Pennetta nets first major title, will retire soon

Flavia Pennetta, shown at Indian Wells in March,
beat longtime friend and fellow Italian Roberta
Vinci 7-6 (4), 6-2 today to win the U.S. Open.
Pennetta, 33, then announced she will retire
after this season. Photo by Paul Bauman

   Flavia Pennetta is going out on top.
   After defeating longtime friend and fellow Italian Roberta Vinci 7-6 (4), 6-2 today in an unlikely U.S. Open final, Pennetta announced she will retire after this season.
   Pennetta, 33, became the oldest woman in the Open era, which began in 1968, to win a Grand Slam title for the first time. Both players appeared in their maiden Grand Slam final.
   It was also the first time since the inception of the WTA computer rankings in 1975 that both U.S. Open finalists were ranked outside the top 20. Pennetta was seeded 26th with the same ranking, and Vinci was unseeded at No. 43.
   "This is how I say goodbye to tennis," Pennetta said. "I couldn't think to finish in a better way."
   Vinci, 32, shocked Serena Williams in Friday's semifinals. Williams was trying to become the first player since Steffi Graf in 1988 to achieve a calendar-year Grand Slam.
   "I passed 24 hours with a lot of things on mind," Vinci said. "And I was a little big tight, especially in the first set."
   Pennetta and Vinci grew up 38 miles (61.2 kilometers) apart in southern Italy and have known each other since they were 10.  
   "We know each other since forever," Pennetta said. "We spend so much time together, we could write a book about our lives."
   No. 12 seeds Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut became the first French pair to win a U.S. Open title in doubles, beating No. 8 Jamie Murray of Great Britain and John Peers of Australia 6-4, 6-4.
   Murray, Andy's older brother, and Peers suffered their second straight loss in a Grand Slam final. Neither has won a major title.
   Northern California connection -- No. 2 seed Mackenzie McDonald, a UCLA junior from Piedmont in the San Francisco Bay Area, defeated No. 4 Gonzales Austin, a recent Vanderbilt graduate, 6-2, 7-5 to win the American Collegiate Invitational.

Veni, vidi, Vinci: Serena's bid for Slam ends

Serena Williams, shown in March, lost to unseeded Roberta
Vinci of Italy today in one of the biggest upsets in sports his-
tory. Photo by Paul Bauman

   Pressure and a crafty opponent finally got to Serena Williams.
   Roberta Vinci pulled off one of the biggest upsets in sports history today, ending Williams' bid for the first calendar-year Grand Slam since Steffi Graf's in 1988.
   The unseeded Vinci, playing in her first major semifinal at age 32, shocked the top-ranked Williams, who has won 21 Grand Slam singles titles, 2-6, 6-4, 6-4 in the U.S. Open in Flushing Meadows, N.Y.
   Vinci had not won more than four games in a set in four matches against Williams. Afterward, in an on-court interview, ESPN's Tom Rinaldi told Vinci that she was a 300-1 long shot. In comparison, Buster Douglas was a 42-1 underdog when he knocked out Mike Tyson in Tokyo in 1990 in one of the biggest shockers ever.
   Rinaldi asked Vinci on the court what she thought made it possible when she woke up today to beat Williams.
   Replied the engaging Italian: "When I woke up today, I said, 'You're in the semifinals of the U.S. Open. Try to enjoy.' I don't think about (playing) Serena. But to win? No."
    Vinci apologized to Williams afterward. Why, asked Rinaldi?
   "For the American people, for Serena, the Grand Slam, everything," she said. "But today's my day. Sorry, guys."
   Williams, who will turn 34 on Sept. 26, was trying to tie Graf with 22 Grand Slam singles titles, second all-time behind Margaret Court's 24.
   Williams had won 11 three-set matches in majors this year, including two in the U.S. Open, and four consecutive Grand Slam titles.
   She led 2-0 in the third set against Vinci but double-faulted on break point in the next game. Williams double-faulted again when Vinci broke for 4-3.
   "I never felt that pressure to win here," insisted Williams, who earlier in the summer announced that she would no longer answer questions about her Grand Slam quest. "I said that from the beginning." 
   ESPN commentator and tennis legend Chris Evert saw it otherwise.
   "I saw a frozen, paralyzed Serena Williams," Evert said with her usual candor. "She succumbed to nerves. She's human."
   After Vinci broke serve for 4-3 in the third set, ESPN's Mary Joe Fernandez noted: "She's playing such a clever match. She's taking advantage of (Williams') nerves. She's sliced, diced and drop-shotted. ... She's made Serena hit that extra shot."
   And, in an impressive display of composure, Vinci served out the match at love. A lesser player would have crumbled and let Williams back in the match.
   Although Vinci is ranked 43rd in the world in singles, she didn't exactly come out of nowhere.
   Vinci has been ranked as high as No. 11 in singles and No. 1 in doubles. She owns a career Grand Slam in women's doubles with five major titles overall.
   Vinci's victory overshadowed another shocker as No. 26 seed Flavia Pennetta, another Italian, dispatched No. 2 Simona Halep of Romania 6-1, 6-3 in 59 minutes. Pennetta, 33, also will play in her maiden Grand Slam final (Saturday at noon PDT, ESPN), and it will be the first all-Italian final in a major.
   Vinci and Pennetta grew up 38 miles (61.2 kilometers) apart in southern Italy and have known each other since they were children.  
   Pennetta leads Vinci 5-4 in the head-to-head series, but they are 1-1 on hardcourts. In their last meeting, Pennetta won 6-4, 6-1 in the quarterfinals of the 2013 U.S. Open.
   Pennetta also has a psychological advantage, as Vinci has only 24 hours to refocus after what she called "the best moment of my life."
   Oh, yeah. Then came the men's semifinals.
   No. 1 seed Novak Djokovic and No. 2 Roger Federer set up a blockbuster final with easy victories.
   Djokovic trounced No. 9 Marin Cilic, the defending champion, 6-0, 6-1, 6-2 in the most lopsided semifinal in New York in the Open era, which began in 1968. Cilic was hampered by a twisted right ankle, which he suffered in the fourth round.
   Federer whipped his Swiss Davis Cup teammate, fifth-seeded Stan Wawrinka, 6-4, 6-3, 6-1 to reach his first U.S. Open final since 2009. Federer, 34, has not lost a set in the tournament.
   Djokovic and Federer will meet on Sunday (1 p.m. PDT, ESPN) for the 42nd time, tying Djokovic-Rafael Nadal for the most in the Open era. Federer leads the series 21-20 after winning their most recent encounter, 7-6 (1), 6-3 last month on a hardcourt in the Cincinnati final.
   Northern California connection -- Fourth-seeded Martina Hingis of Switzerland and Leander Paes of India edged unseeded Bethanie-Mattek Sands of Phoenix and Sam Querrey, a San Francisco native living in Las Vegas, 6-4, 3-6 [10-7] for the mixed doubles title.
   As Williams did, Hingis and the 42-year-old Paes won three of the four Slams this year. They took the Australian Open and Wimbledon mixed doubles crowns but lost in the second round of the French Open to Katarina Srebotnik of Slovenia and Horia Tecau of Romania. The winners of that tournament? Mattek-Sands and former Stanford star Mike Bryan.
   Querrey, who will turn 28 on Oct. 7, was playing in his first Grand Slam final. He reached the men's doubles semifinals in the U.S. Open with Southern California native Steve Johnson.
   In the American Collegiate Invitational, No. 2 seed Mackenzie McDonald of Piedmont in the San Francisco Bay Area reached the men's final. McDonald, a junior at UCLA, routed No. 3 Thai-Son Kwiatkowski, a junior at reigning NCAA champion Virginia, 6-2, 6-2.
   McDonald will face No. 4 Gonzales Austin, a recent Vanderbilt graduate who nipped No. 1 Ryan Shane, the NCAA singles champion from Virginia, 3-6, 7-6 (5), 7-6 (6). 

Mama mia -- two Italian women reach U.S. Open semis

Flavia Pennetta, shown in March, joined fellow
Italian Roberta Vinci in the U.S. Open semifinals.
Photo by Paul Bauman

   Serena Williams is trying to make history in the U.S. Open.
   Italy already has.
   For the first time in the Open era, which began in 1968, two Italian women have reached the semifinals of a Grand Slam tournament. 
   No. 26 seed Flavia Pennetta joined unseeded Roberta Vinci in the U.S. Open semis, outlasting No. 5 Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic 4-6 6-4, 6-2 today in Flushing Meadows, N.Y.
   Kvitova, a two-time Wimbledon champion recovering from mononucleosis, wilted in the 88-degree heat and 61 percent humidity after leading 6-4, 3-1 in the 2-hour, 23-minute match.
   No. 2 seed Simona Halep is the only women's semifinalist under 30. The Romanian, who will turn 24 on Sept. 27, defeated No. 20 Victoria Azarenka of Belarus 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 in a match suspended by rain early in the third set. Halep played with her left thigh wrapped.
   In Thursday's semis, Halep will meet the 33-year-old Pennetta, and No. 1 Williams, who will turn 34 on Sept. 26, will play the 32-year-old Vinci.
   Pennetta is 3-1 against Halep, but Halep won the last meeting 6-3, 7-5 in the round of 16 at Miami in April. Williams, seeking the first calendar-year Grand Slam since Steffi Graf in 1988, has never lost a set in four matches against Vinci, who owns a career Grand Slam in doubles.
   On the men's side, No. 2 Roger Federer and No. 5 Stan Wawrinka advanced to an all-Swiss semifinal.
   Federer, a five-time U.S. Open champion (2004-08), dismantled No. 12 Richard Gasquet of France 6-3, 6-3, 6-1. Federer, 34, is the only men's semifinalist who has not lost a set in the tournament.
   Wawrinka beat No. 15 Kevin Anderson 6-4, 6-4, 6-0 to end a four-match losing streak to the South African. The 6-foot-8 (2.03-meter) Anderson was coming off a victory over No. 3 Andy Murray.
   Federer is 16-3 against Wawrinka. They have split their two matches this year, both on clay.
   The other men's semifinal was set on Tuesday. No. 1 Novak Djokovic, who won the 2011 U.S. Open, will face No. 9 Marin Cilic, the defending champion from Croatia. Djokovic, from Serbia, is 13-0 against Cilic.
   Northern California connection -- Americans Steve Johnson and Sam Querrey, a San Francisco native living in Las Vegas, defeated Leonardo Mayer of Argentina and Joao Sousa of Portugal 6-3, 6-4 in the men's doubles quarterfinals.
   Johnson and Querrey will meet eighth-seeded Jamie Murray, Andy's older brother, and John Peers in the semifinals. Murray and Peers, the runners-up at Wimbledon two months ago, advanced on Tuesday by edging fourth-seeded Marcin Matkowski of Poland and Nenad Zimonjic of Serbia 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (4).
   Querrey and Bethanie Mattek-Sands of Phoenix reached the mixed doubles final, defeating Lukasz Kubot of Poland and Andrea Hlavackova of the Czech Republic 6-4, 6-3. Querrey and Mattek-Sands will play fourth-seeded Martina Hingis of Switzerland and Leander Paes of India on Friday.
   Wild cards Vasil Kirkov of Tampa, Fla., and Sam Riffice of Roseville in the Sacramento area reached the boys doubles quarterfinals with a 7-6 (4), 6-3 victory over Tim Sandkaulen of Germany and Mate Valkusz of Hungary. Both Kirkov and Riffice are 16.

French Open Day 6 recap: No. 8 Suarez Navarro falls

No. 28 seed Flavia Pennetta, defending her title
at Indian Wells in March, beat No. 8 Carla Suarez
Navarro on Friday. Photo by Paul Bauman

   Upset of the day -- No. 28 seed Flavia Pennetta, a 33-year-old Italian, dismissed No. 8 Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain 6-3, 6-4 in the third round.
   Pennetta had lost in the first round of her two previous tournaments, to 10th-ranked Andrea Petkovic in Madrid and then-No. 19 Elina Svitolina in Rome.
   Pennetta has never advanced past the fourth round of the French Open in 12 appearances.
   Match of the day -- No. 29 seed Alize Cornet of France reached the fourth round at Roland Garros for the first time in 11 appearances, beating Mirjana Lucic-Baroni of Croatia 4-6, 6-3, 7-5. 
   The 25-year-old Cornet "celebrated as if she had won the tournament, falling onto her back, letting out a scream and then bursting into tears," the Associated Press reported.
   Notable -- No. 2 seed and defending champion Maria Sharapova ended No. 26 Samantha Stosur's winning streak at seven matches with a 6-3, 6-4 victory. Stosur, the 2010 runner-up to Francesca Schiavone, had lost only five games in two matches in Paris.
   Top-seeded Serena Williams is scheduled to face No. 27 Victoria Azarenka today in the third round. Williams saved three match points in a 7-6 (5), 3-6, 7-6 (1) victory over Azarenka in the third round at Madrid three weeks ago.
   Men's seeded winners -- No. 2 Roger Federer (2009 champion), No. 4 Tomas Berdych, No. 8 Stan Wawrinka, No. 12 Gilles Simon, No. 13 Gael Monfils, No. 14 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, No. 20 Richard "Blow A" Gasquet.
   Men's seeded loser -- No. 21 Pablo "Jose" Cuevas.
   Women's seeded winners -- No. 2 Sharapova (2012 and 2014 champion), No. 7 Ana Ivanovic (2008 champion), No. 9 Ekaterina Makarova, No. 13 Lucie Safarova, No. 19 Svitolina, No. 21 Garbine Muguruza, No. 28 Pennetta, No. 29 Cornet.
   Women's seeded losers -- No. 8 Suarez Navarro, No. 11 Angelique Kerber, No. 20 Sabine Lisicki, No. 26 Stosur.
   Stars and stripes -- Steve Johnson lost to Wawrinka 6-4, 6-3, 6-2, leaving Jack Sock as the only U.S. man left in singles. Sock, 22, is set to play Borna Coric, 18, of Croatia today in the third round, with the winner likely to meet Rafael Nadal -- who has won nine French Open singles titles, including the last five -- in the round of 16.
   Top-seeded Bob and Mike Bryan and second-seeded Vasek Pospisil of Canada and Sock reached the third round of men's doubles. However, left-handers Austin Krajicek and Donald Young lost to ninth-seeded Rohan Bopanna of India and Florin Mergea of Romania 3-6, 6-3, 7-5.
   Fast facts -- Only four of the top eight women's seeds remain halfway through the third round: No. 1 Williams, No. 2 Sharapova, No. 4 Petra Kvitova and No. 7 Ivanovic. In contrast, all of the top nine men's seeds are still alive. 
   Northern California connection -- In addition to the Bryans, former Stanford stars, advancing in men's doubles, Abigail Spears and Scott Lipsky, another ex-Cardinal, won their first-round mixed doubles match. But fifth-seeded Bob Bryan and Caroline Garcia of France lost to Andreja Klepac of Slovenia and Rajeev Ram of Carmel, Ind., 3-6, 7-5 [10-8].
   Quote -- Cornet: "At last, I'm into the second week at Roland. I've been waiting for this for 11 years."

Lisicki ousts defending champ in BNP thriller

Sabine Lisicki reacts after saving three match
points in a 6-4, 6-7 (3), 7-6 (4) victory over Flavia
Pennetta in the quarterfinals at Indian Wells.
Photo by Paul Bauman

    INDIAN WELLS -- Sabine Lisicki and Flavia Pennetta seemed like unlikely candidates to produce a classic today in the quarterfinals of the BNP Paribas Open.
   Sure, Lisicki reached the 2013 Wimbledon final at 23 years old, losing to Marion Bartoli.
   And, yes, Pennetta won last year's BNP for the biggest title of her career.
   But this was their first career meeting, Lisicki was 1-6 this year entering the BNP, and she hadn't won a match in the tournament in seven years.
   Meanwhile, Pennetta had broken down in tears during her three-set victory over second-seeded Maria Sharapova in the previous round.
   Still, Lisicki and Pennetta played the match of the tournament, with Lisicki prevailing 6-4, 6-7 (3), 7-6 (4) in 2 hours, 40 minutes. Pennetta saved a match point serving at 4-5 in the second set, and Lisicki survived three match points on her serve at 4-5 in the third set.
   "It was great to be part of a match like that," gushed Lisicki, a German seeded 24th.
   Pennetta, a 33-year-old Italian, expressed mixed feelings afterward.
   "I think it was a really good match," said the 15th seed. "We played really well the third set both, and was a good fight until the last point. Everything happened tonight. Match point for one, match points for the other one.
   "Sport is like this. Tennis is like this. I'm happy about the match, but of course I am upset, because when you are there, you want to win it."
   Pennetta showed no signs of the emotional turmoil that overwhelmed her after the first set of her 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 win over Sharapova, a two-time Indian Wells champion.
   "In that match, I just pass the point where you have to (let) everything out," said Pennetta, who never specified what troubled her. "Today, I was perfect in the court and ready to do the match and ready to fight, and I think I did that." 

Lisicki prepares to hit her powerful fore-
hand. Photo by Paul Bauman

   The match in 16,100-seat Stadium 1 began slowly with numerous errors and service breaks, but it picked up dramatically when Pennetta served 4-5 in the second set. From then on, the players engaged in many breathtaking rallies featuring laser groundstrokes.
   On match point against Pennetta, she missed her first serve. Lisicki pounced on the second delivery, but Pennetta kept the ball in play and won the point with a forehand passing shot down the line after a tremendous rally. 
   The crowd grew in the third set as the afternoon match extended into the night session. When Lisicki ripped a forehand cross-court passing shot after making several incredible gets, the fans gave her a standing ovation.
   "It's always great to play in front of a full crowd," Lisicki said. "That's what I play for. That's the best thing that can happen."
   Lisicki, who set the record for the fastest women's serve (131 mph or 210.8 kph) in the Bank of the West Classic at Stanford last summer, escaped the match points against her with a 117-mph (188.3-kph) service winner down the middle, a forehand cross-court passing shot set up by a strong serve, and a 111-mph (178.6-kph) service winner down the middle.
   "I just stepped up to the line and believed in my serve," Lisicki said of the three points.
   After Lisicki aced Pennetta with a slice out wide to end the thriller, she dropped to her knees and put her head in her hands. And after embracing Pennetta at the net and shaking hands with the chair umpire, Lisicki again put her head in her hands.
   Who could blame her, especially the way her year had gone?
   "I had a tough start to the season losing three close three-setters in a row," Lisicki said. "Even my preseason was good, and we had a feeling we were doing the right things off the court, working hard.
   "Somehow, it didn't pay off yet, but we kept working. I have a great team behind me. They kept telling me that I'm doing the right things and that they believed it will pay off. It's nice to see that it's starting to pay off finally."

Pennetta saved a match point while serving
at 4-5 in the second set. Photo by Paul Bauman

   Lisicki will face 18th-seeded Jelena Jankovic of Serbia in Friday night's first semifinal. Top-ranked Serena Williams, returning to the tournament after a 14-year boycott, then will meet No. 3 Simona Halep of Romania.
   Jankovic, a former world No. 1 who won the BNP title in 2010, defeated qualifier Lesia Tsurenko of Ukraine 6-1, 4-1, retired (ankle). Tsurenko had beaten three seeds in a row, including seventh-ranked Eugenie Bouchard and No. 10 Andrea Petkovic for the first top-10 wins of her career.   
   On the men's side, half of a potential "Big Four" semifinals is set.
   Top-ranked Novak Djokovic advanced when 32nd-seeded Bernard Tomic of Australia withdrew with a lower-back injury and infected wisdom tooth. No. 4 Murray improved to 10-0 against No. 12 Feliciano Lopez with a 6-3, 6-4 victory.
   In Friday afternoon's men's quarterfinals, second-seeded Roger Federer will meet No. 9 Tomas Berdych, and No. 3 Rafael Nadal will take on No. 6 Milos Raonic.
   In tonight's men's doubles quarterfinals, eighth-seeded Jack Sock of Tampa, Fla., and Vasek Pospisil of Canada ended the two-year reign of top-seeded Bob and Mike Bryan, 6-4, 6-4.
   It was a rematch of last year's Wimbledon final, also won by Sock and Pospisil. However, they fell to the Bryans one month later in the Cincinnati final. 
    The Bryans will play for the California Dream, Sacramento's new franchise in World TeamTennis, this summer.

Pennetta, 33, shocks Sharapova at Indian Wells

Maria Sharapova lost to defending champion Flavia Pennetta
3-6, 6-3, 6-2 in the fourth round of the BNP Paribas Open.
2014 photo by Paul Bauman

   Flavia Pennetta is still going strong at age 33.
   The No. 15 seed and defending champion from Italy ousted No. 2 seed Maria Sharapova 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 on Tuesday to reach the quarterfinals of the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells.
   Pennetta has beaten Sharapova three consecutive times and leads the head-to-head series 3-2. All five meetings have gone to three sets. Sharapova, 27, has won two of her 34 career singles titles at Indian Wells (2006 and 2013).
   Meanwhile, qualifier Lesia Tsurenko of Ukraine knocked off a seed for the third straight round, outlasting No. 6 Eugenie Bouchard of Canada 6-7 (5), 7-5, 6-4 after defeating No. 9 Andrea Petkovic and No. 20 Alize Cornet.
   Pennetta, the highest remaining seed in the bottom half of the draw, will play No. 24 Sabine Lisicki of Germany. Also, Tsurenko will face Serbia's Jelena Jankovic, the 18th seed and 2010 champion.
   In the top half of the draw, No. 1 seed Serena Williams will meet No. 27 Timea Bacsinszky of Switzerland, and No. 3 Simona Halep of Romania will take on No. 12 Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain.
   Bacsinszky extended her winning streak to 15 matches, including the titles in Monterrey and Acapulco.
   On the men's side at Indian Wells, No. 2 seed Roger Federer dismissed Andreas Seppi 6-3, 6-4 in the third round to avenge a loss to the Italian in the same round of the Australian Open in January.
   Federer, bidding for an unprecedented fifth Indian Wells title, will face unseeded American Jack Sock for the first time in the round of 16. Sock, playing in his first tournament of the year after undergoing hip surgery in mid-December, surprised 15th-seeded Roberto Bautista Agut of Spain 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 to reach the fourth round of a Masters 1000 tournament for the first time.
   Sock has lost the first set in all three of his matches. At 22, he already has won two Grand Slam titles, mixed doubles in the 2011 U.S. Open with Melanie Oudin and men's doubles at Wimbledon last year with Vasek Pospisil of Canada.
   In a match that ended at 12:43 a.m. today, top-seeded Bob and Mike Bryan edged Marin Draganja of Croatia and John Peers of Austria 6-7 (8), 6-4 [10-7].
   The 36-year-old Bryan twins, who starred at Stanford, will meet eighth-seeded Pospisil and Sock in the quarterfinals in a rematch of last year's Wimbledon final. The Bryans seek their third straight Indian Wells crown in their native Southern California.       

Teen Duval, with harrowing past, shocks Stosur

Victoria Duval lost to fellow 17-year-old
and eventual champion Mayo Hibi in the
first round of the Gold River Challenger
last month. Photo by Paul Bauman

   After everything that Victoria Duval has endured in her short life, she was unlikely to be fazed by playing No. 11 seed and 2011 champion Samantha Stosur in Louis Armstrong Stadium in the first round of the U.S. Open.
   And she wasn't.
   Not that there weren't some tense moments.
   Duval, a 17-year-old qualifier from Bradenton, Fla., shocked Stosur 5-7, 6-4, 6-4 today in Flushing Meadows, N.Y. Duval saved three break points while serving for the match at 5-4 in the third set and converted her fourth match point with a forehand passing shot.
   Afterward, Duval jumped for joy like the teenager she is.
   "It's the best I've played in my career," Duval, last year's USTA girls 18 national champion, gushed in an on-court interview. "I'm really excited."
   The stunner came one day after the No. 11 men's seed, Kei Nishikori of Japan, lost to qualifier Daniel Evans of Great Britain. Evans, only 5-foot-9 (1.75 meters), reached the final of this month's $100,000 Comerica Bank Challenger in Aptos.
   Stosur and Nishikori are the highest seeds to lose so far in the U.S. Open.  
   Both Duval and Stosur fell early in Northern California tournaments last month.
   Duval, seeded eighth in the $50,000 FSP Gold River Women's Challenger in the Sacramento area, lost to another 17-year-old, Mayo Hibi, 7-5, 5-7, 6-0 in the first round. Hibi, an Irvine resident who plays for her native Japan, went on to win the title.
   Whereas Duval breezed through three qualifying matches to advance to the main draw of the U.S. Open, Hibi lost in the second round of qualifying to 13th-seeded Anastasia Rodionova, a 31-year-old Australian citizen from Russia.
   Stosur, seeded second in the Bank of the West Classic at Stanford, was upset by Olga Govortsova of Belarus 6-2, 6-4 in the second round after drawing a first-round bye. Wanting more matches, Stosur accepted a wild card in the Southern California Open in the San Diego suburb of Carlsbad the following week and won the title.    
   Duval, with her cherubic face and high-pitched voice, looks and sounds even younger than she is. However, she is mature beyond her years. It isn't difficult to understand why -- she has had to grow up fast. Victoria and her father almost lost their lives in separate incidents.
   Duval, whose parents are Haitian physicians, was born in Miami but lived in Haiti as a young child. When Duval was 7, she and her cousins were held hostage for hours by armed robbers at her aunt's house in the impoverished Caribbean nation.
   "Generally in Haiti, this is a death sentence for the occupants," Filip Bondy of the New York Daily News wrote in 2011. "In this instance, the children were freed."
   Victoria's mother, Nadine, promptly gave up her neonatal practice and moved back to South Florida with her daughter and two sons. Her husband, Jean-Maurice, stayed in Haiti to continue his gynecology and obstetrics practice.
    In January 2010, an earthquake struck Haiti and killed an estimated 158,000 people. Jean-Maurice was pinned by collapsing walls outside his house and suffered broken legs, a shattered left arm, seven broken ribs and a punctured lung. With the help of a large donation from an American family, he was airlifted to a hospital in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. He eventually recovered except for paralysis in the arm.
   "I don't take anything for granted," Victoria said of her background after beating Stosur. "Everything can change in a minute. Life is short."
   Also falling today was No. 17 seed Dominika Cibulkova, the Bank of the West champion. The 5-foot-3 (1.61-meter) Slovakian was ousted by Elina Svitolina, 18, of Ukraine 6-4, 6-3. Svitolina won the 2010 French Open junior girls title.    
   All three women with strong Northern California ties in action today lost in straight sets.
   Unseeded Mallory Burdette, a former Stanford star, fell to Svetlana Kuznetsova, the 27th seed and 2004 champion, 6-3, 7-5. The 22-year-old Burdette, who turned pro after reaching the third round of last year's U.S. Open, will drop from No. 96 to about No. 127.
   Burdette's former Stanford teammate, 20-year-old wild card Nicole Gibbs, lost to Flavia Pennetta of Italy  6-0, 6-2. Pennetta, 31, advanced to the U.S. Open quarterfinals in 2008, 2009 and 2011.
   Wild card Maria Sanchez, who was born and raised in Modesto, succumbed to Daniela Hantuchova, 30, of Slovakia, 7-5, 6-2. Sanchez, 23, made her U.S. Open singles main-draw debut.
   Hantuchova, a quarterfinalist in the 2002 U.S. Open, is playing in the tournament for the 13th straight time. She climbed to a career-high No. 5 in singles in 2003 and No. 5 in doubles in 2002.
   On the men's side, No. 26 seed Sam Querrey stayed on track for a possible third-round match against five-time U.S. Open champion Roger Federer, who's seeded seventh at age 32.
   Querrey, a 25-year-old San Francisco native who has played part-time for the Sacramento Capitals in World TeamTennis for the past two years, defeated Guido Pella 7-6 (3), 4-6, 6-1, 6-2.
    Pella, a left-hander from Argentina, was seeded first in Aptos and lost to Evans in the quarterfinals.