Keys, Osaka gain U.S. Open semis; Nishikori tops Cilic

Madison Keys poses with a stuffed grizzly bear after
winning last year's Bank of the West Classic at Stan-
ford. Grizzly bears are the state animal of California.
Photo by Mal Taam 

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   All four women who played today in the U.S. Open quarterfinals made splashes in the Bank of the West Classic at Stanford.
   No. 14 seed Madison Keys of Boca Raton, Fla., beat No. 30 Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain 6-4, 6-3 on another sultry day in Flushing Meadows, N.Y., after No. 20 Naomi Osaka of Japan overwhelmed lethargic Lesia Tsurenko of Ukraine 6-1, 6-1 in 57 minutes. Tsurenko told reporters afterward that she woke up today with a viral illness.
   Osaka, 20, became the youngest U.S. Open semifinalist since Caroline Wozniacki in 2010 and the first Japanese woman to reach a Grand Slam semifinal since Kimiko Date lost to Steffi Graf in three sets at Wimbledon in 1996.
   Keys won the last singles title in the Bank of the West Classic in 2017, and Suarez Navarro teamed with compatriot Garbine Muguruza to earn the 2014 doubles crown at Stanford.
   Osaka's first big win came four years ago in the Bank of the West Classic. As a 16-year-old qualifier playing her first main-draw match on the WTA tour, she ousted 2011 U.S. Open champion Samantha Stosur 4-6, 7-6 (7), 7-5 in the opening round. Osaka saved a match point in the tiebreaker and overcame a 3-5 deficit in the third set. She then fell to No. 8 seed Andrea Petkovic.
   Tsurenko lost to Keys in the Stanford quarterfinals last year. The tournament moved to nearby San Jose under a new sponsor, Mubadala, this year.
   In Thursday's first semifinal (4 p.m. PDT on ESPN), No. 17 Serena Williams will meet No. 19 Anastasija Sevastova of Latvia for the first time. Then Keys, who was routed by close friend Sloane Stephens in last year's U.S. Open final, will face Osaka.
   Keys is 3-0 against Osaka, including a 7-5, 4-6, 7-6 (3) victory in the third round of the 2016 U.S. Open in their initial meeting.
   Williams, who has a residence in Silicon Valley, won the last of her six U.S. Open singles crowns four years ago. The three-time Bank of the West singles champion (2011, 2012 and 2014) can tie Margaret Court's record of 24 Grand Slam singles titles. 
   In a men's quarterfinal today, No. 21 seed Kei Nishikori of Japan outlasted No. 7 Marin Cilic of Croatia 2-6, 6-4, 7-6 (5), 4-6, 6-4 in 4 hours, 8 minutes. Nishikori, who trailed 2-4 in the second set, avenged a 6-3, 6-3, 6-3 loss to Cilic in the 2014 U.S. Open final.
   Nishikori will take on No. 6 Novak Djokovic, a two-time U.S. Open champion, on Friday. Djokovic eliminated unseeded John Millman of Australia 6-3, 6-4, 6-4.
   Millman, who has won two Northern California Challengers (Sacramento in 2010 and Aptos in 2015) and reached the final of another (Tiburon in 2014), was coming off a stunning victory over Roger Federer.
   Djokovic, 31, is 14-2 against Nishikori, 28, with a 13-match winning streak.

Naomi Osaka recorded her first big win as a 16-year-old
qualifier in the 2014 Bank of the West Classic at Stanford.
2014 photo by Paul Bauman

   Also Friday, No. 1 seed Rafael Nadal, the defending and three-time champion, will face No. 3 Juan Martin del Potro, who upset Federer for the 2009 U.S. Open title.
   Nadal, 32, is 11-5 against del Potro, who will turn 30 on Sept. 23. In their last meeting, Nadal prevailed 7-5, 6-7 (7), 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 in 4 hours, 28 minutes in the Wimbledon quarterfinals in July.
   Del Potro and Nishikori played in the now-defunct SAP Open in San Jose. Del Potro reached the quarterfinals as the second seed in 2009 in his only appearance in the tournament. Nishikori lost in the second round in all three of his appearances (2008, 2009 and 2011). Brad Gilbert of San Rafael in the San Francisco Bay Area coached him in 2011.
   In the men's doubles quarterfinals today, No. 3 seeds Mike Bryan (Stanford, 1997-98) and Jack Sock of the United States beat Maximo Gonzalez of Argentina and Nicolas Jarry of Chile 6-4, 7-6 (3).
   Bryan and Sock, the reigning Wimbledon champions, are scheduled to play No. 5 seeds Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah of Colombia on Thursday. Cabal and Farah, the Australian Open runners-up this year, defeated No. 15 Rohan Bopanna of India and Edouard Roger-Vasselin of France 6-3, 6-4.
    Two Northern California juniors were eliminated from the U.S. Open.
   Keenan Mayo, 18, of Roseville in the Sacramento area lost to No. 4 seed Nicolas Mejia of Colombia 6-3, 6-3 in the second round. And in the second round of girls doubles, Hailey Baptiste and Dalayna Hewitt topped fellow Americans Natasha Subhash and Katie Volynets, a 15-year-old resident of Walnut Creek in the Bay Area, 6-4, 7-6 (6).

Wozniacki upset in second round of U.S. Open

Caroline Wozniacki, right, shakes hands after losing to Varvara Lepchenko
in the second round of the 2015 Bank of the West Classic at Stanford.
Photo by Mal Taam 

   Like Simona Halep, Caroline Wozniacki won her first Grand Slam title this year.
   And like Halep, Wozniacki lost early in the U.S. Open.
   The No. 2 seed and two-time runner-up fell to Lesia Tsurenko of Ukraine 6-4, 6-2 tonight in the second round in Flushing Meadows, N.Y.
   Halep on Monday became the first top-seeded woman to lose her opening match in the 50-year history of the U.S. Open, losing to 44th-ranked Kaia Kanepi of Estonia 6-2, 6-4 in 76 minutes.
   After the second round, the highest seed among remaining women is No. 3 and defending champion Sloane Stephens, who grew up in Fresno and still has relatives there.
   Since winning the Australian Open in January, Wozniacki has failed to reach a major quarterfinal. She lost in the fourth round of the French Open to 14th-seeded Daria Kasatkina of Russia and in the second round at Wimbledon to Ekaterina Makarova of Russia.
   Wozniacki, 28, had won only one match in three tournaments after capturing the Eastbourne title on grass in June. She retired from her second-round match in Cincinnati two weeks ago with a knee injury after receiving a first-round bye.
   The 29-year-old Tsurenko, meanwhile, upset seventh-seeded Garbine Muguruza en route to the quarterfinals in Cincinnati.
   Both Tsurenko and Wozniacki have played one tournament in Northern California. Tsurenko reached the quarterfinals of last year's Bank of the West Classic at Stanford, losing to eventual champion Madison Keys. Wozniacki was seeded first in the 2015 Bank of the West Classic and fell to Uzbekistan-born American Varvara Lepchenko in the second round after receiving a first-round bye. The tournament moved to San Jose this year under a new sponsor.
   In the U.S. Open men's draw, former Aptos Challenger finalists John Millman of Australia and Mikhail Kukushkin of Kazakhstan will meet for the first time on Saturday after upsetting seeds.
   Millman, the 2015 Aptos champion, toppled 14th-seeded Fabio Fognini of Italy 6-1, 4-6, 6-4, 6-1. Kukushkin, the 2014 Aptos runner-up to Marcos Baghdatis, surprised 23rd-seeded Hyeon Chung, an Australian Open semifinalist this year, 7-6 (5), 6-2, 6-3.
   With a victory, the 29-year-old Millman can reach the fourth round of a Grand Slam tournament for the first time. The 30-year-old Kukushkin, meanwhile, can equal his best showing in a major. The winner will play either second-seeded Roger Federer or 30th-seeded Nick Kyrgios of Australia.
   In first-round doubles matches today:
   --No. 3 seeds Mike Bryan (Stanford, 1997-98) and Jack Sock of the United States overwhelmed Italians Daniele Bracciali and Marco Cecchinato 6-1, 6-1 in 38 minutes. Bryan and Sock won Wimbledon last month.
   --No. 12 seeds Ben McLachlan (Cal, 2011-14) of Japan and Jan-Lennard Struff of Germany lost to Italians Matteo Berrettini and Andreas Seppi 7-6 (5), 1-6, 6-4.
   --Wild cards Nicole Gibbs (Stanford, 2011-13) and Sabrina Santamaria of the United States defeated Alexa Guarachi of Chile and Vera Lapko of Belarus 6-1, 1-6, 6-1.
   Gibbs and former USC star Santamaria, both former NCAA doubles champions, are scheduled to face No. 2 seeds Timea Babos of Hungary and Kristina Mladenovic of France on Friday.
   Babos and Mladenovic won the Australian Open this year and reached the 2014 Wimbledon final.
   --Anna-Lena Groenefeld of Germany and Santiago Gonzalez of Mexico beat Raquel Atawo of Sacramento and Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi of Pakistan 6-3, 6-2 in mixed doubles. Atawo and Groenefield are seeded 14th in women's doubles.
   --Raluca Olaru of Romania and Franko Sugor of Croatia downed U.S. wild cards Danielle Collins and Tom Fawcett (Stanford, 2015-18) 3-6, 6-4 [10-3] in mixed doubles.

Pennetta, 33, shocks Sharapova at Indian Wells

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

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