Russians rout Germany to reach Davis Cup title match

Daniil Medvedev, practicing in Indian Wells in October,
clinched the Russian Tennis Federation's victory over
Germany today in Madrid. Photo by Paul Bauman

   Without Alexander Zverev, Germany was no match for the Russian Tennis Federation.

   Daniil Medvedev and Andrey Rublev — ranked No. 2 and No. 5, respectively — needed less than two hours combined to clinch the Russians' 2-1 victory today in the semifinals of the Davis Cup Finals in Madrid.

   Rublev overwhelmed No. 54 Dominik Koepfer 6-4, 6-0 in 48 minutes to give the RTF a 1-0 lead. Medvedev, who won his first Grand Slam title in the U.S. Open in September, followed with a 6-4, 6-4 victory over Jan-Lennard Struff in 66 minutes.

   Germany won the inconsequential doubles match. The third-ranked Zverev, the singles gold medalist in the Tokyo Olympics and recent ATP Finals champion, boycotted the Davis Cup because of the format change two years ago.

   Both Rublev and Koepfer have played in Northern California Challengers. At 17, Rublev lost in the first round in Aptos to former No. 2 Tommy Haas in 2015. Koepfer reached finals in San Francisco in 2018 and Aptos in 2019.

   The RTF, seeking its first Davis Cup title since 2006 with Dmitry Tursunov, will face 2018 champion Croatia on Sunday at 7 a.m. PST (CBSSN). The Russians likely must sweep the singles matches again versus No. 30 Marin Cilic, the 2014 U.S. Open champion, and No. 243 Nino Serdarusic or No. 279 Borna Gojo because Croatia has the top-ranked doubles pair of Nikola Mektic and Mate Pavic.

   Croatia is missing former world No. 12 Borna Coric, who had shoulder surgery in May.

   Juniors — Rudy Quan of Sacramento, Calif., and Kristina Penickova of Campbell in the San Francisco Bay Area breezed to singles titles in the Eddie Herr International Championships in Bradenton, Fla.

   Quan, a wild card, crushed unseeded Lorenzo Carboni of Italy 6-0, 6-1 in the boys 16-and-unders. Penickova, seeded No. 3, routed No. 5 seed Anita Tu of Melbourne, Fla., 6-1, 6-2 in the girls 12s.

   Quan won the 12s in the Easter Bowl, national Clay Courts, national Hardcourts and Junior Orange Bowl in 2018 but missed most of 2019 with a stress fracture in his elbow. COVID wiped out much of 2020.

   In the boys 18 doubles final, No. 4 seeds Aleksander Orlikowsky and Olaf Pieczkowski of Poland beat wild cards Benjamin Kittay of Potomac, Md., and Michael Zheng, a Stanford commit from Montville, N.J., 7-5, 6-4. 

   USTA — No. 1 seeds Tracie Currie of Ventura, Calif., and Francesca La O of San Francisco beat No. 4 seeds Colleen Clery Ferrell and Hiromi Sasano of San Diego 6-3, 6-4 to take third place in women's doubles in the National 40 Hard Court Championships in La Jolla, Calif. 

Quan ends phenomenal year with Jr. Orange Bowl title

   Capping an incredible year, top-seeded Rudy Quan of Roseville in the Sacramento area beat Santiago Muhala of Katy, Texas, 6-1, 6-4 today to win the boys 12 title in the Junior Orange Bowl.
   The four games were the most Quan lost in a set in his seven matches in the clay-court, singles-only tournament in Coral Gables, Fla. He surrendered an average of 1.3 games per set, recording double bagels in the third round and quarterfinals.
   Quan came into the Junior Orange Bowl after suffering his only loss of the year, to eventual champion Maximus Dussault of Leesburg, Va., in the Eddie Herr semifinals on hard courts in Bradenton, Fla. It was Quan's first international competition.
   "I guess that was just a good learning experience for Orange Bowl, because I hadn't lost in a while," Quan, who won the 12s division in this year's USTA Winter Nationals, Easter Bowl, Clay Courts and Hard Courts, told Colette Lewis of ZooTennis.

Quan cruises into boys 12 final in Junior Orange Bowl

   Top-seeded Rudy Quan of Roseville in the Sacramento area dominated third-seeded Antonio Voljavec of Croatia 6-3, 6-1 today in the boys 12 semifinals at the Junior Orange Bowl in Coral Gables, Fla.
   Quan has not dropped more than three games in a set in any of his six matches in the clay-court, singles-only tournament. He has won gold balls this year in the Winter Nationals, Easter Bowl, Clay Courts and Hard Courts.
   Quan is scheduled to play ninth-seeded Santiago Muhala of Katy, Texas, on Tuesday. Muhala dismissed seventh-seeded Kaylan Bigun of Phoenix 6-2, 6-2.
   Muhala has lost one set in the tournament. He edged unseeded Benjamin Kreynes of Wesley Chapel, Fla., 6-1, 2-6, 7-6 (0) in the round of 16.

Aussie scores emotional win; Quan gains junior semis

James Duckworth winds up on a forehand during
his 4-6, 7-6 (2), 7-6 (6) victory over fellow Aus-
tralian Alexei Popyrin, 19, in the second round of
the $100,000 Tiburon (Calif.) Challenger in Sep-
tember. Duckworth escaped six match points.
Photo by Paul Bauman

   After shaking hands with the chair umpire, James Duckworth sat down, put his head in his hands for an extended period and rubbed his eyes.
   Duckworth, 26, had just defeated fellow Aussie Luke Saville 6-3, 5-7, 7-5, 7-6 (2) today in Melbourne to earn a wild card in next month's Australian Open.
   Duckworth, a semifinalist in the $100,000 Tiburon (Calif.) Challenger last September, underwent five operations from February 2017 to February this year. The 6-foot (1.83-meter) right-hander had three surgeries on his right foot, one on his right shoulder and one on his right elbow.
   Duckworth, ranked No. 243 after attaining a career-high No. 82 in 2015, earned his seventh main-draw berth in the Australian Open. He reached the second round in Melbourne in 2012, 2013 and 2015.
   Saville won the junior singles title at Wimbledon in 2011 and the Australian Open in 2012, and won this year's Tiburon doubles crown with Hans Hach Verdugo of Mexico. Saville and Hach Verdugo were qualifiers playing in their first tournament together.
   Kimberly Birrell capped her own injury comeback with a 6-4, 6-2 victory over fellow Aussie Astra Sharma to earn her second Grand Slam appearance.
   Birrell, 20, had elbow surgery two years ago and tumbled out of the world's top 1,000. She lost to Modesto product Maria Sanchez in the first round of the inaugural $60,000 Berkeley (Calif.) Challenger in July.
   Sharma played No. 1 singles on the Vanderbilt team that lost to Stanford in the NCAA final in May.
   Whitney Osuigwe, a 16-year-old American who reached the quarterfinals of the $60,000 Stockton (Calif.) Challenger in October, received a reciprocal wild card in the Australian Open.
   Osuigwe (pronounced Oh-SIG-way), who last year became the first American to win the French Open girls singles title since Jennifer Capriati in 1989, will make her second appearance in the women's main draw of a Grand Slam tournament.
   Osuigwe earned a wild card in this year's U.S. Open by winning the national girls 18 title and lost to Italy's Camila Giorgi, ranked 40th at the time and 26th now, 6-4, 6-1 in the first round.
   The Australian Open is scheduled for Jan. 13-27.
   Junior Orange Bowl -- Top-seeded Rudy Quan of Roseville in the Sacramento region blitzed ninth-seeded Thanaphat Boosarawongse of Thailand 6-0, 6-0 in the quarterfinals in the Miami suburb of Coral Gables, Fla.
   Quan has not lost more than three games in a set in his five matches in the clay-court tournament. He also blanked Matthew Yang of Canada in the third round.
   Quan is scheduled to play Croatia's Antonio Voljavec, the third seed who dismissed fifth-seeded Quang Dong of the United States 6-3, 6-3.

Quan reaches boys 12 quarters in Junior Orange Bowl

   For the first time in this year's Junior Orange Bowl, Rudy Quan lost more than two games in a match.
   Still, the Sacramento-area resident had little trouble reaching the boys 12 quarterfinals.
   Quan, seeded first, dispatched qualifier Danial Rakhmatullayev of Kazakhstan 6-3, 6-2 today in Coral Gables, Fla.
   Quan -- who has won gold balls this year in the Winter Nationals, Easter Bowl, Clay Courts and Hard Courts -- lost only four total games in his first three matches in the Junior Orange Bowl. He will meet ninth-seeded Thanaphat Boosarawongse of Thailand.
   Boosarawongse beat unseeded Tianhui Zhang of China 6-4, 6-1.

Quan coasts, but four others fall in Junior Orange Bowl

   Rudy Quan rolled into the round of 16 in the boys 12s today at the Junior Orange Bowl.
   But the other four remaining Northern Californians lost in the third round of their respective age groups in Coral Gables, Fla.
   The top-seeded Quan, from the Sacramento suburb of Roseville, demolished unseeded Matthew Yang of Canada 6-0, 6-0. Quan -- who has won gold balls this year in the Winter Nationals, Easter Bowl, Clay Courts and Hard Courts -- has lost only four games in his three matches.
   Quan will play Danial Rakhmatullayev, a qualifier from Kazakhstan who surprised ninth-seeded Maxwell Exsted of Savage, Minn., 6-3, 7-6 (1).
   Meanwhile, No. 9 seed Jaden Weekes of Canada beat No. 17 seed Herrick Thomas Legaspi of Sacramento 6-3, 6-4 in the boys 14s.
   No. 5 seed Vivian Ovrootsky of San Jose and unseeded Ria Bhakta of Saratoga in the San Francisco Bay Area lost in the girls 14s. No. 17 seed Gracie Epps of Norman, Okla., topped Ovrootsky 4-6, 7-5, 6-1, and No. 2 seed Eleana Yu of Mason, Ohio, eliminated Bhakta 6-1, 6-4.
   In a matchup of unseeded players in the girls 12s, Shanice Roignot of France outplayed Esther Vyrlan of Sacramento 6-3, 6-3.

Bay Area's Bhakta upsets seed in Junior Orange Bowl

   Ria Bhakta of Saratoga in the San Francisco Bay Area surprised 17th-seeded Kateryna Lazarenko of Ukraine 6-1, 6-3 today in the first round of the girls 14s at the Junior Orange Bowl in Coral Gables, Fla.
   Bhakta will meet Mexico's Claudia Sofia Martinez Solis, who defeated Valentina Silva of Brazil 6-3, 6-4 in the 128-player draw.
   Other Northern Californians advancing in singles were:
   --No. 5 seed Vivan Ovrootsky of San Jose and Madison Weekley of Alamo in the girls 14s.
   --No. 17 seed Herrick Thomas Legaspi of Sacramento in the boys 14s.
   --No. 1 seed Rudy Quan of Roseville, No. 5 seed Mitchell Lee of Oakland and Mason Nguyen of El Dorado Hills in the boys 12s.
   --Esther Vyrlan of Sacramento and Alexis Nguyen of El Dorado Hills in the girls 12s.
   No. 17 seed Kurt Miller of Los Gatos lost to Gianluca Ballotta of Peru 6-2, 6-2 in the boys 14s. Also falling was Avery Nguyen of El Dorado Hills in the girls 12s.
   Quan reached the semifinals of the Eddie Herr, his first international tournament, two weeks ago in Bradenton, Fla. He has won gold balls this year in the Winter Nationals, Easter Bowl, Clay Courts and Hard Courts.

Brooksby, 18, loses; NorCal juniors in Herr doubles final

Amateur Jenson (J.T.) Brooksby, practicing in May, lost
 in his first semifinal in a professional tournament. Photo
by Paul Bauman

   Jenson (J.T.) Brooksby, an 18-year-old wild card and amateur from the Sacramento suburb of Carmichael, lost today in his first semifinal in a professional tournament.
   Brooksby, the reigning USTA boys 18 national champion, fell to unseeded Maxime Cressy of France 6-3, 6-4 in the $25,000 Waco (Texas) Futures. Brooksby, who's headed to Texas Christian, stunned top-seeded Michael Redlicki in the second round.
   Cressy, a 6-foot-7 (2.01-meter) senior at UCLA, will meet unseeded Michael Geerts of Belgium in Saturday's final. Geerts, who completed his eligibility at Arizona State in May, dismissed unseeded Jacob Dunbar, a former University of Richmond star from Medina, Ohio, 6-3, 6-3.
   Eddie Herr -- A Northern Californian will win the boys 16 doubles title in the Eddie Herr International Junior Championship in Bradenton, Fla.
   Second-seeded Jack Anthrop of Orlando, Fla., and Max Fardanesh of Albany in the San Francisco Bay Area will play sixth-seeded Hugo Hashimoto of San Jose and Benjamin Kittay of Potomac, Md. Both teams advanced to the final by winning match tiebreakers 10-5.
   In the boys 12 singles semifinals, sixth-seeded Maximus Dussault of Leesburg, Va., edged top-seeded Rudy Quan of Roseville in the Sacramento area 5-7, 6-2 [10-6].
   Quan also lost in the doubles quarterfinals with Andrew Rundle of Simpsonville, S.C. Seeded first, they fell to sixth-seeded Asror Ismoilov of Omaha, Neb., and Atakan Karahan of Turkey 7-6 (3), 2-6 [10-3].

Brooksby reaches USTA boys 18 final; Quan wins 12s

Jenson Brooksby practices at the Arden Hills Athletic and
Social Club in Sacramento in May. Photo by Paul Bauman

   No. 4 seed Jenson Brooksby of Carmichael in the Sacramento area crushed No. 6 Drew Baird of Holly Springs, N.C., 6-1, 6-0 in 45 minutes today in the semifinals of the USTA Boys 18 National Championships in Kalamazoo, Mich.
   Brooksby, 17, has not lost a set in the tournament. He reached the 16s final two years ago.
   Brooksby, who's headed to Texas Christian in the fall of 2019 or in January 2020, will face No. 3 seed Brandon Nakashima of San Diego. The winner will earn a wild card into the U.S. Open men's main draw, and the loser will receive a berth in men's qualifying in Flushing Meadows.
   Nakashima, last year's champion in the 16s, beat No. 26 seed Stefan Dostanic of Irvine in the Los Angeles area 6-2, 4-6, 6-2.
   Brooksby dominated Nakashima 6-2, 6-3 in the Easter Bowl quarterfinals and went on the win the title at Indian Wells in March.
   Meanwhile, No. 1 seed Rudy Quan from the Sacramento suburb of Roseville routed No. 5 Dylan Charlap of Palos Verdes Estates in the Los Angeles region 6-2, 6-1 to win the USTA Boys 12 National Championships in Mobile, Ala.
   Quan lost no more than five games in any of his seven matches. He also won the 12s title in the USTA National Winter Championships in Tucson, Ariz., in January, Easter Bowl and USTA Clay Court Championships in Orlando, Fla., last month.
   In the final of the USTA Girls 16 National Championships in San Diego, No. 3 seed Fiona Crawley of San Antonio defeated No. 4 seed Allura Zamarripa of Saint Helena in the Napa area 6-4, 6-0. Crawley will receive a wild card into the U.S. Open girls tournament next month.
   In the girls 18 doubles semifinals in San Diego, No. 1 seeds Caty McNally of Cincinnati and Whitney Osuigwe of Bradenton, Fla., outclassed No. 4 Katie Volynets of Walnut Creek in the San Francisco Bay Area and Natasha Subhash from the Washington, D.C., suburb of Fairfax, Va., 6-1, 6-2.

Zamarripa, Quan to play for USTA National junior titles

   No. 4 seed Allura Zamarripa of Saint Helena in the Napa area defeated No. 1 Gianna Pielet of El Paso, Texas, 6-4, 7-6 (4) on Friday in the semifinals of the USTA Billie Jean King Girls 16 National Championships in San Diego.

   Zamarripa is scheduled to face No. 3 seed Fiona Crawley of San Antonio today. Crawley outplayed No. 17 Misa Malkin of Tucson, Ariz., 6-2, 6-3 after eliminating Zamarripa's twin, Maribella, 6-2, 6-2 in Thursday's quarterfinals.
   Rudy Quan of Roseville in the Sacramento area also will play for a gold ball. Quan, seeded No. 1, dominated No. 3 Alexander Razeghi of Humble, Texas, 6-3, 6-1 in the boys 12 semifinals in Mobile, Ala.
   Quan will meet No. 5 seed Dylan Charlap of Palos Verdes Estates in the Los Angeles region. Charlap beat No. 2 Andrew Salu of Sarasota, Fla., 6-4, 6-2.
   In the boys 12 doubles final, No. 2 seeds Razeghi and Cooper Woestendick of Olathe, Kan., topped No. 3 Maxwell Exsted of Savage, Minn., and Quan 6-4, 6-3.
   Herrick Thomas Legaspi of Sacramento won the boys 14 doubles crown in Mobile with Nicholas Heng of Madison, Ala. Seeded No. 8, they upended No. 1 Lucas Brown of Plano, Texas, and Aidan Kim of Milford, Mich., 6-2, 7-5.
   Meanwhile, No. 4 seed Jenson Brooksby from the Sacramento suburb of Carmichael defeated No. 25 Jacob Bullard of Calabasas in the Los Angeles area 6-3, 6-1 in the quarterfinals of the USTA Boys 18 National Championships in Kalamazoo, Mich.
   Brooksby, 17, will meet No. 6 seed Drew Baird of Holly Springs, N.C. Baird saved five match points in a 5-7, 7-6 (8), 6-2 victory over No. 9 Kevin Zhu of Houston after beating No. 16 Keenan Mayo of Roseville in the Sacramento region 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 in Thursday's round of 16.

   In the quarterfinals of the USTA Girls 18 National Championships in San Diego, No. 2 seed Whitney Osuigwe of Bradenton, Fla., beat No. 9 Katie Volynets of Walnut Creek in the San Francisco Bay Area 6-2, 6-4. Both players are 16.
   Osuigwe in 2017 became the first American to win the French Open girls singles title in 28 years and ended the year as the top-ranked junior in the world.
   Volynets remains alive in doubles with Natasha Subhash from the Washington, D.C., suburb of Fairfax, Va. Seeded No. 4, they will take on No. 1 Caty McNally of Cincinnati and Osuigwe in the semifinals.

Juniors Zamarripa, Quan win USTA Clay Court titles

   Two Northern California juniors won titles in last week's USTA National Clay Court Championships, and two others reached finals.
   No. 8 seed Allura Zamarripa of Saint Helena in the Napa area beat No. 1 Valencia Xu of Livingston, N.J., 6-4, 6-3 in the girls 16 final in Memphis, Tenn.
   Zamarripa and her twin sister, Maribella, swept the girls 16 doubles titles in the Easter Bowl at Indian Wells, Calif., and the USTA International Spring Championships in Carson, Calif., in consecutive weeks in the spring.
   Meanwhile, No. 1 seed Rudy Quan of Roseville in the Sacramento area routed No. 6 Luca Coriaty of Long Beach, Calif., 6-1, 6-1 in the boys 12 final in Orlando, Fla.
   Quan also won the USTA National Winter Championships in Tucson, Ariz., and the Easter Bowl in the 12s this year.
   Allura Zamarripa is ranked 16th nationally in the 16s in singles, and Quan is No. 1 in the 12s.
   In the boys 14 final in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., No. 3 Nicholas Heng of Madison, Ala., overcame No. 2 John Kim of Sunnyvale in the San Francisco Bay Area 5-7, 6-4, 6-3.
   And in the girls 14 final in Plantation, Fla., unseeded Clervie Ngounoue of Washington, D.C., topped No. 1 Vivian Ovrootsky of San Jose 6-4, 4-6, 6-2.

In all-NorCal final, Quan wins Easter Bowl boys 12s

   In an all-Northern California final, No. 2 seed Rudy Quan of Roseville beat No. 10 Raghav Jangbahadur of Palo Alto 6-1, 6-4 on Thursday to win the boys 12 championship in the Easter Bowl at Indian Wells.
   Quan also won the boys 12 title in the USTA National Winter Championships at Tucson, Ariz., in January.
   Meanwhile, Jenson Brooksby of Carmichael and 15th-seeded Katie Volynets of Walnut Creek advanced to the boys and girls 18 quarterfinals, respectively.
   In the girls 16 quarterfinals, India Houghton of Belvedere Tiburon outlasted Kimberly Hance of Torrance 4-6, 6-3, 6-4.
   Houghton, who ousted top-seeded Gianna Pielet of El Paso, Texas, in the second round, will meet Hibah Shaikh of Teaneck, N.J. Shaikh beat Allura Zamarripa of Saint Helena 6-1, 6-4.
   Fourth-seeded Allura and Maribella Zamarripa downed Makayla Mills of Wilmington, N.C., and Anna Ross of Mt. Pleasant, S.C., 6-4, 6-1 in the doubles quarterfinals.
   In the girls 14 doubles final, No. 3 seeds Ann Guerry and Kate Sharabura, both of Atlanta, beat No. 6 Anushka Khune of Palo Alto and Tomi Main of Seaside 6-2, 7-5.
   No. 4 seeds Zachery Lim of Fairfield and Alex Lin of Gold River edged No. 7 Hunter Heck of Saint Paul, Min., and Maxwell McKennon of Newport Beach 5-7, 6-3 [10-8] in the boys 16 quarterfinals.
   Lim and Lin will take on No. 1 seeds Keshav Chopra of Marietta, Ga., and Coy Simon of Charleston, S.C.

Quan rolls to Winter Nationals title; Nelson falls

   Rudy Quan allowed -- gasp -- four games in a set.
   The resident of Roseville in the Sacramento area then reverted to his dominating ways and won the boys 12 singles title in the USTA National Winter Championships.
   Quan, seeded seventh, beat ninth-seeded Kaylan Bigun of College Park, Md., 6-4, 6-0 today on a hard court in Tucson, Ariz. Quan, ranked 26th nationally in the 12s, surrendered only 13 games in his seven matches and never more than two in a set until the final. In the quarterfinals, Quan crushed top-seeded Nicholas Mangiapane of Davidson, N.C., 6-0, 6-1.
   In the girls 14 final, unseeded Midori Castillo of Bonita in the San Diego region downed seventh-seeded Priya Nelson of Sacramento 6-2, 6-2. Nelson won the Easter Bowl 12s at Indian Wells in March and turned 12 in June.