Garcia, Livingston take Sacramento Clay Court title

(Left to right) substitutes Justin Garcia and Whit Livingston sit on the California
Dream bench with coach David Macpherson and players Tennys Sandgren and
Neal Skupski during a World TeamTennis match in the Sacramento suburb of
Citrus Heights in July. Photo by Paul Bauman

   Justin Garcia and Whit Livingston defeated Eric Roberson and Yasmin Schnack 6-4, 6-2 after a five-hour rain delay on Sunday to win the Open Division of the ninth annual Sacramento Clay Court League.
   Garcia and the 32-year-old Livingston -- who played at UC Davis and USC, respectively -- split $1,000. They played on opposing teams in last year's final as Garcia and Jeff Shin beat Scott Colby and Livingston 6-4, 6-4.
   Roberson and Schnack, who lost together in the first round of mixed doubles in the 2013 U.S. Open, shared $500. Schnack, 27, helped UCLA win the NCAA title as a sophomore in 2008 and was named the Pacific-12 Conference Player of the Year in 2010. Roberson, 29, played at Boise State.
   Earlier Sunday, Bryan Paveglio and Chris Potthast beat Chris Evers and Dave Hagiwara 6-4, 6-4 for the 40-and-over title. Paveglio and Potthast divided $500, and Evers and Hagiwara split $250.
   Laura McGaffigan and Bella Norton won the 9.0 division to collect $100 each.
   The matches were played at the Orangevale home of Ben Combs, a former owner of the now-defunct Sacramento Capitals in World TeamTennis. He owns one of the few clay courts in the Sacramento area.

Schnack, Roberson to play for Clay Court doubles title

Eric Roberson and Yasmin Schnack pose after win-
ning the mixed doubles title in the 2013 Sacramento
Clay Court League. Earlier that year, they teamed
in the U.S. Open. Photo by Paul Bauman

   Yasmin Schnack and Eric Roberson, who played mixed doubles together in the 2013 U.S. Open, will meet Whit Livingston and Justin Garcia today in the Open Division final in the Sacramento Clay Court League.
   The match is scheduled for 1 p.m. at Ben Combs' house (8582 Westin Lane) in Orangevale. The champions will split $1,000 and the runners-up $500.
   Schnack and Roberson won a national playoff in 2013 to earn an automatic wild card in the U.S. Open. They fell in the first round to Slovakians Janette Husarova and Filip Polasek 6-4, 7-6 (3).
   Later that year, Schnack and Roberson took the mixed doubles title in the Sacramento Clay Court League.
   Play begins at 9 a.m. today with the 9.0 final. Kurt Chan and Anton Talle will face Laura McGaffigan and Bella Norton for the total first prize of $200. The second-place team will share $100.
   In the 40-and-over final at 11 a.m., Bryan Paveglio and Chris Potthast will take on Chris Evers and Dave Hagiwara. The champs will divide $500 and the runners-up $250.
   Admission and lunch, provided by Dickie's BBQ, are free. Proceeds from the tip jar will benefit the Sacramento Junior Tennis Fund.

Roberson stars in Sacramento Clay Court finals

Eric Roberson, left, and Darrin Cohen won the
open division in the Sacramento Clay Court
League. Photos by Paul Bauman

   ORANGEVALE, Calif. -- Eric Roberson won two titles Sunday in the Sacramento Clay Court League.

   Top-seeded Roberson and Darrin Cohen held off third-seeded Jeff Shin and Justin Garcia 7-6 (5), 7-6 (0) in the open division of the doubles-only tournament at Ben and Mary Combs’ house.

   Roberson, a 27-year-old former Boise State player from Sacramento, and Cohen, a 30-year-old ex-Virginia star from Walnut Creek in the San Francisco Bay Area, split $800.

   Earlier, top-seeded Roberson and Yasmin Schnack, mixed doubles partners in this year’s U.S. Open, overwhelmed second-seeded Isabella Kling-Norton and Chris Gerety 6-0, 6-3 to share the $400 first prize.

   In the only other division, fourth-seeded Bryan Paveglio and Steve Scurfield outplayed second-seeded Dave Hagiwara and Chris Evers 6-3, 6-1 to divide $1,000 for the 40-and-over crown.

   Roberson and Schnack, a 25-year-old resident of Elk Grove in the Sacramento area, won a national playoff over the summer to earn an automatic wild card in the U.S. Open. They fell to Slovakians Janette Husarova and Filip Polasek 6-4, 7-6 (3) in the first round in Flushing Meadows, N.Y.

   Husarova, 39, has been ranked as high as third in the world in women’s doubles and Polasek, 28, as high as No. 20 in men’s doubles.
   Schnack, the 2010 Pacific-10 Conference Women's Player of the Year at UCLA, plans to start nursing school in January after all rather than return to the professional tour.
   The Sacramento tournament featured all the trappings of a major event but in a relaxed atmosphere in the beautiful back yard of the Combs' 3,800-square-foot California Spanish-style house.
   The top recreational players in the area displayed outstanding shotmaking, including "tweeners" and sharply angled backspin volleys, and quick reflexes. All received T-shirts and gift bags.
   A USTA chair umpire and ballboys and ballgirls from the tennis teams at nearby Sierra College worked the finals. Sponsors' banners lined one side of the court, and VIP seating was provided on the other.
   About 85 fans  – including former Sacramento Capitals owners Ben Combs, Ramey Osborne and Lonnie Nielson – attended the finals free of charge and enjoyed a complimentary barbecue lunch cooked by Kenny Vowell.
   Some spectators lobbed good-natured barbs at the players during play. When Roberson served for the match in the open final, one fan yelled, "C'mon, Robo, we want to see three sets. Double-fault or something."
   Ben Combs, equipped with a microphone, presented the prize money after each final. 

   And, of course, all the details of the league can be found at www.sacramentoclaycourtleague.com. 

   It's a first-class operation all the way.

Roberson and Yasmin Schnack, mixed doubles
partners in this year's U.S. Open, coasted in the
Sacramento final.

Steve Scurfield, left, and Bryan Paveglio
split $1,000 for winning the 40-and-over
division.

Former owners of the Sacramento Capitals in World TeamTennis
(left to right)  Ben Combs, Ramey Osborne and Lonnie Nielson
attended the finals. Combs hosted the league at the clay
court in his back yard.

Sacramento-area team falls in U.S. Open mixed doubles

Sacramento-area wild cards Eric Roberson and Yasmin Schnack lost
to Slovakians Janette Husarova and Filip Polasek. Photo courtesy of USTA.

   Yasmin Schnack and Eric Roberson went down fighting.
   The wild cards from the Sacramento area lost to the far more accomplished Slovakian team of Janette Husarova and Filip Polasek 6-4, 7-6 (3) Friday in the first round of mixed doubles at the U.S. Open in Flushing Meadows, N.Y.
   Schnack, a 25-year-old Elk Grove resident, and Roberson, 27, of Sacramento earned a spot in the draw by winning the U.S. Open National Playoffs in New Haven, Conn., last week.

   Schnack appeared in a Grand Slam adult tournament for the second time and Roberson for the first. Schnack and her best friend, Vania King, lost in the first round of women's doubles at Wimbledon last year to eighth-seeded Iveta Benesova and Barbora Zahlavova Strycova of the Czech Republic.
   King won the Wimbledon and U.S. Open women's doubles titles in 2010 with Yaroslava Shvedova.
   Schnack helped UCLA win the NCAA team title in 2008, graduated in sociology in 2010 and reached a career-high No. 140 in the world in women's doubles in June 2012. However, she retired last September and plans to begin nursing school in the fall. Her father, William, is a retired physician.
   Roberson earned all-conference honors at Boise State (2004-08).
   Husarova, 39, reached the women's doubles final of the 2002 U.S. Open with Elena Dementieva of Russia and climbed to a career-high No. 3 in that category in 2003.
   Polasek, 28, has been ranked as high as No. 20 in men's doubles (January 2012). He advanced to the men's doubles quarterfinals of last year's U.S. Open with Julian Knowle of Austria.
   Meanwhile, top-seeded Bob and Mike Bryan coasted past Eric Butorac and Frederik Nielsen 6-3, 6-2 Friday in the second round of men's doubles at the U.S. Open.
   The 35-year-old Bryan twins, who starred at Stanford, are trying to become the second team in history to win a calendar-year Grand Slam. Australians Ken McGregor and Frank Sedgman accomplished the feat 62 years ago.
   Three of the four players in Friday's match have won Wimbledon men's doubles titles. The Bryans triumphed in 2006, 2011 and this year. Nielsen, a 30-year-old Dane, and Jonathan Marray of Great Britain last year became the first wild cards to take the crown. Nielsen's grandfather Kurt was the Wimbledon singles runner-up in 1953 and 1955.
   Butorac, a 32-year-old left-hander from Rochester, Minn., won the men's doubles title in the 2007 SAP Open in San Jose with Jamie Murray, Andy's older brother, and played for the Sacramento Capitals of World TeamTennis in 2008.     

Sacramento-area pair to play U.S. Open mixed doubles

The Sacramento-area team of Yasmin Schnack,
above, and Eric Roberson earned a berth in the
main draw of mixed doubles at the U.S. Open.
Photo by Paul Bauman

   Yasmin Schnack and Eric Roberson succeeded this time.
   The Sacramento-area pair defeated Stephanie Wetmore and Matthew Brooklyn, both of Washington, D.C., 6-1, 6-4 Saturday to win the mixed doubles title in the U.S. Open National Playoffs at New Haven, Conn.
   Schnack, from Elk Grove in the Sacramento area, and Roberson of Sacramento earned an automatic berth in the U.S. Open mixed doubles main draw, which begins Wednesday in Flushing Meadows, N.Y.
   They reached the mixed doubles final in the inaugural national playoffs in 2011, falling in a super tiebreaker to Christina Fusano and David Martin.
   Fusano, a Sacramento native, won the 2003 NCAA women's doubles title with Cal teammate Raquel Kops-Jones, now ranked 13th in the world in that event.
   Martin reached the 2002 NCAA men's doubles final with Stanford teammate Scott Lipsky, now ranked 26th in that category.
   The 25-year-old Schnack will appear in the main draw of a Grand Slam adult tournament for the second time and Roberson, 27, for the first.
   Schnack and her best friend, Vania King, lost in the first round of women's doubles at Wimbledon last year to eighth-seeded Iveta Benesova and Barbora Zahlavova Strycova of the Czech Republic.
   King won the Wimbledon and U.S. Open women's doubles titles in 2010 with Yaroslava Shvedova.
   Schnack helped UCLA win the NCAA team title in 2008, graduated in sociology in 2010 and reached a career-high No. 140 in the world in women's doubles in June 2012. However, she retired last September and plans to begin nursing school in the fall. Her father, William, is a retired physician.
   Roberson earned all-conference honors at Boise State (2004-08).

American Brengle suffers agonizing loss

Madison Brengle, 23, has tried to qualify for the
U.S. Open for nine straight years and come up
short each time. She's getting closer, though.
Photo by Paul Bauman

   Even though Madison Brengle is only 23, she has tried and failed to qualify for the U.S. Open eight times.
   The only exception was 2007, when she received a wild card in the main draw and lost in the first round.
   Brengle, the runner-up in last month's $50,000 FSP Gold River Women's Challenger in the Sacramento area, came within one set of qualifying Friday before losing to 25th-seeded Ying-Ying Duan of China 6-7 (3), 6-1, 6-2 at Flushing Meadows, N.Y.
   It was the first time the 5-foot-4 (1.63) Brengle, ranked No. 185 in the world, has reached the third round of qualifying for the U.S. Open. The Dover, Del., native had lost in the first round for four consecutive years.
   Taylor Townsend of the Sacramento Capitals in World TeamTennis also lost Friday in the final round of qualifying for the U.S. Open. The 17-year-old Chicago native, who trains in Boca Raton, Fla., fell to Chanel Simmonds of South Africa 6-2, 2-6, 7-5.
   The 5-foot-3 (1.6-meter) Simmonds, a 21-year-old left-hander, was seeded second in the Gold River Challenger but lost to 32-year-old Alexandra Stevenson 6-2, 6-0 in the first round. Stevenson, the daughter of basketball legend Julius Erving, in 1999 became the first female qualifier to reach the Wimbledon semifinals.
   U.S. Open National Playoffs -- Eric Roberson of Sacramento and Yasmin Schnack of Elk Grove in the Sacramento area will play today for a berth in the mixed doubles main draw at the U.S. Open.
   Roberson, who played at Boise State, and Schnack, who helped UCLA win the 2008 NCAA title, handled Kaitlyn Christian of Orange and Dante Cipulli of Murietta 6-2, 6-2 in the semifinals at New Haven, Conn.
   Christian won the NCAA women's doubles title with USC teammate Sabrina Santamaria in May.
   Roberson and Schnack will play Matthew Brooklyn and Stephanie Wetmore, both of Washington, D.C., in today's final.
   Brooklyn and Wetmore edged Matija Pecotic of Malta and Lindsay Graff of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., 6-4, 6-7 (5), 11-9 in the semifinals. Malta is a small nation south of Sicily in the Mediterranean Sea. 
    Roberson and Schnack reached the final of the inaugural mixed doubles national playoffs in 2011, falling in a super tiebreaker to Christina Fusano and David Martin. Fusano, a Sacramento native, starred at Cal and Martin at Stanford.      

Querrey, Tursunov seeded in U.S. Open

Sam Querrey, a San Francisco native and part-time
member of the Sacramento Capitals for the past
two seasons, is seeded 26th in the U.S. Open.
2012 photo by Paul Bauman

   Two players with Northern California ties have received singles seedings in the U.S. Open.
   Sam Querrey, a San Francisco native and part-time member of the Sacramento Capitals in World TeamTennis for the past two seasons, is No. 26. Dmitry Tursunov, a Russian who trains in the Sacramento suburb of Granite Bay, is No. 32 and last.
  The men's and women's seedings were announced Monday and today, respectively. The year's last Grand Slam tournament is scheduled for this coming Monday through Sept. 9 in Flushing Meadows, N.Y.
  The 6-foot-6 (1.98-meter) Querrey, 25, reached the fourth round of the U.S. Open in 2008 and 2010, tying his best Grand Slam result.
   Cracking the seedings was key for Tursunov, ranked 35th, because he can't face a seed before the third round. The 30-year-old Moscow native has fought back from repeated injuries after reaching a career-high No. 20 in 2006.  
   Tursunov has not won a match in the U.S. Open in five years, losing in the first round in 2009, 2010 and 2011 and retiring from his third-round qualifying match last year with an injury. He reached the third round in 2003, 2006 and 2008 for his best results in Flushing Meadows.

Dmitry Tursunov, middle, squeaked into the U.S. Open seedings at No. 32. He is
shown with fellow players Mischa Zverev, left, and Igor Andreev. All three are
Moscow natives, although Tursunov trains in the Sacramento area and Zverev
plays for Germany. 2012 photo by Paul Bauman

   Novak Djokovic is seeded first, and defending champion Andy Murray is third. Five-time champion Roger Federer, last year’s top seed, is seeded seventh. It's his lowest seeding at the U.S. Open since 2002, when he was No. 13.
   Querrey is one of two seeded American men. John Isner is No. 13. The 6-foot-10 (2.08-meter) veteran jumped from No. 22 in the rankings to No. 14 after reaching the Cincinnati final last week. It was the first time in the 40-year history of the men's rankings that no American had appeared in the top 20. 
   Serena Williams, the defending champion and top women's seed, seeks her fifth U.S. Open and 17th Grand Slam singles title.
   Two young Americans are seeded in the U.S. Open for the first time. Sloane Stephens, 20, is No. 16, and Jamie Hampton, 23, is No. 24. Hampton is seeded in a Grand Slam tournament for the first time.
   See below for the full men's and women's seedings.
   U.S. Open qualifying -- Mackenzie McDonald faced a tall task on Tuesday.
   The 18-year-old wild card from Piedmont in the San Francisco Bay area lost to second-seeded Ivo Karlovic, 6-foot-10 (2.08 meters), 6-3, 6-4 today in the first round of qualifying for the U.S. Open.
   McDonald last week became the first unranked teenager to qualify for an ATP Masters 1000 tournament, the highest level other than the Grand Slams. He lost to David Goffin 6-1, 6-1 in the first round at Cincinnati.
   U.S. Open National Playoffs -- Mayo Hibi, the 17-year-old champion of last month's $50,000 FSP Gold River Women's Challenger in the Sacramento area, won the women's title in the U.S. Open National Playoffs to earn a wild card in the qualifying event.
   Hibi, a longtime Irvine resident who plays for her native Japan, defeated No. 2 seed Nicole Melichar 6-1, 4-6, 6-3 in Monday's final in New Haven, Conn. Jeff Dadamo, the runner-up in last year's $15,000 Futures tournament in Sacramento, beat unseeded Matija Pecotic 6-4, 6-4 in New Haven for the men's title.
   Hibi will face American wild card Allie Kiick, the 18-year-old daughter of former Miami Dolphins running  back Jim Kiick, on Wednesday in the first round of qualifying for the U.S. Open. Dadamo will take on Guillermo Olaso of Spain.
   Eric Roberson of Sacramento and Yasmin Schnack of Elk Grove in the Sacramento area will represent Northern California in the mixed doubles national playoffs, Wednesday through Saturday in New Haven. The champions will receive a berth in the main draw of mixed doubles at the U.S. Open.
   Roberson and Schnack reached the final of the inaugural playoffs in 2011, falling in a super tiebreaker to Christina Fusano and David Martin. Fusano, a Sacramento native, starred at Cal and Martin at Stanford.

U.S. OPEN SEEDS

Men

1. Novak Djokovic, Serbia
2. Rafael Nadal, Spain
3. Andy Murray, Great Britain
4. David Ferrer, Spain
5. Tomas Berdych, Czech Republic
6. Juan Martin del Potro, Argentina
7. Roger Federer, Switzerland
8. Richard Gasquet, France
9. Stanislas Wawrinka, Switzerland
10. Milos Raonic, Canada
11. Kei Nishikori, Japan
12. Tommy Haas, Germany
13. John Isner, United States
14. Jerzy Janowicz, Poland
15. Nicolas Almagro, Spain
16. Fabio Fognini, Italy
17. Kevin Anderson, South Africa
18. Janko Tipsarevic, Serbia
19. Tommy Robredo, Spain
20. Andreas Seppi, Italy
21. Mikhail Youzhny, Russia
22. Philipp Kohlschreiber, Germany
23. Feliciano Lopez, Spain
24. Benoit Paire, France
25. Grigor Dimitrov, Bulgaria
26. Sam Querrey, United States
27. Fernando Verdasco, Spain
28. Juan Monaco, Argentina
29. Jurgen Melzer, Austria
30. Ernests Gulbis, Latvia
31. Julien Benneteau, France
32. Dmitry Tursunov, Russia

Women

1. Serena Williams, United States
2. Victoria Azarenka, Belarus
3. Maria Sharapova, Russia
4. Agnieszka Radwanska, Poland
5. Sara Errani, Italy
6. Li Na, China
7. Caroline Wozniacki, Denmark
8. Petra Kvitova, Czech Republic
9. Angelique Kerber, Germany
10. Jelena Jankovic, Serbia
11. Roberta Vinci, Italy
12. Samantha Stosur, Australia
13. Kirsten Flipkens, Belgium
14. Ana Ivanovic, Serbia
15. Maria Kirilenko, Russia
16. Sloane Stephens, United States
17. Sabine Lisicki, Germany
18. Dominika Cibulkova, Slovak Republic
19. Carla Suarez Navarro, Spain
20. Sorana Cirstea, Romania
21. Nadia Petrova, Russia
22. Simona Halep, Romania
23. Elena Vesnina, Russia
24. Jamie Hampton, United States
25. Ekaterina Makarova, Russia
26. Kaia Kanepi, Estonia
27. Alize Cornet, France
28. Svetlana Kuznetsova, Russia
29. Mona Barthel, Germany
30. Magdalena Rybarikova, Slovak Republic
31. Laura Robson, Great Britain
32. Klara Zakopalova, Czech Republic

Four former top-20 players to play in Sacramento

   Officially, it's the Rely Aid Natomas Racquet Club Challenger.
   Perhaps a better name would be the Comeback Classic.
   Four former top-20 players trying to work their way back up the rankings after major injuries are entered in the $100,000 tourmament that starts Monday in Sacramento. They consist of the top three seeds -- No. 1 James Blake, No. 2 Ivo Karlovic and No. 3 Sam Querrey -- and unseeded Fernando Gonzalez. Querrey and Gonzalez accepted wild cards.
   Blake, ranked a career-high No. 4 in 2006, missed most of the clay-court season last year because of a knee injury and plunged to No. 173 in March. The 31-year-old resident of Tampa, Fla., has fought his way back to No. 74.
   The 6-foot-10 Karlovic, who reached No. 14 in 2008, has followed a similar path. The 32-year-old Croatian missed the last six months of 2010 with an Achilles' injury and plummeted to No. 239 in March. He has climbed back to No. 77.
    Querrey, ranked a career-high No. 17 in January, missed three months this summer after operations for bone spurs in his elbow and an umbilical infection. The San Francisco native, who turns 24 on Friday, has fallen to No. 119.
   Gonzalez, who reached the 2007 Australian Open final to attain a career-high ranking of No. 5, underwent hip surgery last October. The 31-year-old Chilean has dropped to No. 300.
    Natomas qualifying -- The top two seeds lost in the first round of Natomas qualifying Saturday.
   No. 1 Raven Klaasen of South Africa fell to Steve Johnson of Orange 6-1, 6-2. Johnson is coming off two consecutive titles in $10,000 tournaments in Southern California. The reigning NCAA singles champion from USC plans to return for his senior season and a shot at four NCAA team championships.
   No. 2 Alejandro Gonzalez of Colombia lost to Michael Venus of New Zealand 6-4, 6-2. Venus won a $15,000 tournament in Loomis, near Sacramento, last year.
   Former Sacramento State star Kiryl Harbatsiuk of Belarus beat his doubles partner, Boris Nicola Bakalov of Bulgaria, 2-6, 6-2, 6-1. In a matchup of Sacramento-area wild cards, junior player Brandon Sutter defeated Eric Roberson 6-3, 6-2.
   ATP World Tour in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia -- Second-seeded Eric Butorac of Rochester, Minn., and Jean-Julien Rojer of Netherlands Antilles edged fourth-seeded Scott Lipsky of Huntington Beach and Rajeev Ram of Carmel, Ind., 6-3, 6-7 (5), 10-6 in the doubles semifinals of the $850,000 Malaysian Open.
   Lipsky won the doubles title in the inaugural Sacramento Challenger in 2005 with former Stanford teammate David Martin. Ram reached the Sacramento singles final in 2006 and doubles final (with John Isner) in 2008.

Fusano earns U.S. Open mixed doubles berth

   Christina Fusano is on her way to the U.S. Open.
   The Sacramento native teamed with David Martin of Tulsa, Okla., to beat Yasmin Schnack of Elk Grove and Eric Roberson of Sacramento 2-6, 6-1, 10-5 tiebreak Saturday in the U.S. Open National Playoffs mixed doubles final at New Haven, Conn.
   The victory gave Fusano and Martin a wild card into the mixed doubles main draw of the U.S. Open. The year's final Grand Slam tournament is scheduled to begin Monday, with mixed doubles starting Wednesday.
   Fusano and Martin, who emerged from a field of almost 200 teams in the inaugural U.S. Open National Playoffs in mixed doubles, have several similarities.
   Both are 30. Both are former All-Americans at Bay Area colleges, Fusano at Cal and Martin at Stanford. Both have starred in doubles on the USTA Pro Circuit, Martin winning 20 titles and Fusano 11.
   And both reached their career-high world rankings in doubles in 2008, Martin at No. 38 and Fusano at No. 84. Currently, Martin is No. 103 and Fusano No. 174.
   However, Fusano is right-handed and Martin left-handed, which only adds to their effectiveness as a doubles team.
   Martin has competed in men's doubles in all Grand Slam tournaments, reaching the round of 16 at Wimbledon in 2007 as a qualifier with former Stanford teammate Scott Lipsky, but never in mixed doubles. Fusano has played women's doubles in two Grand Slam tournaments, losing in the first round of the U.S. Open in 2003 and 2008.
   Fusano and Schnack, meanwhile, are part-time doubles partners on the USTA Pro Circuit. They won the $25,000 USTA Challenger of Redding last September in Schnack's professional debut.
     

Sacramento-area residents eye U.S. Open berth

   Today's mixed doubles final in the U.S. Open National Playoffs will have a strong Sacramento-area flavor.
   Top-seeded Christina Fusano, a Sacramento native who lives in nearby Plymouth, and David Martin, a former Stanford All-American from Tulsa, Okla., will play unseeded Yasmin Schnack of Elk Grove and Eric Roberson of Sacramento in New Haven, Conn., for a berth in the mixed doubles main draw of the U.S. Open.
   Fusano and Martin demolished Brook Connelly of Yukon, Okla., and Dave Mullins of Norman, Okla., 6-1, 6-1 in Friday's semifinals, and Schnack and Roberson eliminated Amanda Rodgers of Bradenton, Fla., and Ellis Ferreira of South Africa 6-2, 7-6 (3).
   Fusano, a 30-year-old veteran and former NCAA doubles champion from Cal, and Schnack, a 23-year-old ex-UCLA star, are part-time doubles partners on the USTA Pro Circuit. They won the title in the $25,000 USTA Challenger of Redding last September.
    U.S. Open singles qualifying -- Stanford senior Bradley Klahn, last year's NCAA men's singles champion, lost to Canadian veteran Frank Dancevic 3-6, 6-1, 6-3 in the final round of qualifying at the U.S. Open in Flushing Meadows, N.Y.
   ATP World Tour doubles -- Former Stanford All-American Scott Lipsky of Huntington Beach and Colin Fleming of Great Britain lost to Jonathan Erlich and Andy Ram of Israel 6-4, 6-4 in the doubles semifinals of the $553,125 Winston-Salem (N.C.) Open.
   Lipsky and Martin reached the NCAA doubles final in 2002, losing to Andrew Colombo and Mark Kovacs of Auburn. Erlich and Ram won the 2008 Australian Open for their only career Grand Slam men's doubles title.  

Tursunov to meet familiar face in U.S. Open

   Dmitry Tursunov won't have to wait long for a chance at revenge.
   The Folsom resident, ranked 44th in the world, drew Belgium's Steve Darcis, ranked No. 102, on Thursday in the U.S. Open. Tursunov lost to Darcis 3-6, 6-1, 6-3 Tuesday in the second round of the Winston-Salem (N.C.) Open to even their career head-to-head record at 1-1.
   The winner of the Tursunov-Darcis match in the U.S. Open, which begins Monday in Flushing Meadows, N.Y., could play 24th-seeded Juan Ignacio Chela of Argentina in the second round. Tursunov is 0-2 lifetime against Chela.
   Tursunov has lost in the first round of the last two U.S. Opens. That he even played in them was a considerable achievement, considering that he underwent three operations on his left ankle or foot between April 2009 and February 2010.
   In fact, when Tursunov reached the second round at Wimbledon in June, he ended a streak of nine consecutive first-round singles losses in Grand Slam tournaments dating to the 2009 Australian Open. He had been on a string of three straight third-round showings.
  Tursunov, 28, will be playing in his ninth consecutive U.S. Open since debuting in 2003. His best results are third-round appearances in 2003, 2006 and 2008.
   Meanwhile, Vania King of the Sacramento Capitals will face Greta Arn of Hungary in the U.S. Open. The 5-foot-5 King, ranked No. 105 in singles, and the 5-11 Arn, ranked No. 62, have never met.
   The winner could play 29th-seeded Jarmila Gajdosova of Australia in the second round, and top-seeded Caroline Wozniacki looms in the third round. King is 0-1 against Gajdosova and 0-2 vs. Wozniacki.
   King, 22, will be playing in her seventh consecutive U.S. Open since debuting in 2005. Her best showing in singles was the third round in 2009. She will defend her doubles title with Yaroslava Shvedova.
   U.S. Open qualifying -- Stanford senior Bradley Klahn, last year's NCAA singles champion, defeated 14th-seeded Matthew Ebden of Australia 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-3 in the second round of qualifying at the U.S. Open.
   Klahn will meet unseeded Canadian veteran Frank Dancevic, ranked No. 183 after reaching a career-high No. 65 in 2007, today for a berth in the main draw.
   U.S. Open mixed doubles playoffs -- Sacramento-area players Christina Fusano, seeded first with former Stanford All-American David Martin of Tulsa, Okla., and Yasmin Schnack, unseeded with Sacramento's Eric Roberson, advanced to the semifinals of the U.S. Open National Playoffs in mixed doubles at New Haven, Conn.
   Fusano and Martin coasted to a 6-2, 6-3 victory over Marie-Eve Pelletier of Canada and Aleksander Vlaski of Serbia, while Schnack and Roberson eked out a 6-4, 6-7 (6), 12-10 tiebreak win over Imke Reimers of Minneapolis and Erik Donley of Duluth, Minn.
   The winner of the tournament will earn a wild card in the mixed doubles main draw of the U.S. Open.