren will add $352,398 (U.S.) to his career prize money of $488,735 and soar to about No. 52 in the rankings.
   Both Chung and Sandgren eliminated rusty former Australian Open champions in straight sets during the tournament.
   Chung toppled six-time champ Novak Djokovic, seeded 14th after taking six months off to rest his sore right elbow, to become the first Korean to reach a Grand Slam quarterfinal. Afterward, Djokovic said the 58th-ranked Chung has top-10 potential.
   Sandgren, ranked 97th, knocked off 2014 champ Stan Wawrinka, playing in his first tournament since undergoing knee surgery five months ago, in the second round.
   Sandgren, the runner-up in the $100,000 Tiburon Challenger in the San Francisco Bay Area last fall, was 0-2 in Grand Slam matches and was 2-8 in tour-level matches entering the Australian Open.
   Chung and Sandgren met for the first time two weeks ago in Auckland, with Chung prevailing 6-3, 5-7, 6-3 in the first round. Sandgren said the match gave him confidence that he can compete at the top level.
   Oracle Challenger Series in Newport Beach, Calif. -- Qualifier Dennis Novikov, a 24-year-old San Jose product, ousted top-seeded Kei Nishikori of Japan 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 in the first round.
   The 6-foot-4 (1.93-meter), 200-pound (91-kilogram) Novikov, ranked No. 238, slugged 15 aces past Nishikori, the 2014 U.S. Open runner-up who was playing in his first match since August because of a right wrist injury.