Harris stuns Thiem in Dubai; lucky loser outs Stephens

Lloyd Harris, who starred in Northern California Challengers in 2018,
 recorded his first victory over a top-five player. 2018 photo by Paul Bauman

   Qualifier Lloyd Harris of South Africa shocked top-seeded Dominic "Home" Thiem, the reigning U.S. Open champion, 6-3, 6-4 today in the second round of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, an ATP 500 tournament in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

   The 6-foot-4 (1.93-meter) Harris won 29 of 30 points on his first serve and did not face a break point against the fourth-ranked Thiem.

   Harris, who won the $100,000 Stockton Challenger and reached the final of the $100,000 Aptos Challenger in Northern California in 2018, recorded his first victory against a top-five player.

   "I'm super, super happy with that win," the 24-year-old Harris, who claimed his first top-20 win against Stan "The Man" Wawrinka, then No. 20, in the first round last week in Doha, Qatar, said in an on-court interview. "(He is) by far the highest-ranked player I have beaten. I look up to Domi a lot, so, for me, it is a special feeling. I am really happy. Just the fact that I am playing good tennis, match in, match out is giving me a lot of confidence."

   Harris, ranked No. 81, is scheduled to play 14th-seeded "Prince" Filip Krajinovic, ranked No. 33, of Serbia on Wednesday for a quarterfinal berth. 

   WTA Tour in Monterrey, Mexico — Sloane "Ranger" Stephens' woes continued with a 6-2, 6-2 loss to Slovakia's Kristina "Aguilera" Kucova, a lucky loser ranked No. 151, in the first round of the Abierto GNP Seguros, a WTA 250 tournament.

   The top-seeded Stephens, a Fresno, Calif., product who will turn 28 on Saturday, fell to 1-7 since the U.S. Open last September. The 2017 U.S. Open champion has tumbled from a career-high No. 3 in 2018 to No. 48.

   ATP Challenger Tour in Cleveland — In a battle of the last two USTA boys 18 national champions, Jenson Brooksby "Brothers," 20, of Carmichael, Calif., in the Sacramento area topped Zachary "Taylor" Svajda, 18, of San Diego 7-6 (4), 7-6 (5) in the opening round of the $52,080 Cleveland Open. 

   Brooksby, who's coming off his first Challenger title in February in Potchefstroom, South Africa, is set to play sixth-seeded Brayden Schnur of Canada for the first time on Wednesday. Schnur held off U.S. qualifier Felix Corwin 7-6 (0), 7-6 (4).

Medvedev tops Thiem for title; Sherif falls in final

   Daniil Medvedev won the biggest title of his career today, defeating Dominic Thiem 4-6, 7-6 (2), 6-4 in the Nitto ATP Finals in London.

   The 6-foot-6 (1.98-meter) Medvedev, a 24-year-old Russian, also beat five-time champion Novak Djokovic and second-ranked Rafael Nadal during the week. Medvedev, seeded fourth, became the first player to sweep the top three players in the world rankings in the season finale, according to atptour.com.

   Medvedev, who went 0-3 in his ATP Finals debut last year, also became the fifth consecutive first-time champion in the indoor hardcourt tournament. He followed Stefanos Tsitsipas last year, Alexander Zverev in 2018, Grigor Dimitrov in 2017 and Andy Murray in 2016.

   Medvedev made $1.564 million, and Thiem took home $861,000.

   In the doubles final, fifth-seeded Wesley Koolhof of the Netherlands and Nikola Mektic of Croatia topped seventh-seeded Jurgen Melzer of Austria and Edouard Roger-Vasselin of France 6-2, 3-6 [10-5] for their first title together.

   Koolhof and Mektic, who joined forces at Adelaide in January, split $254,500. They reached the U.S. Open final, losing to Mate Pavic of Croatia and Bruno Soares of Brazil.

   ITF Women's Circuit — Top-seeded Kaia Kanepi of Estonia rolled to a 6-3, 6-2 victory over second-seeded Maiar Sherif Ahmed Abdelaziz (Fresno State, 2015-16) of Egypt to win the $25,000 Open Gran Canaria on clay in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, off the coast of northwestern Africa.

   Since losing in the second round of the French Open, Kanepi has won 15 of 16 matches, all in $25,000 tournaments, with three titles. The 35-year-old veteran has reached the quarterfinals of the French Open, Wimbledon and the U.S. Open twice each and been ranked as high as No. 15 in 2012.

   Sherif, 24, lost for the first time in 12 matches. She won a $100,000 clay-court tournament in Charleston, S.C., as a qualifier two weeks ago.

   ATP Challenger Tour — Unseeded Brandon Nakashima, 19, of San Diego beat fourth-seeded Prajnesh Gunneswaran of India 6-3, 6-4 in the $52,080 Orlando (Fla.) Open for his first Challenger title.

   Nakashima, who will soar 37 places to a career-high No. 165 on Monday, saved all eight break points against him and did not lose a set in the hardcourt tournament. He ousted top-seeded Thiago Monteiro in the second round and eighth-seeded Mackenzie McDonald, a San Francisco Bay Area product, in the quarterfinals.

   Gunneswaran, a 31-year-old left-hander, lost a Challenger final for the second consecutive week. He fell to Denis Kudla last Sunday in Cary, N.C.

   Nakashima reached his first Challenger semifinal in Fairfield, Calif., last fall, and Gunneswaran advanced to the semis of the 2017 Tiburon, Calif., Challenger. Both were $100,000 tournaments.

   In the final round of qualifying for the $52,080 Lima Challenger on clay, fifth-seeded Thiago Agustin Tirante, 19, of Argentina beat top-seeded Collin Altamirano, 24, of Sacramento, Calif., 6-4, 6-4. Altamirano, who received a first-round bye, played his first match since March.

Qualifier makes history; Diego downs Domi in marathon

Elina Svitolina, playing in the 2015 Bank of the West Classic at Stanford,
lost to qualifier Nadia Podoroska 6-2, 6-4 in the French Open quarterfinals.
Photo by Mal Taam 

   Both No. 3 seeds lost to Argentines today in the French Open, but one of the results was much more surprising.

   Nadia Podoroska shocked Elina Svitolina of Ukraine 6-2, 6-4 in Paris to become the first female qualifier ever to reach the semifinals at Roland Garros and the first to do so in any Grand Slam tournament since Alexandra Stevenson at Wimbledon in 1999.

   Entering the fortnight, Podoroska, 23, was 0-1 in the main draw of majors, having qualified for the 2016 U.S. Open. A right wrist injury sidelined her for eight months beginning in July 2017. 

  "I worked a lot with my coach during the quarantine to improve in various aspects of the game, and I understand that thanks to all that work, I was able to get here," Podoroska, who has won 13 consecutive matches and 18 of her last 19 (including two minor-league tournaments), said in an on-court interview. "I trained a lot in my shots — my forehand, backhand, the serve. But what I improve most, I think it was my mentality."   

   In the next match on Court Philippe Chatrier, 12th-seeded Diego Schwartzman topped Dominic Thiem, the runner-up to Rafael Nadal in the last two French Opens, 7-6 (1), 5-7, 6-7 (6), 7-6 (5), 6-2 in 5 hours, 8 minutes to reach his first Grand Slam semifinal.

   Schwartzman, only 5-foot-7 (1.70 meters) and 141 pounds (64 kilograms), twice was two points from losing in the fourth set. He will debut in the top 10 after the French Open, rising from No. 14 to at least No. 8.

   Thiem, 27, battled physical and mental fatigue after outlasting French wild card Hugo Gaston in five sets in the previous round and winning his first Grand Slam title in the recent U.S. Open.

   Schwartzman, 28, will take on the second-seeded Nadal, pursuing his fourth consecutive French Open title and 13th overall, on Friday.

   Nadal, 34, beat unseeded Jannik Sinner, a 19-year-old Italian, 7-6 (4), 6-4, 6-1 in a match that ended Wednesday at 1:25 a.m. Paris time. Sinner, who advanced to the second round of last year's Aptos (Calif.) Challenger one week after winning the Lexington (Ky.) Challenger, served for the first set at 6-5.

   Nadal, who has not lost a set at Roland Garros this year, fell to Schwartzman for the first time in 10 career meetings two weeks ago in the Italian Open.

   Podoroska, who will soar from No. 131 to a career high of at least No. 48, will face unseeded Iga Swiatek, 19, of Poland for the first time on Thursday. 

   Swiatek, coming off a 6-1, 6-2 thrashing of top seed and 2018 champion Simona Halep, outclassed qualifier Martina Trevisan, a 5-foot-3 (1.60-meter) left-hander from Italy, 6-3, 6-1 in 78 minutes. 

   Swiatek, the 2018 Wimbledon girls singles champion, has not lost more than four games in a set or more than five games in a match in the tournament. She joined Jadwiga Jedrzejowska in 1939 as the only Polish women to reach the French Open semifinals and will jump from No. 54 to a career high of at least No. 33.

   In a fourth-round match postponed one day by rain, unseeded Danielle Collins of St. Petersburg, Fla., outlasted 30th-seeded Ons Jabeur, the 2011 French Open girls singles champion, 6-4, 4-6, 6-4. 

   Collins, a semifinalist in the 2019 Australian Open and inaugural (2018) Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic in San Jose, Calif., will play fourth-seeded Sofia Kenin, the reigning Australian Open champion from Pembroke Pines, Fla. 

   Collins has never dropped a set in three career matches against Kenin, who won Northern California Challengers in 2016 at 17, 2017 and 2018.

   Neither defending champion Ashleigh Barty (coronavirus concerns) nor U.S. Open winner Naomi Osaka (hamstring injury) entered the French Open. Serena Williams, a three-time champion at Roland Garros, withdrew before her second-round match with an Achilles tendon problem.

   In the first round of boys doubles, unseeded Arthur Fery, a Stanford freshman, and Felix Gill of Great Britain beat top-seeded Arthur Cazaux and Harold Mayot of France by walkover.

Thiem pulls off historic comeback for U.S. Open title

Dominic Thiem hosts the trophy at the 2019 BNP Paribas
Open in Indian Wells, Calif. In the background are runner-
up Roger Federer, left, and tournament director Tommy
Haas. Photo by Mal Taam

   For two-plus sets in today's U.S. Open men's final, Alexander Zverev dominated Dominic Thiem.

   Zverev, the underdog, looked relaxed while Thiem was clearly nervous as both players tried to seize a golden opportunity to win their first Grand Slam title.

   Suddenly, much like Naomi Osaka in Saturday's women's final, Thiem calmed down. He gradually clawed his way back into the match, which culminated in a dramatic fifth-set tiebreaker. 

   Experience ultimately prevailed, as it usually does, as Thiem triumphed 2-6, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3, 7-6 (6) in 4 hours, 1 minute despite suffering leg cramps late in the fifth set at nearly empty Arthur Ashe Stadium in Flushing Meadows, N.Y. No fans were allowed at the tournament because of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

   Both players served for the match before the decisive tiebreaker. With the second-seeded Thiem serving at 4-5 in the fifth set, the fifth-seeded Zverev twice was two points from victory.

   "Somehow, the belief today was stronger than the body, and I'm super happy about that," Thiem told reporters.

  It was the first time since Pancho Gonzales in 1949 that a player came back from a two-set deficit to win the U.S. championships and only the second Grand Slam final decided by a fifth-set tiebreaker. Novak Djokovic defeated Roger Federer 13-12 (3) in the fifth set at Wimbledon last year, when the tournament instituted a final-set tiebreaker at 12-12.

   Thiem, 27, became the first new Grand Slam singles champion since Marin Cilic of Croatia in the 2014 U.S. Open and joined Thomas Muster (1995 French Open) as the only Austrian men to win a major singles title.

   Thiem had been 0-3 in major singles finals, having lost to Rafael Nadal in the 2018 and 2019 French Open and Djokovic in this year's Australian Open. 

   Neither Nadal (coronavirus concerns), the 2019 U.S. Open champion, nor Federer (two arthroscopic surgeries on his right knee this year) played in this year's tournament. Djokovic was defaulted from his fourth-round match against Pablo Carreno Busta of Spain for accidentally hitting a line judge in the throat with a ball.

   Federer, 39, owns a record 20 Grand Slam singles titles. Nadal, 34, ranks second with 19, and Djokovic, 33, is third with 17. 

   Zverev, the son of former pro Alexander Zverev Sr. from Russia and younger brother of pro Mischa Zverev, played in his first major final. The 6-foot-6 (1.98-meter) Hamburg native was bidding to become the first German to win the U.S. Open since Boris Becker in 1989 and the tallest Grand Slam singles champion along with Cilic.

   "I was a few games away, a few points away," said Zverev, who rallied from two sets down to beat Carreno Busta in the semifinals. "I'm 23 years old. I don't think it's my last chance."

   Zverev's shaky second serve proved critical in his loss. He broke serve to lead 2-1 in the third set, but Thiem broke right back as Zverev committed two of his 15 double faults. 

   Thiem scored the only break of the fourth set to lead 5-3 as Zverev double-faulted and netted a forehand on the last two points of the game.

   In the fifth set, Zverev and Thiem served for the match at 5-3 and 6-5, respectively. Zverev led 2-0 in the tiebreaker, but Thiem leveled at 2-2 on a double fault. Zverev double-faulted again for 3-5 but saved two championship points to pull even at 6-6. 

   Thiem earned a third championship point at 7-6 with a forehand passing shot down the line as Zverev charged the net. Zverev then slugged a cross-court backhand wide to end the suspense.

   Thiem, who earned $3 million, will remain No. 3 in Monday's new world rankings. Zverev, who received $1.5 million, will stay at No. 7.

After big comeback, Zverev will take on Thiem for title

Alexander Zverev won for the first time after trailing two sets
to none. 2016 photo by Paul Bauman

   Alexander Zverev's demons were returning.

   The 6-foot-6 (1.98-meter) German climbed to No. 3 at age 20 in 2017 but, feeling the pressure of great expectations, underachieved in Grand Slam tournaments until this year.

   He came out flat today in his second consecutive major semifinal and quickly trailed two sets to none in the U.S. Open.

   Suddenly, the fifth-seeded Zverev found his explosive game and topped 20th-seeded Pablo Carreno Busta of Spain 3-6, 2-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-3 to reach his first Grand Slam final. Zverev will play second-seeded Dominic Thiem on Sunday at 1 p.m. PDT (ESPN). 

   Zverev, now ranked seventh, scored the only break of the fifth set in the opening game to become the first German man to reach the U.S. Open final since Michael Stich lost to Andre Agassi in 1994.

   "I was actually looking at the scoreboard when I was down to sets to love," the 23-year-old Zverev, who have never come back from that deficit, said in an on-court interview. "I was like, I can't believe it. I'm playing in a (Grand Slam) semifinal where I'm supposed to be the favorite, and I'm down two sets to love, and I have no chance. I'm playing that bad. I knew I had to come up with better tennis and be more stable.

   "The conditions today were completely different. ... The ball wasn't as fast, so my serve wasn't as effective. But I'm through to my first Grand Slam final, and that's all that matters."

   Zverev still blasted 24 aces, 20 more than the 6-foot-2 (1.88-meter) Carreno Busta, in the 3-hour, 23-minute match.

   Carreno Busta, who also was seeking his first Grand Slam final, took a medical timeout for a hip problem after the fourth set but didn't appear inhibited. He had advanced to the quarterfinals when top-ranked Novak Djokovic was defaulted for accidentally hitting a line judge in the throat with a ball.

   Thiem overcame an Achilles tendon injury to beat third-seeded Daniil Medvedev of Russia 6-2, 7-6 (7), 7-6 (5). Medvedev, last year's runner-up to Rafael Nadal in a five-set epic, was rattled by a non-call in the first set and led by a service break in the second and third sets.

   Thiem is 0-3 in Grand Slam finals, having lost to Rafael Nadal in the 2018 and 2019 French Open and Djokovic in this year's Australian Open.

   Thiem, a 27-year-old Austrian, leads Zverev 7-2 (3-1 on hardcourts) in the head-to-head series. Thiem won the last meeting 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (3), 7-6 (4) in the Australian Open semifinals in January.

   Women's singles final — Fourth-seeded Naomi Osaka, 22, of Japan will meet unseeded Victoria Azarenka, 31, of Belarus on Saturday at 1 p.m. PDT (ESPN) in a matchup of former world No. 1s and two-time Grand Slam singles champions.

   Osaka, who made her WTA main-draw debut in the 2014 Bank of the West Classic at Stanford, is 2-1 against Azarenka, who won the Stanford title 10 years ago. But both of Osaka's victories came on clay. Azarenka routed Osaka 6-1, 6-1 in the third round of the 2016 Australian Open in their first meeting, but Osaka was only 18 at the time.

   Osaka won consecutive Grand Slam titles in the 2018 U.S. Open, shocking Serena Williams in a tumultuous final, and 2019 Australian Open.

   Azarenka will play in her first major final since winning her second straight Australian Open title in 2013. She extended her winning streak to 12 matches, including a walkover against Osaka in the final of the Western & Southern Open in Flushing Meadows, after going 0-3 since August 2019. 

   Azarenka played only two tournaments between May 2016 and March 2018 because of pregnancy and a subsequent child custody dispute, plummeting to No. 978 in May 2017.

   Women's doubles final — Playing in their first tournament together, unseeded Laura Siegemund of Germany and Vera Zvonareva of Russia beat third-seeded Nicole Melichar of the United States and Yifan Xu of China 6-4, 6-4.

   Siegemund, 32, and Zvonareva, a 36-year-old mother, also knocked off seventh-seeded Azarenka and Sofia Kenin in the second round and second-seeded Elise Mertens and Aryna Sabalenka, the defending champions, in the quarterfinals.

   Melichar, 27, and Xu, a 32-year-old left-hander, did not play a seeded team in the tournament.

   Zvonareva earned her third major women's doubles crown and first since the 2012 Australian Open with compatriot Svetlana Kuznetsova. Zvonareva, a two-time runner-up in women's doubles at Stanford (2005 and 2008), also won the 2006 U.S. Open with Nathalie Dechy of France.

   Zvonareva, formerly ranked No. 2 in singles, also owns two Grand Slam mixed doubles titles, including the 2004 U.S. Open with ex-Stanford All-American Bob Bryan.

   Siegemund played in her first major women's doubles final but won the U.S. Open mixed doubles crown of Mate Pavic of Croatia in 2016. Pavic captured the men's doubles title at Flushing Meadows with Bruno Soares of Brazil on Thursday.

   Melichar and Xu each fell to 0-2 in Grand Slam women's doubles finals. They were the Wimbledon runners-up in 2018 and 2019, respectively, with other partners. 

   Xu and Melichar won the doubles title at Stanford in 2015 and San Jose, Calif., last year, respectively, with other partners.

   Siegemund and Zvonareva split $400,000 for today's victory, and Melichar and Xu shared $240,000.

In matchup of moms, Serena rallies to beat Pironkova

Serena Williams played her third consecutive three-set match
and eighth in 10 matches since the women's tour resumed.
2018 photo by Mal Taam

   Serena Williams survived another three-set match today to reach the semifinals of the U.S. Open.

   Overcoming a sluggish start, the third-seeded Williams beat unranked Tsvetana Pironkova of Bulgaria 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 in Flushing Meadows, N.Y., in the first major quarterfinal between mothers.

   Pironkova, a Bulgarian who will turn 33 on Sunday, was playing in her first tournament since Wimbledon in 2017 after starting a family.

   Williams, who will turn 39 on Sept. 26, slugged 20 aces, her most in a match in eight years, and committed only one double fault. She twice returned a serve left-handed, winning each point, as she improved to 5-0 against Pironkova in their first meeting in five years.

   It was Williams' third consecutive three-set match and eighth in 10 matches since the women's tour resumed after a five-month hiatus because of the coronavirus pandemic. She turned the match around after losing her serve in the opening game of the second set.

   "I was definitely feeling it a little in my legs," the former world No. 1 said in an on-court interview. "For whatever reason, an hour in, I get more energy. ... In the beginning, I was a little fatigued. Obviously, I can't do that if I want to keep winning, so I'm going to try to figure that out."

   Added ESPN commentator Chris Evert, a six-time U.S. Open champion: "Serena did not play her best, but she got herself out of trouble. She has to raise her level if she wants to win this tournament."

   Williams is 0-8 in attempts to tie Margaret Court's record of 24 Grand Slam singles crowns since her daughter, Olympia, was born on Sept. 1, 2017. Williams won the last of her six U.S. Open singles titles in 2014, losing the last two finals to upstarts Naomi Osaka and Bianca Andreescu. 

   Williams — the champion of the now-defunct Bank of the West Classic at Stanford in 2011, 2012 and 2014 —  is scheduled to play unseeded Victoria Azarenka on Thursday after the first semifinal between the fourth-seeded Osaka and 28th-seeded Jennifer Brady (4 p.m. PDT on ESPN).

   Azarenka, a 31-year-old mother, demolished 16th-seeded Elise Mertens of Belgium 6-1, 6-0 in 73 minutes to extend her winning streak to 11 matches, including a walkover against Osaka in the final of the Western & Southern Open in Flushing Meadows, after going 0-3 since August 2019. She won the Bank of the West Classic 10 years ago and ascended to No. 1 in 2012 after winning the first of her two consecutive Australian Open crowns.

   Mertens, a semifinalist in the Australian Open and inaugural Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic in San Jose, Calif., in 2018, had not lost a set in four tournament matches. She was coming off a 6-3, 6-3 victory over second-seeded Sofia Kenin, the reigning Australian Open champion.

   Williams leads Azarenka 18-4 overall and 10-0 in majors, including three-set victories in the 2012 and 2013 U.S. Open finals, in the head-to-head series. 

   In the first all-Russian men's quarterfinal in a major, third-seeded Daniil Medvedev downed 10th-seeded Andrey Rublev 7-6 (6), 6-3, 7-6 (5). The volatile Rublev led 5-1 and 6-3 in the first-set tiebreaker. 

   Medvedev, a 6-foot-6 (1.98-meter) right-hander, took a medical timeout at 4-5 in the third set for apparent cramps in his legs and for treatment on his right arm.

   The 24-year-old Medvedev, last year's runner-up to Rafael Nadal in a five-set epic, has not lost a set in this year's tournament.

   Rublev, 22, was playing in his second U.S. Open quarterfinal. He reached the last eight at Flushing Meadows in 2017 before missing three months in 2018 with a lower-back stress fracture and six weeks in 2019 with a wrist injury.

   Medvedev will face second-seeded Dominic Thiem, 27, of Austria on Friday. Thiem, a three-time Grand Slam runner-up, dismantled 21st-seeded Alex de Minaur of Australia 6-1, 6-2, 6-4. De Minaur, 21, was playing in his first major quarterfinal.

   Thiem is 2-1 against Medvedev, but the Russian won the last meeting 6-3, 6-1 in the Montreal quarterfinals last year on a hardcourt. 

Serena survives, Thiem trounced in W&S Open

Serena Williams edged qualifier Arantxa Rus of the Netherlands 7-6 (6),
3-6, 7-6 (0) today in the second round of the Western & Southern Open
in Flushing Meadows, N.Y. 2018 photo by Mal Taam

The Western & Southern Open lost its top two women's seeds on Sunday and almost lost No. 3 today.

Serena Williams, ranked ninth, edged the Netherlands' Arantxa Rus, a qualifier ranked 72nd, 7-6 (6), 3-6, 7-6 (0) in the second round on a hot, humid day in Flushing Meadows, N.Y.

Falling on Sunday were top-seeded Karolina Pliskova and second-seeded Sofia Kenin.

On the men's side today, Filip Krajinovic, a 28-year-old Serb ranked No. 32, thrashed Austria's Dominic Thiem, seeded second and ranked third, 6-2, 6-1 in 61 minutes. 

Krajinovic, the runner-up to Ryan Harrison in the 2009 Chico (Calif.) Futures at 17, won 32 of 34 points (94%) on his serve and never faced a break point. 

Williams, who will turn 39 next month, saved a set point in the first-set tiebreaker on the fast hardcourts at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. 

Rus, a 29-year-old left-hander, rallied from 2-5 in the third set to serve for the match at 6-5 in the 2-hour, 49-minute battle. 

Williams, who won the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati in 2014 and 2015, had 14 aces and one double fault in her longest match since a first-round loss to Virginie Razzano in the 2012 French Open. Williams won 82 percent of the points on her first serve (47 of 57).

Williams, a part-time Silicon Valley resident, has struggled in her two tournaments since the WTA Tour resumed two weeks ago after a hiatus of almost five months because of the coronavirus pandemic. She fell to No. 116 Shelby Rogers 1-6, 6-4, 7-6 (5) in the quarterfinals in Lexington, Ky., her first loss to a player ranked in triple digits since the match against No. 111 Razzano.

Williams is scheduled to meet Greece's Maria Sakkari, seeded 13th and ranked 21st, for the first time on Tuesday not before 4 p.m. (ESPN). Sakkari, the runner-up in the inaugural Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic in San Jose, Calif., in 2018, beat Yulia Putintseva of Kazakhstan 6-4, 7-6 (9) after dominating 16-year-old U.S. phenom Coco Gauff 6-1, 6-3 on Saturday.

Also today, Marie Bouzkova upset sixth-seeded Petra Kvitova, who won Wimbledon in 2011 and 2014, 2-6, 7-5, 6-2 in an all-Czech encounter.

Qualifier CiCi Bellis, a 21-year-old San Francisco native who grew up down the peninsula in Atherton, fell to second-seeded Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus 7-6 (1), 4-6, 7-5 in 2:20 in their first meeting. 

Bellis, a 5-foot-7 (1.68-meter) right-hander, missed 20 months from March 2018 to November 2019 while undergoing three operations on her right wrist and one on her right elbow. The powerful Sabalenka reached last year's final in San Jose, losing to Zheng Saisai of China. 

Top-ranked Novak Djokovic, in his first official match since February, beat veteran Ricardas Berankis, a 5-foot-9 (1.75-meter) qualifier from Lithuania, 7-6 (2), 6-4. Djokovic had his neck treated after the first set.

Djokovic, the 2018 champion in Cincinnati, improved to 19-0 this year. Berankis reached the quarterfinals of the 2010 SAP Open in San Jose, Calif., as a qualifier, losing to eventual champion Fernando Verdasco of Spain.

Andy Murray, a 33-year-old wild card, topped fifth-seeded Alexander Zverev of Germany 6-3, 3-6, 7-5. The 6-foot-6 (1.98-meter) Zverev double-faulted three times while serving for the match at 5-4 in the third set at twice more at 5-6.

Murray, the Western & Southern champion in Cincinnati in 2008 and 2011, won the first of his three Grand Slam singles titles in the 2012 U.S. Open. The first of his 46 tour-level singles titles came at 18 in the 2006 SAP Open, and he repeated the following year. 

Third-seeded Daniil Medvedev began his title defense after receiving a first-round bye. Medvedev, last year's U.S. Open runner-up to Rafael Nadal in an epic at Flushing Meadows, defeated American qualifier Marcos Giron, the 2014 NCAA singles champion from UCLA, 6-4, 6-4.

Seventh-seeded Madison Keys, the women's defending champion, lost to Ons Jabeur of Tunisia 6-4, 6-1.  

Keys won the last Bank of the West Classic at Stanford in 2017 and reached the U.S. Open final one month later, losing to Fresno, Calif., product Sloane Stephens. Jabeur advanced to her first Grand Slam quarterfinal in the Australian Open in January. 

Two American giants advanced in the men's draw. 

Reilly Opelka, 6-foot-11 (2.11 meters), beat ninth-seeded Diego Schwartzman, 5-foot-7 (1.70 meters), of Argentina 6-3, 7-6 (4). 

Sixteenth-seeded John Isner, 6-foot-10 (2.08 meters), blasted 35 aces in a 4-6, 7-6 (3), 7-6 (5) victory over John Millman of Australia. Millman, who won Northern California Challengers in 2010 and 2015, shocked Roger Federer in the 2018 U.S. Open to reach his first Grand Slam quarterfinal.

Djokovic rallies to win eighth Australian Open title

Novak Djokovic poses with the trophy and Serbian flag after winning
the 2015 BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells. Photo by Paul Bauman

   Trying to ("tryna" in today's vernacular) beat Novak Djokovic in the Australian Open is like trying to beat Rafael Nadal in the French Open.
   Just ask Dominic Thiem. For the third time, the 26-year-old Austrian had the misfortune of facing an all-time great in the final of Djokovic's or Nadal's favorite tournament.
   Djokovic improved to 8-0 in Australian Open finals early today, topping Thiem 6-4, 4-6, 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 in 3 hours, 59 minutes in Melbourne. In the fifth set, Djokovic saved two break points to lead 3-1. Thirty minutes later, it was over.
   No other man has won the Australian Open more than six times.
   "This tournament sets a high standard for all the other tournaments around the world, and it's definitely my favorite court, my favorite stadium in the world," the second-seeded Djokovic said during the trophy presentation at Rod Laver Arena. "I'm blessed to hold this trophy once again."
   Djokovic became the first man in the Open era to win Grand Slam singles titles in three decades. He will return to No. 1 on Monday, replacing Nadal.
   Thiem, meanwhile, fell to 0-3 in Grand Slam finals. He has lost the last two French Open title matches to Nadal, who's 12-0 in Roland Garros finals.
   "I would like to start by saying a huge congrats to Novak (for) an amazing achievement," the fifth-seeded Thiem said. "It's unreal what you and your team are doing throughout all these years. You and two other guys (Nadal and Roger Federer) have brought men's tennis to a complete new level, and I'm really proud and happy to compete and be a part of these times. I fell short today, but I hope to get revenge soon."
   The French Open, the next Grand Slam tournament, is scheduled for May 24-June 7.
   Djokovic, 32, won his 17th Grand Slam singles title, including five of the last seven majors. He trails only Federer (20) and Nadal (19) on the all-time list. One of the Big Three has won the last 13 Slams and 56 of the last 67.
   Although Djokovic is six years older than Thiem, he was much fresher in the final. Not only did Djokovic win his previous two matches in straight sets, he had two days to rest to Thiem's one. Thiem, meanwhile, needed 4 hours, 10 minutes to subdue the top-seeded Nadal in four sets in the quarterfinals and 3:42 to top seventh-seeded Alexander Zverev in the semifinals. Overall during the tournament, Thiem spent six more hours on the court than Djokovic before the final.
   Djokovic improved to 17-9 in Grand Slam finals and 7-4 against Thiem. Djokovic had lost four of his last five matches versus the rising star, but three of the losses came on clay.
   Thiem was attempting to become the second Austrian ever and first man born in the 1990s to win a Grand Slam men's singles title. His countryman Thomas Muster took the 1995 French Open crown. Thiem dismissed Muster from his – ahem – team during the first week of the Australian Open.
   Both Djokovic and Thiem converted five of 12 break points in the final, committed 57 unforced errors and suffered five double faults. Thiem pounded more aces (13 to nine) and winners (55 to 46), but Djokovic won a higher percentage of points on his first serve (76 to 69) and second delivery (51 to 45). Overall, Djokovic won 157 points to Thiem's 147.

Thiem tops Zverev to gain first Australian Open final

Dominic Thiem hoists the trophy at Indian Wells last March after defeating
Roger Federer. Photo by Mal Taam

   Fifth-seeded Dominic Thiem beat seventh-seeded Alexander Zverev 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (3), 7-6 (4) early today to reach his first Australian Open final.
   Thiem, 26, saved two set points in the third set en route to his third Grand Slam singles final. He has lost to Rafael Nadal in the last two French Opens.
   The 6-foot-6 (1.98-meter) Zverev, a 22-year-old German, was playing in his first Grand Slam semifinal. He had pledged to donate the champion's prize money of $2,853,100 (U.S.) to the Australian Bushfire Relief Fund if he won the title.
   Thiem is scheduled to face second-seeded Novak Djokovic, who won his seventh Australian Open singles title last year. ESPN will televise Sunday's match live at 12:30 a.m. California time and taped at 6 p.m.
   Djokovic is 6-4 overall and 3-1 on hardcourts against Thiem, the first Austrian to reach the final in Melbourne. Djokovic is 7-0 in Australian Open finals and ranks third all-time with 16 Grand Slam singles titles. Federer has 20 and Nadal 19.
   Djokovic, 32, much fresher than Thiem, 26, in the final. Not only has Djokovic has won his last two matches in straight sets in less than three hours each, he has two days to rest to Thiem's one. Thiem needed 4 hours, 10 minutes to subdue the top-seeded Nadal in four sets in the quarterfinals and 3:42 to top Zverev.

Querrey ousts fifth-seeded Thiem at Wimbledon

Sam Querrey, serving in 2014, recorded his third victory
over a top-five player at Wimbledon. Photo by Paul Bauman

   On paper, it was a big upset.
   In reality, not so much.
   Sam Querrey, a 31-year-old San Francisco native, topped fifth-seeded Dominic Thiem 6-7 (6), 7-6 (1), 6-3, 6-0 on Tuesday in the first round at Wimbledon.
   Querrey, ranked No. 65 after reaching a career-high No. 11 in February 2018, saved two set points in the second set against Thiem, who has lost to Rafael Nadal in the final of the last two French Opens.
   Overall, Querrey won 62 of 69 points (90 percent) on his first serve, blasted 22 aces and committed four double faults. Thiem, ranked fourth, won 51 of 68 points (75 percent) on his first serve, slugged 15 aces and had three double faults.
   Querrey, who advanced to Saturday's Eastbourne final after missing 10 weeks with an abdominal injury, recorded his third victory over a top-five player at Wimbledon. He beat top-ranked Novak Djokovic en route to the 2016 quarterfinals and No. 1 Andy Murray to reach the 2017 semifinals. Djokovic and Murray were defending their titles.
   Thiem, meanwhile, lost in the first round at Wimbledon for the second consecutive year. He has never advanced past the fourth round at the All England Lawn Tennis Club in six attempts.
   Querrey, now based in Las Vegas, is scheduled to play Andrey Rublev, a 21-year-old Russian, for the first time on Thursday. Rublev, ranked No. 79, defeated Christian Garin, a 23-year-old Chilean, 4-6, 6-4, 7-5, 6-4.
   Rublev reached the quarterfinals of the 2017 U.S. Open at 19 but missed three months last year, including the French Open and Wimbledon, with a stress fracture in his lower back.
   The only other men's seed to lose on Tuesday was No. 29 Denis Shapovalov. The 20-year-old Canadian fell to Ricardas Berankis of Lithuania 7-6 (0), 6-4, 6-3.
   Taylor Fritz, a Southern Californian who beat Querrey in Eastbourne for his first ATP title, dispatched Tomas Berdych, the 2010 Wimbledon runner-up, 6-4, 6-4, 6-3.
   Second-seeded Roger Federer, seeking his ninth Wimbledon title, eliminated Lloyd Harris of South Africa 3-6, 6-1, 6-2, 6-2. Nadal, the third seed and Wimbledon champion in 2008 and 2010, dismissed Yuichi Sugita of Japan 6-3, 6-1, 6-3.
   In the opening round of women's singles, two former Wimbledon champions lost. No. 26 seed Garbine Muguruza (2017) fell to Beatriz Haddad Maia of Brazil 6-4, 6-4, and injury-plagued Maria Sharapova (2004) bowed out to Pauline Parmentier of France 4-6, 7-6 (4), 5-0, retired (left forearm tendon). Sharapova, a 32-year-old right-hander, was two points from victory.
   The only other women's seeds to lose were No. 22 Donna Vekic of Croatia and No. 32 Lesia Tsurenko of Ukraine. American Alison Riske, who won her second WTA title last month in s'Hertogenbosch, Netherlands, on grass, downed Vekic 3-6, 6-3, 7-5. Barbora Strycova, a 33-year-old Czech, took out Tsurenko 6-3, 6-2.
   Winning in straight sets were top-ranked Ashleigh Barty, fifth seed and defending champion Angelique Kerber, sixth seed and two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova, 11th seed and seven-time champ Serena Williams, and ninth-seeded Sloane Stephens.
   Williams has a residence in Silicon Valley, and Stephens grew up in Fresno.

Nadal tops Thiem for 12th French Open title

Rafael Nadal practices at Indian Wells in March. Photo by Harjanto Sumali

   At least Dominic Thiem won a set.
   That in itself is an accomplishment against the King of Clay.
   Unfortunately for Thiem, he had almost nothing left after tying today's French Open final at one set apiece.
   In a rematch of last year's title match at Roland Garros, Rafael Nadal defeated Thiem 6-3, 5-7, 6-1, 6-1 in Paris for his 12th French Open singles crown.
   "It's truly incredible," Nadal, who dominated Dominic 6-4, 6-3, 6-2 in last year's French Open final, said of his success at Roland Garros in an on-court interview. "I cannot explain it."
   Thiem, seeded fourth, was playing for the fourth consecutive day because of rain that shuffled the schedule. Meanwhile, the second-seeded Nadal had played only once in the previous four days.
   "He stepped on me," said Thiem, a 25-year-old Austrian who was seeking his first major title. "The numbers are crazy. He's won it 12 times."
   Nadal broke Margaret Court's record of 11 Australian Open singles titles, seven of which came when only amateurs were allowed to play, and pulled within two of Roger Federer's mark of 20 Grand Slam men's singles titles.
   Nadal, who turned 33 on Monday, also became the third-oldest French Open champion after 34-year-old Andres Gimeno (1972) and 33-year-old Ken Rosewall (1968).
   Against Thiem, Nadal improved to 9-4 overall, 8-4 on clay and 4-0 in the French Open.

Barty beats Vondrousova for first major singles title

Ashleigh Barty, playing at Indian Wells in March, became the first Australian
to win the French Open since Margaret Court in 1973. Photo by Harjanto Sumali 

   Greatness has long been predicted for Ashleigh Barty.
   And that was the problem.
   Unable to cope with the pressure of expectations after winning the Wimbledon girls singles title at 15 in 2011, Barty walked away from tennis in 2014 for almost two years to play professional cricket.
   Barty capped her comeback today with her first Grand Slam singles title. Seeded eighth, the 23-year-old Australian dominated unseeded Marketa Vondrousova, a Czech left-hander who will turn 20 in 20 days, 6-1, 6-3 in 70 minutes in the French Open in Paris.
   "It's unbelievable," Barty, who will rise to a career-high No. 2 on Monday, said in an on-court interview. "I'm a little bit speechless. It's incredible. I played the perfect match today. I'm so proud of myself and my team. It's just been a crazy two weeks."
   Barty became the first Australian to win the French Open since Margaret Court in 1973 and the first Aussie to capture a Grand Slam singles title since Samantha Stosur in the 2011 U.S. Open.
   Both Barty and Vondrousova were playing in their first major singles final. However, Barty has reached the doubles final in all four majors, winning last year's U.S. Open with CoCo Vandeweghe.
   Neither Barty nor Vondrousova has played in a WTA tournament in Northern California. Vondrousova, though, does have a NorCal connection. She advanced to the girls doubles final in the 2014 French Open with CiCi Bellis, who grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area suburb of Atherton.
   Bellis, the WTA Newcomer of the Year in 2017, is hitting after undergoing four operations on her right wrist, arm and elbow in the past year.
   Meanwhile, Rafael Nadal is heavily favored to win his 12th French Open singles crown. Seeded second, the 33-year-old Spaniard will face fourth-seeded Dominic Thiem in the final for the second consecutive year on Sunday at 6 a.m. PDT (NBC).
   Thiem, a 25-year-old Austrian, outlasted top-seeded Novak Djokovic 6-2, 3-6, 7-5, 5-7, 7-5 in a match that had been suspended in the third set by rain Friday. Djokovic's Grand Slam title streak ended at three.
   Nadal, who had today off, leads the head-to-head series against Thiem 8-4 overall and 7-4 on clay. Nadal won 6-4, 6-3, 6-2 in last year's French Open final, but Thiem won their latest meeting 6-4, 6-4 in the Barcelona semifinals on clay en route to the title in April.

Barty, Vondrousova to meet for French Open crown

Amanda Anisimov, who won her first professional title at 15 in the 2017 Sacra-
mento Challenger, lost to Ashleigh Barty 6-7 (4), 6-3, 6-3 today in the French
Open semifinals. 2018 photo courtesy of JFS Communications

   Amanda Anisimova led Ashleigh Barty by a set and 3-0 today in the French Open semifinals.
   But Anisimova's first Grand Slam final must wait.
   Barty, an Australian seeded eighth, rallied in the second and third sets to defeat the unseeded Anisimova, a 17-year-old American who ousted third seed and defending champion Simona Halep in the quarterfinals, 6-7 (4), 6-3, 6-3 on a windy, rainy day in Paris.
   "She just outplayed me, basically," Anisimova, who won her first professional title at 15 in the 2017 Sacramento Challenger, told reporters.
   In a matchup of first-time Grand Slam singles finalists, the 23-year-old Barty is scheduled to play unseeded Marketa Vondrousova, a Czech left-hander who will turn 20 on June 28, on Saturday at 6 a.m. PDT (NBC).
   Vondrousova, has not lost a set in the tournament, beat 26th-seeded Johanna Konta, the champion of the 2016 Bank of the West Classic at Stanford, 7-5, 7-6 (2). Vondrousova can become the first teenager to win the French Open since Iva Majoli of Croatia in 1997.
   Vondrousova reached the girls doubles final in the 2014 French Open with CiCi Bellis, who grew up in Atherton in the San Francisco Bay Area. Bellis, the WTA Newcomer of the Year in 2017, is hitting after undergoing four operations on her right wrist, arm and elbow in the past year.
   Barty, ranked eighth, has not dropped a set in two career matches against Vondrousova, ranked 38th. This will be their first meeting of the year and first on clay.
   Second-seeded Rafael Nadal will play either top-seeded Novak Djokovic or fourth-seeded Dominic Thiem for the men's title on Sunday at 6 a.m. (NBC).
   Nadal, seeking his 12th French Open singles crown, dispatched third-seeded Roger Federer 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 to improve to 24-15 overall and 6-0 in the French Open in their storied rivalry.
   Federer, 37, has won a record 20 Grand Slam men's singles titles, and Nadal, 32, ranks second with 17.
   Thiem leads Djokovic 6-2, 3-6, 3-1 in a match suspended by rain. Play will resume on Saturday at 3 a.m. PDT (Tennis Channel). The forecast calls for partly cloudy weather on Saturday and rain on Sunday.
   Barty won the Wimbledon girls singles title at 15 in 2011 and reached three Grand Slam women's doubles finals in 2013. But it was too much success too soon, and Barty left tennis in 2014 for nearly two years to play professional cricket.
   Barty won 17 of the first 18 points against the 51st-ranked Anisimova, who was born in New Jersey to Russian parents and moved to Florida at 3, to lead 5-0. After losing the set, Barty dropped the first 12 points of the second set to trail 3-0 but managed to pull it out. She then overcame an early break in the third set and converted her sixth match point.
   "I played some really good tennis. I played some pretty awful tennis," Barty said. "I'm just proud of myself for the way I was able to fight ands scrap and hang in there and find a way when I kind of threw away that first set."

Thiem upsets Anderson to reach U.S. Open quarters

Kevin Anderson of the host Sacramento Capitals serves in
a 2012 World TeamTennis match. Photo by Paul Bauman

   Note to readers: If you enjoy my coverage of Northern California tennis, please donate on my homepage. Here's why I need your support. Thank you.
   Dominic Thiem's chances against Kevin Anderson didn't look good.
   Anderson was 6-1 against Thiem entering their fourth-round match today in the U.S. Open, with Thiem's victory coming on clay in their last meeting in May.
   The 6-foot-8 (2.03-meter) Anderson had reached last year's U.S. Open final, while the 6-foot-1 (1.85-meter) Thiem had never advanced past the fourth round in Flushing Meadows.
   Anderson, 32, also had something of a home-court advantage. Although he's South African, he starred at the University of Illinois and lives in Florida with his American wife. Thiem, from Austria, has no such connections to the United States.
   None of it mattered, as the ninth-seeded Thiem beat the fifth-seeded Anderson 7-5, 6-2, 7-6 (2) at Louis Armstrong Stadium. Thiem won 41 of 45 points (91 percent) on his first serve and 30 of 46 (65 percent) on his second serve, faced no break points, had 42 winners and only 13 unforced errors, and won 19 of 22 points (86 percent) at the net.
   "I served really, really well today," Thiem, who will turn 25 on Monday, told reporters. "Not the best percentage (49), but I almost made every point in the first-serve game. So I didn't face one break point, and I didn't feel so much pressure on service games.
   "So it was a little it easier to play the return games. I could change my return position, and this helped me a lot. And also the court, I think, made a big difference. It's a huge court. I could go very far back like I do on clay usually."
   Thiem is scheduled to play No. 1 seed Rafael Nadal on Tuesday in a rematch of this year's French Open final, won by the Spaniard 6-4, 6-3, 6-2. Nadal leads the head-to-head series, all on clay, 7-3.
   In the other quarterfinal in the top half of the draw, No. 3 seed Juan Martin del Potro will meet No. 11 John Isner. Del Potro, who has had four wrist operations since winning the 2009 U.S. Open, dismissed No. 20 Borna Coric of Croatia. Isner topped Milos Raonic 3-6, 6-3, 6-4, 3-6, 6-2.
   Del Potro, who will turn 30 on Sept. 23, is 7-4 against Isner, 33, but Isner has won four of the last seven meetings.
   In the women's quarterfinals in the top half of the draw, No. 17 seed Serena Williams will face No. 8 Karolina Pliskova, and No. 3 Sloane Stephens will play No. 19 Anastasija Sevastova of Latvia.
   Williams, a six-time U.S. Open champion who has a residence in Silicon Valley, beat unseeded Kaia Kanepi of Latvia 6-0, 4-6, 6-3. Kanepi stunned No. 1 seed Simona Halep in the first round.
   Pliskova, the U.S. Open runner-up two years ago to Angelique Kerber, beat No. 18 Ashleigh Barty of Australia 6-4, 6-4.
   Williams, who will turn 37 on Sept. 26, and Pliskova, 26, have split two career matches. Williams won 7-5, 6-2 in the second round at Stanford in 2014, and Pliskova triumphed 6-2, 7-6 (5) in the U.S. Open semifinals in 2016.
   Stephens, a 25-year-old Fresno product, outclassed No. 15 seed Elise Mertens of Belgium 6-3, 6-3. Sevastova, a U.S. Open quarterfinalist for the past two years, topped No. 7 Elina Svitolina of Ukraine 6-3, 1-6, 6-0.
   Stephens is 2-1 against Sevastova, 28, winning 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (4) in last year's U.S. Open quarterfinals and 6-2, 6-2 last month in the Montreal quarters.
   In the third round of women's doubles today, No. 2 seeds Timea Babos of Hungary and Kristina Mladenovic of France defeated No. 14 Raquel Atawo (Cal, 2001-04) of Sacramento and Anna-Lena Groenefeld of Germany 6-3, 6-4. Babos and Mladenovic won the Australian Open this year and reached the 2014 Wimbledon final.

Nadal tops Thiem for 11th French Open title

Rafael Nadal, playing at Indian Wells last year, joined Margaret Court as the
only players to win a single Grand Slam tournament 11 times. Photo by Mal Taam

   Other than an NFL player getting arrested, it's the surest bet in sports.
   With his punishing groundstrokes and trademark tenacity, Rafael Nadal outslugged Dominic Thiem 6-4, 6-3, 6-2 today in Paris to improve to 11-0 in French Open finals.
   The top-ranked Nadal overcame cramps in his left hand at 2-1 in the third set and converted his fifth championship point to improve to 86-2 at Roland Garros.
   Nadal joined Margaret Court as the only players to win a single Grand Slam tournament 11 times. Court earned 11 Australian Open crowns between 1960 and 1073.
   Martina Navratilova won Wimbledon nine times (1978-90), and Roger Federer will try to equal that feat next month.
   Federer, 36, holds the record of 20 Grand Slam men's singles titles, and Nadal, 32, is second with 17. They have combined to win the last six majors.
   Thiem, a 24-year-old Austrian, will rise one spot to No. 7 in the world after his first Grand Slam final.
   Sixth-seeded Barbora Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova, both 22-year-old Czechs, claimed their first major women's doubles title with a 6-3, 6-3 victory over unseeded Eri Hozumi and Makoto Ninomiya of Japan.
   Krejcikova and Siniakova won their first three matches in three sets, including a 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (6) decision over ninth-seeded Kiki Bertens of the Netherlands and Johanna Larson of Sweden in the third round.
   Krejcikova and Siniakova also knocked off third-seeded Andreja Klepac of Slovenia and Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez of Spain 6-3, 6-3 in the quarterfinals and second-seeded Andrea Sestini Hlavackova and Barbora Strycova of the Czech Republic 6-3, 6-2 in the semifinals.
   Siniakova reached last year's U.S. Open final with compatriot Lucie Hradecka.
   Hozumi and Ninomiya became the first all-Japanese pair to reach a Grand Slam final in women's doubles. They ousted top-seeded Timea Babos of Hungary and Kristina Mladenovic of France in the quarterfinals.

Nadal, Thiem advance to French Open final

Rafael Nadal, shown at Indian Wells in 2017, will seek his 11th French Open
singles title on Sunday. Photo by Mal Taam 

   There might be tougher tasks in life than to beat Rafael Nadal at the French Open.
   Watch television for five minutes without seeing Flo in a Progressive Insurance commercial? 
   Listen to Barry Manilow?
   Get speedy service at the post office?
   But defeating Nadal at Roland Garros in Paris is right up there. Juan Martin Del Potro was the latest player to attempt the next-to-impossible, losing to Nadal 6-4, 6-1, 6-2 in today's semifinals.
   Mind you, Del Potro grew up on clay in Argentina, won the 2009 U.S. Open and is ranked sixth in the world.
   No matter. Nadal, who turned 32 on Sunday, advanced to his 11th French Open final and improved to 85-2 at Roland Garros. The only players to beat him there are Robin Soderling of Sweden in the fourth round in 2009 and Novak Djokovic in the quarterfinals in 2015.
   The only other man in the Open era to reach 11 finals in a single Grand Slam tournament is Roger Federer, who has won eight titles in 11 title matches at Wimbledon.
   The top-ranked Nadal will seek his 11th French Open singles title when he faces Dominic Thiem, seeded seventh and ranked eighth, on Sunday at 6 a.m. PDT on NBC.
   Thiem, a 24-year-old Austrian, eliminated unseeded Marco Cecchinato of Italy 7-5, 7-6 (10), 6-1 to reach his first Grand Slam final. Both players have sensational one-handed backhands.
   Nadal is 6-3 against Thiem, with all of the matches coming on outdoor clay. Thiem won the last encounter 7-5, 6-3 in the Madrid quarterfinals last month, but in the previous two matches, Nadal romped 6-0, 6-2 in the Monte Carlo quarters in April and 6-3, 6-4, 6-0 in last year's French Open semifinals.
   Nadal has not lost a set to Thiem in two Grand Slam matches. In their first career meeting, Nadal won 6-2, 6-2, 6-3 in the second round of the 2014 French Open.
   Thiem will try to become only the second man outside of the "Big Five" (Federer, Nadal, Djokovic, Andy Murray and Stan Wawrinka) to win a major title since 2009. Marin Cilic captured the 2014 U.S. Open.
   Del Potro, who almost quit tennis after undergoing four wrist operations in recent years, will rise two spots and equal his career high of No. 4 in the world rankings on Monday.
   In Saturday's women's final, top-ranked Simona Halep will face 10th-seeded Sloane Stephens at 6 a.m. PDT on NBC.
   Halep, 26, is 0-3 in Grand Slam singles finals, including losses in the 2014 and 2017 French Opens.
   Stephens, a 25-year-old Fresno product, is 1-0 in major finals. Unseeded, she won last year's U.S. Open in only her fifth tournament after undergoing foot surgery.
   Stephens will attempt to become the first U.S. woman other than Serena Williams to win the French Open since Jennifer Capriati in 2001.

Sandgren stuns Thiem; ex-Cal star in doubles QFs

Unseeded Tennys Sandgren, who has played regularly in
Northern California Challengers, beat fifth-seeded Dom-
inic Thiem in five sets today to reach the Australian Open
quarterfinals. File photo by Paul Bauman

   Two weeks ago, Hyeon Chung defeated Tennys Sandgren in the first round of the ASB Classic in Auckland.
   Little did anyone know that the young South Korean and unheralded American would meet in the Australian Open quarterfinals.
   Chung, 21, ousted six-time Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic 7-6 (4), 7-5, 7-6 (3) today in the fourth round in Melbourne and became the first Korean to reach a Grand Slam quarterfinal. Djokovic later said the 58th-ranked Chung, who won the inaugural Next Gen ATP Finals in Milan last November, has top-10 potential.
   Djokovic, seeded 14th, was playing in his first official tournament in six months because of a sore right elbow. He also was treated for a hip injury during his 6-2, 6-3, 6-3 victory over 21st-seeded Albert Ramos-Vinolas of Spain in the previous round.
   Sandgren, the last remaining U.S. man, stunned fifth-seeded Dominic Thiem of Austria 6-2, 4-6, 7-6 (4), 6-7 (7), 6-3 in 3 hours, 54 minutes. 
   Thiem saved a match point while serving at 5-6 in the fourth-set tiebreaker with a spectacular one-handed backhand down-the-line passing shot. Sandgren applauded with one hand on his racket strings.
   "I'm starting to disbelieve what is happening now," Sandgren, a 26-year-old resident of Gallatin, Tenn., in the Nashville area, said in an on-court interview. "But maybe it's not a dream? He played some really, really great tennis, especially in the fourth-set tiebreak. Goodness gracious! I knew I had to take my chances and he, from behind the court, would outlast me. I had to stay aggressive and serve well."
   Meanwhile, ex-Cal star Ben McLachlan continued his surprising doubles run. McLachlan and Jan-Lennard Struff, playing in their first tournament together, defeated Pablo Carreno Busta and Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 6-4, 7-6 (5) in a clash of unseeded teams to reach the quarterfinals.
   Carreno Busta and Garcia-Lopez, both from Spain, advanced to the semifinals of last year's Australian Open and the final of the 2016 U.S. Open.
   Sandgren, who lost to Chung 6-3, 5-7, 6-3 in Auckland, became the first man to reach the Australian quarterfinals in his main-draw debut since Alexandr Dolgopolov seven years ago and the first American man to advance to the quarters in Melbourne since Andy Roddick in 2010.
   In the second round, Sandgren dismissed ninth seed and 2014 champion Stan Wawrinka 6-2, 6-1, 6-4. Wawrinka was playing in his first official tournament since undergoing knee surgery five months ago.
   Sandgren's mother, Lia, suffered a broken rib in Gallatin while celebrating Tennys' success in the tournament. While jumping up and down, she fell on a pool table and was hospitalized. Tennys, who was named after his Swedish great grandfather, said Lia did not suffer a concussion, as reported by ESPN's Brad Gilbert.
   Sandgren will add at least $352,398 (U.S.) to his career prize money of $488,735 and jump from No. 97 in the world to about No. 52 or better.
   A former University of Tennessee All-American, Sandgren has played on the U.S. Challenger circuit for most of the past six years. A regular in Northern California, he won the Sacramento doubles title in 2012 with ex-Volunteers teammate Rhyne Williams, had hip surgery in 2014 and reached the singles final in Tiburon in the San Francisco Bay Area last fall.
   Sandgren had been 0-2 in Grand Slam singles matches entering the Australian Open and had won only two tour-level singles matches.
   After last season, Sandgren cut his long hair and shaved off his handlebar mustache.
   "I decided I couldn't go through life like this," Sandgren quipped to reporters. "I thought it was time to look more professional."

   McLachlan, a 25-year-old New Zealand native who plays for his mother's native Japan, and Struff, a 27-year-old German, were coming off a victory over ninth-seeded Feliciano Lopez and Marc Lopez of Spain. The Lopezes, who are not related, won the 2016 French Open and advanced to the final of last year's U.S. Open.
   McLachlan and Struff will take on top-seeded Lukasz Kubot of Poland and Marcelo Melo of Brazil. Kubot, the 2014 champion with Robert Lindstedt of Sweden, and Melo beat 16th-seeded Rajeev Ram of Carmel, Ind., and Divij Sharan of India 3-6, 7-6 (6), 6-4.

Serb upsets giant killer Querrey in U.S. Open

Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia leaves the court at Louis Armstrong Stadium
after upsetting 29th-seeded Sam Querrey, a San Francisco native, 7-6 (4),
6-7 (0), 6-3, 6-3 in the first round of the U.S. Open. Photo by Paul Bauman

   NEW YORK -- One day, you're the toast of the tennis world.
   In the next Grand Slam tournament, you're upset in the first round in your home country by a guy who has missed most of the past three years with injuries.
   Welcome to the unpredictable, cutthroat world of professional tennis.
   Two months after stunning top-ranked Novak Djokovic en route to the Wimbledon quarterfinals, 29th-seeded Sam Querrey lost to Janko Tipsarevic 7-6 (4), 6-7 (0), 6-3, 6-3 today in Louis Armstrong Stadium at the U.S. Open.
   Ironically, both Djokovic and Tipsarevic are from Serbia.
   It was the second consecutive first-round loss in the U.S. Open for Querrey, a 28-year-old San Francisco native now living in the Los Angeles suburb of Santa Monica. He fell to Nicolas Mahut of France last year at Flushing Meadows.
   No. 19 seed Steve Johnson of Redondo Beach in the Los Angeles area barely avoided an upset. Johnson, who won the $100,000 Aptos Challenger in Northern California in 2012, saved six match points in a 4-6, 1-6, 7-6 (2), 6-3, 6-3 victory over Evgeny Donskoy of Russia in the new Grandstand.
   Qualifier Jared Donaldson, a 19-year-old Rhode Island native now living in Irvine in the Los Angeles region, made his first Grand Slam victory a big one. He shocked Belgium's David Goffin, the 12th seed and a French Open quarterfinalist in June, 4-6, 7-5, 6-4, 6-0.
   Donaldson has played extensively in Northern California, reaching the final of the $100,000 Sacramento Challenger last October before losing to countryman Taylor Fritz.
   John Millman, who won 2010 Sacramento and 2015 Aptos Challengers, almost outdid Donaldson. The 27-year-old Australian battled eighth-seeded Dominic Thiem of Austria for 3 hours, 5 minutes before falling 6-3, 2-6, 5-7, 6-4, 6-3. Millman had lost to Thiem 7-5, 6-1 two weeks ago in the second round in Cincinnati.

Ex-Stanford star Nicole Gibbs whipped qualifier Aleksandra Krunic
of Serbia 6-1, 6-0. Gibbs won the last 11 games. Photo by Paul Bauman

  On the women's side of the U.S. Open, former Stanford star Nicole Gibbs of Marina del Rey in the L.A. area crushed error-prone Aleksandra Krunic, a qualifier from Serbia, 6-1, 6-0 in 58 minutes.
   Gibbs reeled off the last 11 games in the first-time matchup of undersized 23-year-olds, both of whom have had their best Grand Slam results in the 2014 U.S. Open. Krunic, a 5-foot-4 (1.63-meter), 117-pound (63-kilogram) Moscow native who's 12 days younger than Gibbs, reached the fourth round, and Gibbs, 5-foot-6 (1.68 meters), advanced to the third round.
   Gibbs, ranked No. 69, will play red-hot Laura Siegemund of Germany on Thursday. Siegemund, seeded 26th, defeated Patricia Maria Tig of Romania 3-6, 6-3, 6-2.
   Since losing to ninth-seeded Madison Keys in the first round at Wimbledon, Siegemund has reached the semifinals on clay in Bucharest, won her first career WTA title on clay in Bastad and advanced to the Olympic quarterfinals on hardcourts in Rio de Janeiro. 
   Siegemund won her only previous match against Gibbs 3-6, 6-0, 7-6 (3) on clay in the first round of a $25,000 tournament in Daytona Beach in 2014.
   Querrey, 6-foot-6 (1.98 meters), blasted 18 aces but committed 15 double faults and 77 unforced errors against the 250th-ranked Tipsarevic. Despite standing only 5-foot-9 (1.75 meters), Tipsarevic pounded 17 aces to go with 11 double faults.
   Tipsarevic, 32, was coming off the title in a $125,000 Challenger in Qingdao, China, as a qualifier. The former world No. 8 returned to competition in April after missing six months since last year's U.S. Open with right knee tendinitis.
   Tipsarevic also came back in April 2015 after sitting out for 18 months because of foot problems, including two surgeries to remove a benign tumor in his left heel.
   Tipsarevic, a U.S. Open quarterfinalist in 2011 and 2012, improved to 4-3 against Querrey in their first meeting since 2013. All of their matches except one have been in the United States; Tipsarevic won in four sets in the first round of the 2012 French Open.

French Open Day 13 highlights: Murray ousts Wawrinka

No. 2 seed Andy Murray beat No. 3 Stan Wawrinka,
the defending champion, 6-4, 6-2, 4-6, 6-2 today to
reach his first French Open Final. 2015 photo by
Paul Bauman

   Five highlights from Day 13 of the French Open in Paris:
   1. No. 2 seed Andy Murray topped No. 3 Stan Wawrinka, the defending champion, 6-4, 6-2, 4-6, 6-2 to reach his first French Open final.
   Murray became the first British man to advance to the final at Roland Garrros since Bunny Austin in 1937 and the 10th man in the Open era, which began in 1968, to gain the final at all four Grand Slam tournaments.
   Murray, a two-time Grand Slam champion, will face top-ranked Novak Djokovic in Sunday's final (6 a.m. PDT on NBC). Djokovic, seeking to become the eighth man to achieve a career Grand Slam in singles, dismissed No. 13 seed Dominic Thiem of Austria 6-2, 6-1, 6-4.
   Djokovic is 23-10 lifetime against Murray, who won the last meeting 6-3, 6-3 in the Italian Open final three weeks ago. But Djokovic was coming off tough matches against Kei Nishikori in the semifinals and Rafael Nadal in the quarterfinals and playing with a bruised ankle.
   Murray is one week older than Djokovic; they turned 29 last month.
   Murray went undefeated in two appearances in the now-defunct SAP Open in San Jose, Calif., winning his first career ATP World Tour title there 10 years ago at 18 and repeating in 2007.
   2. No. 1 seed Serena Williams and No. 4 Garbine Muguruza will meet for the title on Saturday (6 a.m. on NBC) in a rematch of last year's Wimbledon final, which Williams won 6-4, 6-4.
   Williams, battling a thigh injury, downed unseeded Kiki Bertens, playing with an injured lower left leg, 7-6 (7), 6-4 to end the Dutchwoman's winning streak at 12 matches. Williams saved a set point in the first set.
   Muguruza beat No. 21 seed Samantha Storsur of Australia 6-2, 6-4.
   Williams will attempt to win her 22nd Grand Slam singles title, which would tie Steffi Graf for second all time behind Margaret Court with 24, and Muguruza her first.
   Williams, 34, is 3-1 against Muguruza, 22, but in their only meeting on clay, Muguruza romped 6-2, 6-2 in the second round of the 2014 French Open.
   Muguruza could become the second Spanish woman to win the title at Roland Garros. International Tennis Hall of Famer Arantxa Sanchez Vicario triumphed in 1989, 1994 and 1998.
   Both Williams and Muguruza have won titles in the Bank of the West Classic at Stanford. Williams prevailed in singles in 2011, 2012 and 2014, and Muguruza in women's doubles with countrywoman Carla Suarez Navarro in 2014.
   3. No. 5 seeds Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan, 38-year-old former Stanford stars, reached their second consecutive French Open men's doubles final with a 7-5, 6-1 victory over No. 9 Lukasz Kubot of Poland and Alexander Peya of Austria.
   The Bryans will face No. 15 Feliciano Lopez and Marc Lopez (no relation) of Spain in Saturday's final. Feliciano Lopez, a 34-year-old left-hander, and Marc Lopez, 33, eliminated No. 3 seeds and defending champions Ivan Dodig of Croatia and Marcelo Melo of Brazil 6-2, 3-6, 7-5.
   The Bryans have won a record 16 Grand Slam men's doubles titles, including the French Open in 2003 and 2013, but none since the 2014 U.S. Open.
   Lopez and Lopez, who saved six match points in the quarterfinal win over 2014 champions Julien Benneteau and Edouard Roger-Vasselin of France, will try to become the first Spanish team to win the men's doubles title at Roland Garros since Sergio Casal and Emilio Sanchez in 1990.
   Neither Lopez has won a Grand Slam title, although Marc has been in two men's doubles finals with countryman Marcel Granollers, including the 2014 French Open.
   4. Fifth-seeded Caroline Garcia and Kristina Mladenovic became the first French team to reach the women's doubles final at Roland Garros since Gail Chanfreau and Francoise Durr won their second straight title 45 years ago in 1971.
   Garcia and Mladenovic beat unseeded Margarita Gasparyan and Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia 6-4, 4-6, 6-3. In the other semifinal, seventh seeds and 2013 champions Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina of Russia downed unseeded Barbora Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic 6-4 6-2.
   Krejcikova and Siniakova, both 20, had ousted three seeded teams: No. 16 Chang Chia-Jung and Hsieh Su-Wei of Taiwan in the first round, No. 1 Martina Hingis of Switzerland and Sania Mirza of India in the third round and No. 6 and 2011 champions Andrea Hlavakova and Lucie Hradecka of the Czech Republic in the quarterfinals.
   Hsieh won the 2014 title with Peng Shuai of China.    
   5. Unseeded Hingis and Leander Paes of India completed a career Grand Slam in mixed doubles with a 4-6, 6-4 [10-8] victory over second-seeded Mirza of India and Ivan Dodig of Croatia.
   Hingis, a 35-year-old Hall of Famer, has won 22 Grand Slam titles (five in singles, 12 in women's doubles and five in mixed doubles) despite retiring twice because of injuries and a two-year suspension for cocaine use. Her last three major women's doubles crowns have come with Mirza.
   Paes, a 42-year-old future Hall of Famer, has won 18 Grand Slam championships (eight in men's doubles and 10 in mixed doubles).
   Both Hingis and Paes are tied for 11th all time in total major titles. They also own career Grand Slams in men's and women's doubles, respectively.

Querrey, Bellis lose; Federer pulls out of Indian Wells

Dominic Thiem, playing at Indian Wells in 2014,
dismissed Sam Querrey 6-2, 6-2 in 57 minutes in
the semifinals at Acapulco. Photo by Paul Bauman

   Dominic Thiem emphatically ended Sam Querrey's winning streak at eight matches on Friday.
   Thiem, seeded fourth, overwhelmed the unseeded Querrey 6-2, 6-2 in 57 minutes in the semifinals of the Abierto Mexicano Telcel in Acapulco.
   Thiem, a 22-year-old Austrian, will meet fifth-seeded Bernard Tomic of Australia for the first time in today's final. Tomic, 23, beat unseeded Alexandr Dolgopolov of Ukraine 1-6, 6-4, 6-3.
   Querrey, a 28-year-old San Francisco native, won his eighth career title but first since 2012 last week in Delray Beach.
   BNP Paribas Open -- Four-time champion Roger Federer, who underwent arthroscopic knee surgery on Feb. 3, has withdrawn from the March 7-20 tournament in Indian Wells.
   Federer had played Indian Wells for 15 consecutive years, winning the title from 2004 through 2006 and in 2012. He has been the runner-up to Novak Djokovic for the past two years. Federer, 34, entered the clay-court Monte Carlo Masters, scheduled for April 10-17.
   ITF Women's Circuit -- Defending champion CiCi Bellis, 16, of Atherton in the San Francisco Bay Area, lost to veteran Vania King of Long Beach 6-3, 6-4 in the quarterfinals of the $25,000 Morgan Run Women's Open in the San Diego suburb of Rancho Santa Fe.
   King, a two-time Grand Slam champion in women's doubles, returned to competition last August after missing almost one year with a herniated disc in her neck. She did not have surgery.
   In an all-American doubles semifinal, Bellis and Jacqueline Cako fell to top-seeded Asia Muhammad and Taylor Townsend 6-1, 6-3.
   Muhammad and Townsend will play third-seeded Jessica Pegula of Charleston, S.C., and Carol Zhao, a Stanford junior from Canada.
   Pegula and Zhao edged unseeded Mayo Hibi, an Irvine product who plays for her native Japan, and Grace Min of Boca Raton, Fla., 6-1, 3-6 [14-12].
   College women -- Freshman Olivia Hauger outlasted Brianna Morgan 4-6, 7-5, 6-4 on Court 5 to lift No. 1 Cal over No. 7 Florida 4-3 in Berkeley. The Bears improved to 10-0, and the Gators dropped to 5-1.
   College men -- Max de Vroome upset Tom Fawcett on Court 1, leading No. 13 USC over No. 29 and host Stanford 5-2. De Vroome, ranked 65th, topped Fawcett, ranked fourth, 6-5, 2-6, 6-2. The Trojans are 7-2, and the Cardinal is 5-5.