French Open Day 1: Johnson ousts seed in five sets

Steve Johnson beat 26th-seeded Guillermo Garcia-Lopez
in five sets in the first round of the French Open.
2013 photo by Paul Bauman

   Match of the day -- Steve Johnson of Redondo Beach in the Los Angeles area ousted 26th-seeded Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain 6-3, 6-3, 6-7 (1), 3-6, 6-3.
   Upset of the day -- No. 24 Peng Shuai, a semifinalist at last year's U.S. Open, retired with a back injury while trailing Polona Hercog of Slovenia 6-0, 2-0.
   Notable -- No. 5 Kei Nishikori and No. 8 Stan Wawrinka, both of whom fell in the opening round last year, won in straight sets.
   Men's seeded winners -- No. 2 Roger Federer, No. 5 Kei Nishikori, No. 8 Stan Wawrinka, No. 14 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, No. 19 Roberto Bautista Agut, No. 22 Philipp Kohlschreiber, No. 24 Ernests Gulbis.
   Men's seeded losers -- No. 25 Ivo Karlovic, No. 26 Guillermo Garcia-Lopez.
   Women's seeded winners -- No. 3 Simona Halep, No. 7 Ana Ivanovic, No. 9 Ekaterina Makarova, No. 13 Lucie Safarova, No. 21 Garbine Muguruza, No. 28 Flavia Pennetta.
   Women's seeded losers -- No. 24 Peng Shuai, No. 31 Caroline Garcia.
   Stars and stripes -- Americans went 1-2. In addition to Johnson's victory, 19-year-old wild card Louisa Chirico lost to ninth-seeded Ekaterina Makarova of Russia 6-4, 6-2, and 5-foot-2 (1.57-meter) Lauren Davis fell to Mirjana Lucic-Baroni of Croatia 6-3, 3-6, 6-3.
   Fast fact -- Six-foot-11 (2.11-meter) Ivo Karlovic, 36, of Croatia lost in the first round at Roland Garros for the fifth time in his last six appearances. He fell to Cyprus' Marcos Baghdatis, the 2006 Australian Open runner-up, 7-6 (5), 6-4, 6-4.
   Northern California connection -- Two Aptos Challenger champions won: Johnson (2012) and Baghdatis (2014).
   Quote -- Federer, on a spectator who got on Center Court to snap selfies with him: "That should never happen on the Philippe Chatrier Court. I'm not happy about it. Obviously not (for) one second (am I) happy about it."

U.S. Open Day 9 highlights: Cilic wins marathon

Marin Cilic practices with Novak
Djokovic at Indian Wells in March.
Photo by Paul Bauman

   Match of the day -- No. 14 seed Marin Cilic of Croatia topped No. 26 Gilles Simon of France 5-7, 7-6 (3), 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 in 4 hours, 13 minutes to reach the U.S. Open quarterfinals for the third time.
   On the hottest day of the year in New York, 92 degrees (33.3 Celsius) and 44 percent humidity, Cilic and Simon played the second-longest match of the tournament. It was six minutes shorter than No. 10 Kei Nishikori's victory over No. 5 Milos Raonic that ended at 2:26 a.m. today New York time.     
   Upset of the day -- No. 20 seed Gael Monfils of France defeated No. 7 Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria 7-5, 7-6 (6), 7-5. Dimitrov, 23, advanced to his first major semifinal last month at Wimbledon.
   Monfils will face No. 2 Roger Federer in an attempt to equal his best Grand Slam result, an appearance in the 2008 French Open semifinals.
   Notable -- No. 10 seed Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark crushed No. 13 Sara Errani of Italy 6-0, 6-1 to reach her first Grand Slam semifinal since the 2011 U.S. Open.
   Unseeded Peng Shuai, 28, of China advanced to her first major semifinal in her 37th attempt with a 6-2, 6-1 victory over Belinda Bencic, 17, of Switzerland. Peng, who uses two hands on both sides, climbed to No. 1 in women's doubles in February. She is now No. 3.
   Women's semifinal matchups (seedings in parentheses) -- Wozniacki (10) vs. Peng. Wozniacki leads the head-to-head series 5-1 with five straight wins. The other pairing will be determined today. Serena Williams (1) will face Flavia Pennetta (11), and Victoria Azarenka (16) will meet Ekaterina Makarova (17).
   Men's quarterfinal matchups -- Novak Djokovic (1) vs. Andy Murray (8), Stan Wawrinka (3) vs. Nishikori (10), Tomas Berdych (6) vs. Cilic (14) and Federer (2) vs. Monfils (20).
   U.S. report -- Unseeded Serena and Venus Williams, two-time U.S. Open champions, lost to fourth-seeded Makarova and Elena Vesnina of Russia 7-6 (5), 6-4. Serena, generally considered to have the best serve in women's history, double-faulted on the last two points.
   Northern California connection -- Two 15-year-olds from the San Francisco Bay Area lost in the second round of girls singles. Top-seeded CiCi Bellis of Atherton fell to Natalia Vikhlyantseva of Russia 7-6 (9), 2-6, 6-1, and Michaela Gordon of Saratoga succumbed to Anna Bondar of Hungary 6-3, 3-6, 7-5.
   Bellis stunned 12th-seeded Dominika Cibulkova, the Australian Open runner-up in January, in the second round of women's singles last week.
   In the first round of girls doubles, top-seeded Bellis and Marketa Vondrousova of the Czech Republic won, but Gordon and American Sophia Kenin lost.
   In men's doubles, top-seeded Bob and Mike Bryan will meet unseeded Scott Lipsky and Rajeev Ram in an all-American semifinal. All except Ram played at Stanford, the Bryans in 1997 and 1998, and Lipsky from 2000 to 2003.
   Fast fact -- Federer owns the career record for most Grand Slam quarterfinals in the Open era (43).
   Quote --An emotional Peng in an on-court interview after her victory: "It's an amazing time for me. I love tennis and love to play, and it's tough sometimes when I'm thinking of giving up and almost stopping playing because I don't know if I can make it or not, but my coach and parents make sure I keep fighting and never give up."

U.S. Open Day 3 highlights: No. 4 Radwanska ousted

Agnieszka Radwanska became the first top-10 seed, male or
female, to lose in the U.S. Open. 2013 photo by Paul Bauman

   Upset of the day -- No. 4 Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland became the first top-10 seed, male or female, to fall in the tournament. The 2012 Wimbledon runner-up succumbed to 39th-ranked Peng Shuai, a Chinese veteran who uses two hands on both sides, 6-3, 6-4 in the second round.
   Radwanska has failed to advance past the fourth round in nine trips to the U.S. Open. Seeded second in the Bank of the West Classic at Stanford last month, the 2013 runner-up lost in the second round to Varvara Lepchenko of the United States after receiving a bye.
   Radwanska rebounded, though, to win the Montreal title the following week.
   Matches of the day -- No. 18 Kevin Anderson of South Africa and No. 32 Joao Sousa of Portugal pulled out fifth-set tiebreakers, and No. 18 Andrea Petkovic of Germany reeled off four straight points to win a third-set tiebreaker against Monica Puig of Puerto Rico.
   Notable -- No. 7 Grigor Dimitrov earned his first U.S. Open victory after three losses, beating U.S. wild card Ryan Harrison 6-2, 7-6 (4), 6-2. No. 6 Tomas Berdych eliminated 33-year-old Lleyton Hewitt, the 2001 champion, 6-3, 6-4, 6-3.
   U.S. report -- American men and women went 1-4 combined in singles. No. 19 Venus Williams, 34, downed Timea Bacsinszky of Switzerland 6-1, 6-4 in the first match of the night session in Arthur Ashe Stadium. Losing were No. 21 Sloane Stephens, wild card Madison Brengle, Steve Johnson and Harrison.
   The 21-year-old Stephens, who has dropped from a career-high No. 11 in the world last October to No. 24, lost to Johanna Larsson of Sweden 5-7, 6-4, 6-2. Johnson, a 24-year-old former USC star, retired with severe leg and arm cramps while leading Tatsuma Ito of Japan 2-6, 6-3, 7-5, 1-4.
   Northern California connection -- After the first round of men's singles, only three Americans remain: No. 13 John Isner (6-foot-10/2.08 meters), Sam Querrey (6-foot-6/1.98 meters) and Tim Smyczek (5-foot-9/1.75 meters). With half of the second round in women's singles completed, 10 U.S. players are left. Nine are scheduled to play today in the top half. Only Williams remains in the bottom half.
   Marcos Baghdatis, the Australian Open runner-up in 2006 and Aptos Challenger champion three weeks ago, retired with an ankle injury with No. 14 Marin Cilic of Croatia leading 6-3, 3-1, 0-15.
   Top-seeded Bob and Mike Bryan, former Stanford All-Americans seeking their fifth U.S. Open men's doubles title and 100th overall, coasted in the first round.
   In women's doubles, sixth-seeded Raquel Kops-Jones of San Jose and Abigail Spears of San Diego were upset by Zarina Diyas of Kazakhstan and Yi-Fan Xu of China 6-4, 2-6, 6-1. Also, ex-Stanford star Nicole Gibbs, from Marina del Rey in the Los Angeles area, and Maria Sanchez, originally from Modesto, lost to Lauren Davis of Boca Raton, Fla., and Renata Voracova of the Czech Republic 6-3, 4-6, 6-1.
   Bradley Klahn, who graduated from Stanford in 2012, lost in the first round of mixed doubles with Shelby Rogers of Charleston, S.C.
   Fast fact -- No. 5 Maria Sharapova improved to 17-6 (.739) in three-set matches this year after beating Alexandra Dulgheru of Romania 4-6, 6-3, 6-2.
   Quote -- No. 10 Caroline Wozniacki, after her hair got caught in her racket during her victory over qualifier Aliaksandra Sasnovich of Belarus: “Actually, it used to happen when I didn't braid my hair. That's why I started braiding it. Once it gets to a certain length, sometimes it can get stuck in the arm of the racket. It's a first, when it's braided that it's been stuck that good in my racket. I still tried to hit the ball. Almost took my head off.”