After big upset, Kozyreva falls to fellow college qualifier

   Maria Kozyreva and Sachia Vickery couldn't back up their big victories in the $60,000 Berkeley (Calif.) Challenger.

   Emma Navarro of Charleston, S.C., eliminated Russia's Kozyreva 7-5, 6-3 today in a matchup of college qualifiers to reach the quarterfinals at the venerable Berkeley Tennis Club.

   Kozyreva, a fifth-year student at Saint Mary's College in nearby Moraga, Calif., ranked No. 1,246, stunned top-seeded Zheng Saisai, ranked No. 75, on Wednesday. Navarro, a University of Virginia sophomore, won the NCAA singles title in May. 

   Meanwhile, Usue (pronounced EW-sway) Arconada of Naples, Fla., topped Sachia (pronounced SA-sha) Vickery of Miramar, Fla., 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-2 in a battle of unseeded players.

   Vickery, who reached the singles semifinals and won the doubles title in the last (2019) Berkeley Challenger, ousted second-seeded Wang Xinyu, the runner-up in last week's $115,000 Columbus (Ohio) Challenger, on Wednesday. 

    Navarro is scheduled to play unseeded Marcela Zacarias of Mexico on Friday at 10 a.m., followed by fourth-seeded Kurumi Nara of Japan against qualifier Sophie Chang, a native of Havre de Grace, Md.

    In Friday's other quarterfinals, seventh-seeded Mayo Hibi of Japan is set to meet unseeded Louisa Chirico, a former top-60 player from Westchester, N.Y., at 10 a.m., followed by Arconada versus eighth-seeded Liang En Shuo of Chinese Taipei. Hibi, a longtime Southern California resident, reached the 2019 Berkeley final, losing to Madison Brengle. 

   Here are the Berkeley singles and doubles draws and Friday's schedule.

   BNP Paribas Open — Rising star Jenson Brooksby, 20, of Carmichael, Calif., in the Sacramento area and Katie Volynets, 19, of Walnut Creek in the San Francisco Bay Area received wild cards in the tournament, Monday through Oct. 17 in Indian Wells, Calif. Both will debut in the BNP Paribas Open.

   ATP Tour — Top-seeded Joe Salisbury and Neal Skupski of Great Britain beat wild cards Brandon Nakashima of San Diego and Sem Verbeek (University of the Pacific, 2013-16) of the Netherlands 6-1, 7-5 in the quarterfinals of the inaugural San Diego Open. 

Bellis linked to Evert in rout of former No. 5 Errani

CiCi Bellis, 21, thrashed 33-year-old Sara Errani, formerly ranked
No. 5 in singles and No. 1 in doubles, 6-0, 6-3 today in Macon, Ga.
Bellis won the first nine games. 2018 photo by Mal Taam

   Before multiple surgeries derailed CiCi Bellis' career, her former coach compared her to Jennifer Capriati.

   Veteran commentator Ken Thomas paid Bellis, a 21-year-old San Francisco native who grew up down the peninsula in Atherton, another tremendous compliment today.

   "I see a little Chris Evert in CiCi Bellis — quality groundstrokes," Thomas declared on the live stream of Bellis' 6-0, 6-3 thrashing of Sara Errani, formerly ranked No. 5 in singles and No. 1 in doubles, today in the quarterfinals of the $80,000 Mercer Tennis Classic in Macon, Ga. "For American women's tennis, it's really good to see Bellis playing like this."

   Earlier, sixth-seeded Marta Kostyuk, 18, of Ukraine, routed top-seeded Misaki Doi of Japan 6-2, 6-1 in 1 hour, 23 minutes in a matchup of the only remaining singles seeds.      Bellis, a wild card now based at the USTA National Campus outside of Orlando, Fla., had more firepower than the unseeded Errani, a 33-year-old Italian counterpuncher ranked No. 137, in the 65-minute match.

   Playing almost flawlessly, the petite, 5-foot-7 (1.68-meter) Bellis reeled off the first seven points and the opening nine games in her first meeting with the 5-foot-5 (1.64-meter) Errani, the runner-up to Maria Sharapova in the 2012 French Open. Bellis then lost two consecutive games before breaking serve for 4-2. Both players held serve from there.

   Granted, the Mercer Tennis Classic is a minor-league tournament, but Bellis reached her first semifinal since the 2017 Bank of the West Classic at Stanford, a five-minute drive from her childhood home, on the WTA Tour. She reached a career-high No. 35 two weeks later at 18 and was named the WTA Newcomer of the Year for 2017. 

   But slugging it out against older, bigger players at the top level of women's tennis took a massive toll on Bellis. She underwent three operations on her right wrist and one on her right elbow in 2018-19 and missed 19 months.     

   Errani, meanwhile, had her own troubles. She was suspended for two months in 2017 after failing a drug test, and the suspension was lengthened to 10 months in 2018. Errani claimed that she accidentally consumed her mother's cancer medication in homemade tortellini.

   Bellis, who's projected to rise at least 15 places to No. 158 on Monday, has an excellent chance in Saturday's semifinals against another accomplished veteran, weary qualifier Varvara Lepchenko. The 34-year-old American left-hander from Uzbekistan outlasted Sachia (pronounced SAH-shuh) Vickery, a 25-year-old Miramar, Fla., native, 6-7 (5), 6-4, 6-4 in 3 hours, 15 minutes.

   That wasn't even Lepchenko's longest match of the tournament. She edged second-seeded Nina Stojanovic of Serbia 6-7 (5), 6-2, 7-6 (6) in 3 hours, 33 minutes in the opening round on Wednesday.

   Bellis is 1-1 against Lepchenko, ranked No. 186 after climbing as high as No. 19 in 2012. Bellis prevailed 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (5) in the second round of her comeback tournament in Houston, a $125,000 event, on hardcourts as a qualifier last November, and Lepchenko coasted 6-3, 6-2 in the Rabat (Morocco) quarterfinals on clay in 2017.

   Both Lepchenko and Vickery have starred in NorCal, albeit at different levels. Lepchenko advanced to two semifinals (2014 and 2015) and one quarterfinal (2013) at Stanford. Vickery reached the singles semifinals and teamed with countrywoman Madison Brengle to win the doubles title in last year's $60,000 Berkeley Challenger. 

   Doi, a 5-foot-3 (1.59-meter) left-hander, was coming off a physically and mentally draining 6-7 (5), 7-6 (3), 6-1 victory over qualifier Veronica Cepede Royg of Paraguay in 3 hours, 9 minutes on Thursday. Cepede Royg served for the match at 6-5 in the second set. 

   Kostyuk, meanwhile, has lost an average of only four games in her three matches this week.

   Both Kostyuk and Doi lost to eventual champion Naomi Osaka in three sets in the recent U.S. Open, Kostyuk in the third round and Doi in the first round.

   Kostyuk, ranked No. 113, will meet Poland's Magdalena Frech, a qualifier ranked No. 165, for the first time on Saturday. Frech, 22, beat unseeded American Francesca Di Lorenzo 7-5, 6-3. 

   Both singles semifinals are scheduled to begin at 8 a.m. PDT with thunderstorms forecast to strike as early as 9 a.m. The doubles final, also featuring Frech, will follow, weather permitting.

   The unseeded team of Frech and compatriot Katarzyna Kawa dispatched top-seeded Caroline Dolehide and Caty McNally of the United States 6-4, 6-3. Frech and Kawa will play the unseeded pair of Di Lorenzo and countrywoman Jamie Loeb, who nipped second-seeded Doi and Stojanovic 1-6, 6-3 [10-8].

   ATP Challenger Tour — Qualifier Mackenzie McDonald, another San Francisco Bay Area product now based at the USTA National Campus, lost to unseeded Martin Klizan, a former top-25 player from Slovakia, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 in the quarterfinals of the $104,160 Istanbul Challenger on hardcourts.

   The diminutive McDonald, who was born and raised in Piedmont, advanced to the fourth round at Wimbledon in 2018 and climbed as high as No. 57 in April last year. However, he tore a right hamstring tendon during a doubles match the following month in the French Open, had surgery in June and sat out for the rest of the season. He is projected to rise 14 places to No. 209 on Monday.

   Klizan won the 2006 French Open boys singles title and reached a career-high No. 24 in 2015 before battling injuries. The 31-year-old left-hander will improve at least 13 spots to No. 155. 

   ATP Tour — Raven Klaasen and Ben McLachlan (University of California, Berkeley, 2011-14), playing in their first tournament together, defeated Max Purcell and Luke Saville 7-5, 6-4 to reach the final in Cologne, Germany.

   Purcell and Saville, the 2011 Wimbledon boys singles champion, reached the Australian Open final early this year, losing to American Rajeev Ram, now a volunteer assistant coach at Cal, and Great Britain's Joe Salisbury. 

   Saville and Hans Hach Verdugo of Mexico won the 2018 Tiburon (Calif.) Challenger as qualifiers in their first tournament together.  

   Klaasen, 38, of South Africa and Ben McLachlan, a 28-year-old New Zealand native who plays for his mother's native Japan, will play either third seeds and two-time reigning French Open champions Kevin Krawietz and Andreas Mies of Germany or unseeded Marcus Daniell of New Zealand and Philipp Oswald of Austria on Sunday.

   Daniell and Oswald ousted top-seeded Lukasz Kubot of Poland and Marcelo Melo of Brazil 6-2, 4-6 [10-3].

   Klaasen seeks his 17th ATP doubles title and McLachlan his sixth.

Ahn flings racket into crowd during Berkeley loss

Sixth-seeded Kristie Ahn, a 27-year-old Stanford graduate, said she had
intended to throw her racket to the bottom of the net during her loss to
top-seeded Madison Brengle on Saturday. Photo by Paul Bauman

   BERKELEY, Calif. – As her frustration mounted, Kristie Ahn finally snapped.
   Standing behind the baseline, the 27-year-old graduate of Stanford, across San Francisco Bay from Berkeley, flung her racket high in the air Saturday on the court where Billie Jean King was crowned the girls 18 national champion.
   The racket sailed into the crowd on one sideline, and a man dived to catch it.
   "If it gives you any indication of how my day went, I was aiming for the bottom of the net," the sixth-seeded Ahn said after losing to top seed, fellow American and good friend Madison Brengle 6-1, 6-3 in the semifinals of the $60,000 Berkeley Tennis Club Women's Challenge. "Somehow, my hand caught onto the grip, and (the racket) just went floating away in the crowd unfortunately. Luckily, no one got hurt."
   Chair umpire Carrie Hinueber warned Ahn for unsportsmanlike conduct and turned to International Tennis Federation supervisor Marc Bell, who was sitting the stands, to see if he needed to intervene and possibly default Ahn. Bell shook his head.
   "We check three things," Bell said after the match. "We check the action, intent and result. The intent was not to hurt anybody; the intent was to throw it to the (racket) bag. Nobody got hurt, so the result wasn't really bad. Her action? She's responsible for herself.
   "Any one of these three could be enough to be defaulted. In this case, none of these there were bad enough. The action itself was not so bad. That thing flew very lightly – the rest does not exist."

Madison Brengle complained to the chair umpire but later said it wasn't her de-
cision whether Kristie Ahn should have been defaulted. Photo by Paul Bauman

   Had Ahn hurled the racket on a line into the crowd, that would have been different, Bell noted.
   Ahn, who will be fined up to $500, went into the crowd to retrieve her racket but said nothing, and play continued.
   On the next changeover, Brengle complained to Hinueber, saying, "This is unacceptable." Brengle, who will play unseeded Mayo Hibi of Japan today at 2:30 p.m., then turned around and glared at Bell.
   After the subsequent doubles final, won by Brengle and Sachia (prounounced SAH-shuh) Vickery, Brengle was asked what was unacceptable.
   "I don't remember. Sorry," she said.
   Did Brengle think Ahn, who did apologize after their match to two fans sitting in the area, should have been defaulted?
   "That's not my call," she said. "That has nothing to do with me."
   Ahn, ranked No. 180 after reaching a career-high No. 105 in January 2018, had survived a grueling baseline battle against unseeded Arina Rodionova, who's No. 206, on Friday and faced the prospect of an even tougher one against Brengle, ranked No. 83 after climbing as high as No. 35 in 2015.
   Then Ahn, a right-hander with a two-handed backhand, bruised her left hand hitting a shot on the first point of the match.

Unseeded Mayo Hibi will play Madison Breng-
le in a rematch of the 2013 Sacramento final,
won by Hibi, then 17, in shocking fashion.
Photo by Paul Bauman

   "It just went downhill from there," she lamented.

   Ahn was victimized by a bad line call in the second game and in the first game of the second set. In the next game, she had control of a point but watched helplessly as Brengle laced a spectacular running forehand passing shot down the line.
   That's when Ahn lost her temper.
   "Maddie obviously is super tough to play," said Ahn, who stunned 2017 French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko in the first round on clay in Bogota in April. "She gets a lot of balls back and puts you in really uncomfortable situations. I played a really good, solid point and was just unable to execute, and it was just a bit of frustration there.
   "You come out to play regardless of the circumstances, and it's just a bit disappointing that I couldn't mentally get over my demons."
   Ahn was bidding to become the second former Stanford star in the two-year history of the Berkeley tournament to reach the final. Her ex-teammate and close friend, Nicole Gibbs, lost to Sofia Kenin last year. Kenin, a Moscow-born American, is now ranked No. 27 at age 20.
   It was Ahn's second consecutive debacle against Brengle, who leads the head-to-head series 3-0. Ahn vomited on the court and retired with Brengle leading 6-4, 1-0 last August in the final of a $60,000 tournament in hot, humid Landisville, Pa.
   Ahn said she had never thrown a racket into the seats.
   "No, no. I don't really throw my racket to begin with, but when I do, I aim for the bottom of the net or bottom of the fence," she said.
   Nor, Ahn said, has she ever been defaulted from a match.
   "I've barely even gotten (warnings), so it's not part of my routine," she said.
   Bell estimated that he has seen a player throw his or her racket into the stands four times in his 32 years as a linesman, chair umpire or supervisor, adding that sometimes nobody is sitting in them. He said he has never seen a player get defaulted for throwing a racket or a fan get hurt by one.
   "I saw a guy throw it out of the stadium on Center Court once," Bell said. "I don't want to say who it was or where. It was maybe seven or eight years ago. Nobody can throw it out of a stadium – the wind caught it."
   Vickery also had a bad day in singles – although nothing compared to Ahn's – at the Berkeley Tennis Club, which has a rich history. It was founded in 1906, and legends Don Budge, Helen Wills Moody, Helen Hull Jacobs and Hazel Hotchkiss Wightman once were members. Fellow International Tennis Hall of Famers Rod Laver, Ken Rosewall, Stan Smith and Arthur Ashe – in addition to King – played in tournaments there.

Second-seeded Sachia Vickery said she wasn't
herself in a 6-3, 6-0 loss to Mayo Hibi. Photo by
Paul Bauman

   The second-seeded Vickery, rebounding from lingering knee and elbow injuries, dropped the last eight games and lost to Hibi, who was born in Japan but has lived in California since she was 2 years old, 6-3, 6-0.
   "I woke up and wasn't really myself," said the 5-foot-4 (1.63-meter) Vickery, 24. "It was just one of those days where I couldn't get anything right. Even in the warmup, I wasn't feeling great. I thought as the match went on it would get better, but it didn't.
   "I haven't played this amount of matches in a row in a while since I have been a little bit injured, so my body was not used to the everyday routine, but she played a good match. Like I said yesterday, she's a tricky opponent to play, especially when you're not 100 percent."
   Still, Brengle and Vickery, playing their second tournament together, defeated Francesca Di Lorenzo from Columbus, Ohio, and Katie Swan of Great Britain 6-3, 7-5 for the doubles title. Both teams were unseeded.
   Brengle, 29, and the 23-year-old Hibi, who has tumbled from a career-high No. 166 in 2016 to No. 302, will meet for the second time. The first was also in the final of a Northern California Challenger as the unseeded Hibi, then 17, shocked the fifth-seeded Brengle, suffering from an intestinal illness, 7-5, 6-0 in Sacramento in July 2013.
   Hibi, who saved nine set points and won the last 12 games of that match, signed a letter of intent that November to attend UCLA but turned pro five months later instead. The Sacramento tournament moved to Berkeley last year.
   Hibi, only 5-foot-5 (1.65 meters) and 121 pounds (55 kilograms), said she's happy with her decision to turn pro but admitted that was not always the case.
   "There was definitely a point of time when I did kind of regret it," she said. "In your career, you have ups and downs. After I turned pro, all the pressure came to me. I was worrying about every single thing – money, I need a coach ...
   "College had been an (option) – if I don't do well enough, I can go to college. Now, I didn't have that anymore. I had so much more responsibility, so much more pressure that sometimes I wish I (had) gone to college.
   "Now I feel different. I feel those experiences also helped me and will help me in the future."
   The Bay Area is a second or third home for Hibi, whose father, Soichi, is a tennis fanatic and sales manager for a branch of a Japanese music company. She lived with her parents in Foster City, near San Francisco International Airport, from age 2 to 4, and her 19-year-old brother, Leo, was born in San Francisco. He is helping Mayo at the Berkeley tournament.
   The Hibis moved from Foster City to the Los Angeles area, first to Rancho Palos Verdes for two or three years and then to Irvine, where they still reside.
   Here are the Berkeley singles and doubles draws.

Ahn survives battle to reach $60K Berkeley semis

Sixth-seeded Kristie Ahn, a 27-year-old Stanford graduate, won
 a fierce baseline battle against unseeded Arina Rodionova, a 29-
year-old Australian from Russia. Photo by Paul Bauman

   BERKELEY, Calif. – The first meeting between Kristie Ahn and Arina Rodionova was memorable.
   Point after point, the veterans traded blistering groundstrokes and made amazing gets on another warm, sunny day at the venerable Berkeley Tennis Club.
   Set after set, Ahn took a lead only for Rodionova to fight back.
   Ahn, a 27-year-old Stanford graduate, finally prevailed 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 in 2 hours, 13 minutes today in the quarterfinals of the $60,000 Berkeley Tennis Club Women's Challenge.
   Ahn led 3-0 in the third set, but Rodionova, a 29-year-old Australian from Russia, got back on serve at 3-4. Rodionova then played an uncharacteristically loose game to trail 3-5, and Ahn held serve at 15 for the match, ending a string of four consecutive breaks.
   "She's an incredible competitor, and we had so many good points," said the 5-foot-5 (1.65-meter) Ahn, seeded sixth. "I just tried to stay as tough as I could and hang in there."
   The unseeded Rodionova, a chiseled 5-foot-6 (1.68 meters), was coming off a 6-7 (5), 7-6 (6), 6-3 victory over Jovana Jaksic, a Serb living in Sacramento, that lasted 2 hours, 56 minutes.
   "If you know Arina, you know she's one of the fittest players out there," said Ahn, who's ranked No. 180 after reaching a career-high No. 105 in January 2018. "She can do that all day, so I tried to stay aggressive but hang in there as well."
   Ahn, a right-hander, again played with her right arm heavily taped to protect a hyperextended elbow. The arm, she said Wednesday, is "much better than it looks."

Arina Rodionova was coming off a three-set victory over Jovana
Jaksic, a Serb living in Sacramento, that lasted almost three
hours. Photo by Paul Bauman

   Both Ahn and Rodionova qualified for Wimbledon this month and lost in the first round. Rodionova also reached the second round of doubles there with Kateryna Kozlova of Ukraine. They lost to eventual runners-up Gabriela Dabrowski of Canada and Yifan Xu of China.
   Ahn, a resident of Englewood Cliffs, N.J., was named after Kristi Yamaguchi, who won the Olympic gold medal in figure skating in 1992, the year Ahn was born.
   Ahn, who stunned 2017 French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko in the first round on clay in Bogota in April, will take on good friend and top seed Madison Brengle, a 29-year-old native of Dover, Del., now based in Bradenton, Fla., on Saturday not before 1:30 p.m.
   Brengle, ranked No. 83 after climbing as high as No. 35 in 2005, beat unseeded Gail Brodsky, a 28-year-old mother of two who grew up in Brooklyn, 6-0 6-4 in 55 minutes. They embraced after their meeting since 2012.
   "We talked about it," Brengle said. "It's been a long time, but we've known each other for so long (since Brengle was 10 or 11), and we're very good friends."
   Brodsky quit tennis in 2012 because of burnout and returned last year.
   Brengle is 2-0 against Ahn. But their first meeting was nine years ago, and Ahn retired from the second one with Brengle leading 6-4, 1-0 in the final of a $60,000 tournament in Landisville, Pa., last August. Ahn vomited on the court in the heat and humidity.
   "(Brengle) has an incredible tennis IQ," Ahn said. "She knows exactly how to play the game and how to play to her strengths. She can read the ball really well."

Second-seeded Sachia Vickery, who beat unseeded
Caroline Dolehide 6-3, 7-5, is the only semifinalist
who hasn't lost a set this week. Photo by Paul Bauman

   But Brengle has a soft, stiff-armed serve because of what she says is incurable hand and arm pain caused by a reaction to an anti-doping blood test at the 2016 U.S. Open. She sued the Women's Tennis Association and International Tennis Federation in April 2018. The WTA and ITF have not publicly commented on the case.
   "Everyone says, 'Oh, attack the serve,' but it's really tricky," Ahn said. "She defends so well, so if you go for too much, you miss. If you don't go for enough, she's right back on you."
   In Saturday's other semifinal, second-seeded Sachia (pronounced SAH-shuh) Vickery, 24, of Miramar, Fla., will face unseeded Mayo Hibi, 23, of Japan at 11 a.m.
   Vickery, only 5-foot-4 (1.63 meters), eliminated unseeded but powerful Caroline Dolehide, a 20-year-old native of Hinsdale, Ill., 6-3, 7-5.
   Hibi, a resident of Irvine in the Los Angeles region, topped fifth-seeded Na-Lae Han, a 27-year-old left-hander from South Korea, 7-5, 6-4 in a matchup of players with an unusual stroke. Hibi has a one-handed backhand, and Han possesses a two-handed forehand.
   Both Vickery, ranked No. 163, and Dolehide, ranked No. 256, have struggled this year after emerging in 2018.
   Vickery reached a career-high No. 73 last July but suffered tears in her knees late last year, came back too soon and hurt her elbow last month.
   "I wasn't even supposed to play this week," said Vickery, the only semifinalist who hasn't lost a set this week. "I was supposed to be doing another week of rehab."
   Dolehide, 5-foot-10 (1.78 meters), has plunged from a career-high No. 102 last July to No. 256 but reached the singles semifinals and doubles final in a $60,000 tournament in Honolulu last week.

Last year at age 19, Caroline Dolehide played in the main
draw of three Grand Slam tournaments, reaching the sec-
ond round of the French Open, and almost upset Simona
Halep at Indian Wells. Photo by Paul Bauman

   Last year, Dolehide played in the main draw of three Grand Slam tournaments, reaching the second round of the French Open as a qualifier, and advanced to the third round at Indian Wells, coming within a tiebreaker of beating Simona Halep, then ranked No. 1.
   Vickery and Hibi, ranked No. 302 after climbing as high as No. 166 in 2016, have split four career matches. They will meet for the third time this year and second time in five weeks.
   Vickery beat Hibi  6-4, 3-6, 7-5 in the first round of a $100,000 tournament in Manchester, England, last month and 6-3, 6-4 in the opening round of a $25,000 hard-court tourney in the San Diego suburb of Rancho Santa Fe in February.
   Vickery described the 5-foot-5 (1.65-meter) Hibi's game as "frustrating. She makes you work for everything. She doesn't play like anyone else on tour. Her ball is very flat and skiddy. She has kind of an underspin with a continental grip, so the ball comes very differently. She serves-and-volleys, and she chips-and-charges. She has very good hands, so that's something you don't see very often.
   "Playing her on grass is probably anyone's worst nightmare because her game is so suited to it. But I think here with the bouncier courts, I may have a little more time to take her shots. Her balls won't come through as quickly."
   In Saturday's doubles final, Brengle and Vickery will play Francesca Di Lorenzo from Columbus, Ohio, and Katie Swan of Great Britain in a matchup of unseeded teams.
   Brengle and Vickery crushed unseeded Ahn and Catherine Harrison, from Germantown, Tenn., in the Memphis area, 6-1, 6-0 in 54 minutes.
   Di Lorenzo and Swan edged top-seeded Giuliana Olmos, a product of Fremont in the San Francisco Bay Area who plays for Mexico, and Luisa Stefani of Brazil 6-3, 6-7 (2) [11-9].
   Here are the Berkeley singles and doubles draws and Saturday's schedule. Live streaming is available.

16-year-olds take spotlight in $60K Berkeley tourney

Little Connie Ma, 16, of Dublin in the San Fran-
cisco Bay Area, qualified in Berkeley for the
second year in a row. Photo by Paul Bauman

   BERKELEY, Calif. – Today was Kids Day at the $60,000 Berkeley Tennis Club Women's Challenge.
   No, a horde of ragamuffins wasn't running amok and making a – ahem – racket.
   Four 16-year-old Northern Californians played on a beautiful day at the former home of International Tennis Hall of Famers Don Budge and Helen Wills Moody, one in the last round of singles qualifying and three in the first round of main-draw doubles.
   Only Connie Ma, the singles player, won, but the doubles team of identical twins Allura and Maribella Zamarripa put up a fight against a formidable pair. So did Makenna Thiel for a set.
   Ma, a 5-foot-4 (1.63-meter), 100-pound (45.4-kilogram) resident of nearby Dublin, outplayed China's Xiaodi You, seeded third in qualifying, 6-4, 7-6 (4) to reach the main draw for the second consecutive year.
   Ma lost to eighth-seeded Mayo Hibi, who grew up in Irvine in the Los Angeles area and plays for her native Japan, 6-0, 6-3 in the first round in 2018. Hibi was ranked No. 187 at the time.
   Ma's reward this time? A matchup against top-seeded Madison Brengle on Wednesday after the 10 a.m. encounter between eighth-seeded Katie Swan of Great Britain and 17-year-old Hailey Baptiste of Washington, D.C.
   Brengle, ranked No. 83 after reaching a career-high No. 35 in 2015, will be the 732nd-ranked Ma's first top-100 opponent. The winner will play another qualifier, either Giuliana Olmos, a product of nearby Fremont who plays for Mexico, or Alycia Parks, an 18-year-old professional from Port St. Lucie, Fla.
   You, ranked No. 293, also advanced to the main draw when third-seeded Sofya Zhuk, a Russian who won the Wimbledon girls singles title at 15 in 2015, withdrew.

Identical twins Allura Zamarripa, left, and Maribella Zamarripa,
16, of Saint Helena in the Napa region, pushed Madison Brengle
and Sachia Vickery, seeded 1-2 in singles, in the first round of
doubles. Photo by Paul Bauman

   The Zamarripas, wild cards from Saint Helena in the Napa region, lost to American veterans Brengle and Sachia Vickery, seeded second in singles, 6-7 (5), 6-2 [10-5].
   Wild cards Thiel, a resident of neighboring Piedmont playing on her home courts, and former UCLA All-American Chanelle Van Nguyen fell to fourth-seeded Pei Hsuan Chen and Fan-Hsien Wu of Taiwan 6-2, 6-4.
   Both main-draw singles seeds in action today lost. Arina Rodionova, an Australian veteran ranked 206th, ousted fourth-seeded Francesca Di Lorenzo, an American ranked 153rd, 6-4, 7-5.

   Di Lorenzo, a 21-year-old left-hander from Columbus, Ohio, who won the 2017 NCAA doubles title as an Ohio State sophomore, led 3-0 in the first set and had a set point in the second set.
   Japan's Hiroko Kuwata ranked 271st, eliminated seventh-seeded Zoe Hives, an Australian ranked 201st, 6-3, 6-4. 

   Ma wore down You mentally with outstanding defense and consistency.
   "It was clear," Ma said. "You could tell she was getting kind of frustrated. She was spraying balls wide that she usually wouldn't, and some of the calls kind of made her frustrated, too."
   There was late drama, though. Ma served for the match at 6-4, 5-4 but was broken when she made a rare error, slugging a cross-court backhand wide.
   When asked if she got tight serving for the match, Ma paused and said, "Um, maybe a little, but I think more of the problem was that the sun is in your eyes over there, so you have to adjust your toss. It is what it is. Obviously, you can't control the sun."

Makenna Thiel, 16, playing on her home courts, and Chan-
elle Van Nguyen tested fourth-seeded Pei Hsuan Chen and
Fang-Hsien Wu of Taiwan in the opening round of doubles.
Photo by Paul Bauman

   After You held for 6-5, Ma saved two set points and forced a tiebreaker. You double-faulted to give Ma a 4-1 lead, and Ma laced a forehand winner to go up 6-2 with four match points. She converted the third one when You slugged a backhand down the lie that smacked the tape and bounced back.

   The Zamarripas, who won back-to-back doubles titles in $15,000 clay-court tournaments in Florida last month, charged the net, volleyed impressively and pinned Brengle and Vickery on the baseline for much of their match.

   Brengle has a soft, stiff-armed serve because of arm pain caused by a long-term reaction to an anti-doping blood test for which she sued the Women's Tennis Association and International Tennis Federation. The WTA and ITF have not publicly commented on the case. Vickery had her own serving woes in the first set.

   But the Zamarripas relaxed a bit after winning the first set, while Brengle and Vickery increased their intensity and used their experience.

   "They raised their level a little bit, but I feel like our focus was a little off," Maribella Zamarripa said. "Something happened. It's ups and downs. You can't always control them."
   Fortunately, Maribella is right-handed, and Allura is a lefty. Otherwise, it would be almost impossible to tell them apart. Guess who their idols are.
   "Definitely the Bryan brothers," Allura asserted. "We took a couple pictures with them. I always remember that, and we're just hoping to be like them one day."
   Added Maribella: "I would say so, since they're lefty-righty, mirror (images) – who else to idolize? They've won so many Slams. It's very encouraging."
   So was the Zamarripas' performance today.
   Here are the Berkeley qualifying draw, singles and doubles main draws, and Wednesday's schedule. Live streaming is available.

Two U.S. women qualify for Wimbledon

Sachia Vickery advanced to the Wimbledon main draw
for the first time. 2014 photo by Paul Bauman

   Of the 18 American men and women combined who played Wimbledon singles qualifying this week, only two survived.
   Sachia Vickery, seeded fourth, and Bethanie Mattek-Sands reached the main draw with straight-set victories at Roehampton on Thursday. The men's and women's singles draws will be conducted today, and Wimbledon will begin on Monday.
   Vickery, 20, defeated countrywoman Jessica Pegula 7-5, 7-5 to earn her first berth in the Wimbledon main draw. Pegula, whose billionaire father owns the NFL's Buffalo Bills and NHL's Buffalo Sabres, was the runner-up to Modesto product Maria Sanchez in the inaugural Sacramento Challenger in 2012.
   Mattek-Sands, a 30-year-old veteran who reached the fourth round at Wimbledon in 2008, beat 11th-seeded Shahar Peer of Israel 6-1, 6-4. Peer, 28, is ranked No. 120 after climbing to a career-high No. 11 in 2011.
   The United States had 11 women and seven men in singles qualifying at Roehampton.
   Vickery advanced to WTA tour quarterfinals at Stanford on hardcourts last summer and Nottingham on grass two weeks ago, both times as a qualifier. She also reached the quarters of the $50,000 Sacramento Challenger last July.
   Mattek-Sands, who had hip surgery last year and missed six months, has plunged from a career-high No. 30 in singles in 2011 to No. 157. But she's a career-high No. 6 in doubles after winning this year's Australian Open and French Open with Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic.
   Mattek-Sands, a two-time semifinalist in women's doubles at Stanford, also won this year's French Open mixed doubles title with fellow American Mike Bryan.
   Meanwhile, 15th-seeded John Millman of Australia earned his first main-draw berth at Wimbledon with a 1-6, 6-3, 6-3, 6-2 victory over Enzo Couacaud of France.
   Millman lost to Sam Querrey in the semifinals at Sacramento and the final at Tiburon in consecutive Challengers last fall. Here's my November profile of Millman.
   Querrey, a 27-year-old San Francisco native, reached the Nottingham semifinals on the ATP World Tour this week with a big upset. Querrey, seeded 12th, saved two match points in his 5-7, 7-6 (8), 6-4 triumph over second-seeded Gilles Simon of France.
   Querrey will face Ukraine's Alexandr Dolgopolov, who eked out a 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (4) win over Taiwan's Yen-Hsun Lu, a Wimbledon quarterfinalist in 2010.   

Modesto's Sanchez falls in Wimbledon qualifying

Maria Sanchez, who was born and raised in
Modesto, lost in the second round of Wim-
bledon qualifying. 2013 photo by Paul Bauman

   Maria Sanchez will have to wait at least one more year to make her first appearance in the singles main draw at Wimbledon.
   The 25-year-old Modesto product lost to eighth-seeded Ying-Ying Duan of China 7-5, 6-0 today in the second round of qualifying at Roehampton in London.
   In her only previous singles appearance at Wimbledon, Sanchez lost to former world No. 11 Shahar Peer of Israel in the second round of qualifying in 2013.
   Five American women reached Thursday's final round of qualifying: No. 3 Louisa Chirico, No. 4 Sachia Vickery, No. 18 Anna Tatishvili, Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Jessica Pegula. Vickery, 20, and Pegula, 21, are scheduled to meet; the winner will earn her first berth in the Wimbledon main draw. 
   The last U.S. man remaining in the draw, No. 18 Bjorn Fratangelo, lost to Australia's John-Patrick Smith 7-6 (5), 6-4.
   Vickery advanced to WTA tour quarterfinals at Stanford on hardcourts last summer and Nottingham on grass two weeks ago, both times as a qualifier.
   Vickery and Chirico, 19, reached the quarters of the $50,000 Sacramento Challenger last July.
   Mattek-Sands, who had hip surgery last year and missed six months, has plunged from a career-high No. 30 in singles in 2011 to No. 157. But she's a career-high No. 6 in doubles after winning this year's Australian Open and French Open with Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic.
   Mattek-Sands also won this year's French Open mixed doubles title with fellow American Mike Bryan.
   Pegula, the runner-up in the inaugural 2012 Sacramento Challenger whose billionaire father owns the NFL's Buffalo Bills and the NHL's Buffalo Sabres, eliminated No. 21 Michelle Larcher de Brito of Portugal 1-6, 7-6 (7), 5-4, retired.
   Larcher de Brito, 22, stunned former world No. 1s Maria Sharapova in the second round at Wimbledon two years ago and Ana Ivanovic in the same round at Birmingham last week on grass, each time as a qualifier.
   At 14, Larcher de Brito helped the Sacramento Capitals win the World Team Tennis title in 2007. She was the youngest competitor in league history until American Madison Keys surpassed her, by 19 days, two years later as a 14-year-old with the Philadelphia Freedoms.
   The 20-year-old Keys, an Australian Open semifinalist in January, is now ranked 21st to Larcher de Brito's 119th. Not coincidentally, Keys is 5-foot-10 (1.78-meter), and Larcher de Brito is five inches (12.7 centimeters) shorter.
   The Capitals disbanded in 2013 after 28 years in Sacramento but will be replaced by the California Dream beginning next month.
   Joining Sanchez on the sideline today were Americans Grace Min, seeded 24th, and Melanie Oudin.
   Oudin, a U.S. Open quarterfinalist at 17 in 2009, underwent heart and eye procedures during the offseason. Also, a muscle condition sidelined her in 2013.
   Smith, a 26-year-old left-hander, has won the doubles title in the last two Sacramento Challengers with Aussies Matt Reid and Adam Hubble, respectively.
   Smith had one of the greatest collegiate careers on and off the court in history. He earned not one but two bachelor's degrees, in economics and business administration, and became the second player in NCAA Division I history to earn All-America honors in singles and doubles all four years. The other is USC's Jon Leach, who eventually rose to No. 1 in the world in doubles.