Tappan, Boyls take Sacramento Clay Court title

   He's the king of clay in Sacramento.
   At least in doubles.
   Mark Tappan of El Dorado Hills on Sunday became the first player in the five-year history of the Sacramento Clay Court League to win two titles.
   Tappan and Jordan Boyls of Sacramento defeated Chris Evers and Dave Hagiwara, both of Folsom, 6-4, 6-4 in Orangevale in the final of the doubles league to split $1,200. Evers and Hagiwara divided $500.
   "We put more balls in play on returns and (converted) more first serves," said the 53-year-old Tappan, who also won the 2008 title with Bobby Reynolds.
   Added Boyls, 33: "When we had to make the return on break point, more times than not, we came away with it."
   Even though the left-handed Evers has the hardest serve of the finalists, he suffered three of the four service breaks in the match.
   "I think we both like the pace," Tappan, who also was broken, said while looking at his partner.
   Boyls agreed about facing Evers' serve.
   "You don't have to do as much with it," he said. "I had a harder time with Dave's serve because I had to move around to hit it."
   Evers, 42, didn't use the slow clay as an excuse.
   "They hit some returns and put pressure on my serve," he said. "My first-serve percentage could have been higher."
   Evers, however, repeatedly came through under pressure. He held from 0-40 for 3-4 in the first set and saved two match points to hold for 4-5 in the second set. Serving for the match, Tappan double-faulted on a third match point before he and Boyls prevailed.    
   In the third-place contest, Bryan Paveglio and Mike Smith outlasted Dan Becker and John Spoerl 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 to split $300.
   Sanchez, Schnack fall in doubles final -- The unseeded Northern California team of Maria Sanchez and Yasmin Schnack lost to fourth-seeded Jamie Hampton of Auburn, Ala., and Ajla Tomljanovic of Croatia 3-6, 6-3, 10-6 in the doubles final of the $75,000 Goldwater Women's Tennis Classic in Phoenix.
   Sanchez, from Modesto, and Schnack, who resides in the Sacramento suburb of Elk Grove, were seeking their second title of the year. They won at Redding, Calif., in September.
   Sesil Karatantcheva, a Bulgaria native who plays for Kazakhstan, defeated Michelle Larcher De Brito, a former Sacramento Capital from Portugal, 6-1, 7-5 for the singles crown.
   Four years ago at 14, Larcher De Brito helped the Capitals win the World TeamTennis title.
   Karatantcheva, 22, reached the 2005 French Open quarterfinals at 15 and ended that year at a career-high No. 35. The following January, however, she was suspended for two years after testing positive twice for nandrolone.
   With her Phoenix title, Karatantcheva rose 37 spots in the world rankings to No. 138.
   NorCal karma -- Three of the five singles champions on the men's Challenger circuit last week have reached Northern California finals.
   Germany's Tobias Kamke, the titlist at Tiburon last year, prevailed on hardcourt in Loughborough, England. Former Sacramento Challenger runners-up Jesse Levine (2009) and Rajeev Ram (2006) triumphed on hardcourt in Knoxville, Tenn., and on carpet in Ortisei, Italy, respectively.
   In the past two weeks, Ram was won two Challenger titles, and Levine has captured one and reached the final as a qualifier in another.
   Former Knoxville doubles champions include Dmitry Tursunov (2002 with now-retired Martin Verkerk of the Netherlands) and Sam Warburg (2007 with Harel Levy of Israel).
   Tursunov, a Moscow native, lives in the Sacramento suburb of Folsom. Warburg, a former Stanford star from Sacramento, retired in 2009. He lives in San Francisco and works for a venture capital firm in Palo Alto.

Wang's weird background, etc.

   Of all the players in the recent $15,000 Futures tournaments in Sacramento and Chico, Jimmy Wang almost certainly has the weirdest background.

   A 26-year-old Taiwanese veteran born in Saudi Arabia and given an American nickname, Wang reached a career-high No. 85 in the world in 2006 before missing three years because of two operations on his right (playing) wrist.

   Wang’s mother worked as a physician in Saudi Arabia, but the family moved back to Taiwan when Jimmy was 3 months old. His nickname has nothing to do with Jimmy Connors. When Wang was 8, an English teacher dubbed him Jimmy. His given name is Yeu-Tzuoo.

   Ten years ago in the juniors, Wang reached the Australian Open and U.S. Open finals and the Wimbledon semifinals to ascend to No. 3 in the world. After graduating to the men’s tour, he advanced to the second round in three Grand Slam tournaments (the Australian Open in 2006 and Wimbledon in 2006 and 2007).

   But then Wang sat out from November 2007 to November last year while undergoing surgery for a torn ligament and then a bone spur. When asked how he hurt his wrist, Wang said, “I wish I knew.”

   After dropping out of the rankings, Wang has soared from No. 1,009 to No. 491 since his return. He reached the singles semifinals of the Park Terrace Pro Tennis tournament in Sacramento and teamed with his coach, Vahe Assadourian of the Gorin Tennis Academy in Granite Bay, to win the doubles title of the Balbutin’s Chico Pharmacy Tennis Classic.

   “It’s good to be back,” Wang said. “I don’t know how to describe (how much I missed tennis). Every day I followed tennis. I grew up in tennis. My whole family played. It’s what I’m used to.”

   He’s changing his game to Wang 2.0, though.

   “I’m more aggressive,” he said. “I’m changing the technique on my serve and forehand and the way I move. I’m sick of the old way. I’m updating myself.”

   Oh, brother – France’s Antoine Benneteau, a singles semifinalist in the Park Terrace tournament, is the younger brother of Julien Benneteau, ranked 106^th in the world after climbing to a career-high No. 32 last July.

   Christian Harrison, a 17-year-old resident of Bradenton, Fla, who lost in the first round of Park Terrace, is the brother of Ryan Harrison, ranked No. 101 in the world at 19 years old.

   Oh, Canada – Growing up in Vancouver, British Columbia, Philip Bester played tennis instead of hockey.

   “But sometimes I think to myself that in my future life, I would really love to be a hockey player,” the 22-year-old Chico singles champion said. “I’m a huge hockey fan.”

   Bester’s beloved Vancouver Canucks recently lost to the visiting Boston Bruins in the deciding seventh game of the Stanley Cup Finals.

   “It was very disappointing, more so what a small group of people did afterward with all the rioting downtown, but it was a very entertaining season that the Canucks put up,” said Bester, who attended Games 1 and 2 in Vancouver. “We’ll get (the Stanley Cup) next year.”

   Learning self-reliance – Sometimes, it’s better not to have a coach.

   “Last year, I was without a coach, and I felt that helped me the most,” Bester said. “I was just figuring out things on my own and not having somebody else tell me.”

  The 229^th-ranked Bester, however, resumed working with Jon Sorbo of Toronto at the beginning of this year.

   Wish you were here – Florida apparently agrees with Granite Bay resident Artem Ilyushin and former Sacramento State star Kiryl Harbatsiuk.
   Ilyushin, a native of Vladivostok, Russia, who recently completed his junior year at Mississippi State, reached his first Futures final Saturday. Unseeded, he fell to eighth-seeded Rhyne Williams, the runner-up in the NCAA championships at Stanford in May as a Tennessee sophomore, 4-6, 6-2, 7-5 Sunday in the $10,000 PressEx Print Open in Innisbrook, Fla.
   In doubles, Ilyushin advanced to the final of last week's $10,000 MIMA Foundation Pro Tennis Classic in Indian Harbour Beach, Fla., and the semifinals in Innisbrook.
   Harbatsiuk -- a native of Minsk, Belarus, playing in his third tournament as a professional -- reached the singles semifinals in Indian Harbour Beach. He beat Ilyushin 6-3, 6-3 in the quarterfinals before falling to top seed and eventual champion Jesse Levine by the same score.