Two NorCal girls reach Eddie Herr doubles semis in 16s

   Two Northern Californians separately reached the girls 16 doubles semifinals in the prestigious Eddie Herr International 2019 in Bradenton, Fla.
   In the top half of the draw, top-seeded Sarah Hamner of Fort Collins, Colo., and Vivian Ovrootsky of San Jose, Calif., outplayed fifth-seeded Ashlyn Krueger of Flower Mound, Texas, and Marcela Lopez of Frisco, Texas, 6-1, 6-4 today.
   In the bottom half, fourth-seeded Midori Castillo of Chula Vista, Calif., in the San Diego area and Tomi Main of Seaside, Calif., (near Monterey) topped Ann Guerry and Kate Sharabura, both of Atlanta, 6-4, 7-5.
   Hamner and Ovrootsky are scheduled to meet eighth-seeded Kassandra Di Staulo of Weston, Fla., and Gavriella Smith of New Orleans on Friday. Castillo and Main are set to face sixth-seeded Ava Krug of Lakewood Ranch, Fla., and Qavia Lopez of Milwaukee.
   Ovrootsky, seeded first in singles, fell to fifth-seeded Lan Mi of the United States 6-4, 4-6, 7-5 in the quarters. Ovrootsky won singles title in the 14s two years ago.
   Other NorCal players have been eliminated from the tournament. Esther Vyrlan of Sacramento lost in the girls 14 doubles quarterfinals, fourth-seeded Priya Nelson of Sacramento in the third round of the girls 14s and Aidan Mayo of Roseville in the Sacramento area in the second round of the boys 18s.
   Past competitors in the Eddie Herr tournament include eventual world No. 1s Roger Federer, Andy Roddick, Maria Sharapova, Jelena Jankovic and Ana Ivanovic. Herr, the father of international junior tennis, died in 2000 at 93.

Quan coasts, but four others fall in Junior Orange Bowl

   Rudy Quan rolled into the round of 16 in the boys 12s today at the Junior Orange Bowl.
   But the other four remaining Northern Californians lost in the third round of their respective age groups in Coral Gables, Fla.
   The top-seeded Quan, from the Sacramento suburb of Roseville, demolished unseeded Matthew Yang of Canada 6-0, 6-0. Quan -- who has won gold balls this year in the Winter Nationals, Easter Bowl, Clay Courts and Hard Courts -- has lost only four games in his three matches.
   Quan will play Danial Rakhmatullayev, a qualifier from Kazakhstan who surprised ninth-seeded Maxwell Exsted of Savage, Minn., 6-3, 7-6 (1).
   Meanwhile, No. 9 seed Jaden Weekes of Canada beat No. 17 seed Herrick Thomas Legaspi of Sacramento 6-3, 6-4 in the boys 14s.
   No. 5 seed Vivian Ovrootsky of San Jose and unseeded Ria Bhakta of Saratoga in the San Francisco Bay Area lost in the girls 14s. No. 17 seed Gracie Epps of Norman, Okla., topped Ovrootsky 4-6, 7-5, 6-1, and No. 2 seed Eleana Yu of Mason, Ohio, eliminated Bhakta 6-1, 6-4.
   In a matchup of unseeded players in the girls 12s, Shanice Roignot of France outplayed Esther Vyrlan of Sacramento 6-3, 6-3.

Bellis returns to NorCal roots in Challenger win

Third-seeded CiCi Bellis of Atherton beat friend and former
junior rival Karina Kristina Vyrlan, a wild card, in the first
round of the $50,000 FSP Gold River Women's Challenger.
Photo by Paul Bauman

   GOLD RIVER, Calif. -- It was like old times for CiCi Bellis on Tuesday.
   She was playing Karina Kristina Vyrlan again in a Northern California tournament.
   "I played her a bunch in NorCal juniors when I was younger, so it was crazy to see her name in the draw and play her," Bellis said. "I hadn't seen her in a while, either, so it was good to see her. We've been friends for a while."
   This wasn't the juniors, though. This was the $50,000 FSP Gold River Women's Challenger.
   In a matchup of 16-year-old Northern Californians, the third-seeded Bellis dispatched Vyrlan, a wild card, 6-4, 6-1 at the Gold River Racquet Club.
   An even younger Northern Californian, Michaela Gordon of Saratoga in the San Francisco Bay Area, ousted fifth-seeded Jacqueline Cako, a 23-year-old American, 6-2, 6-3 in the final round of qualifying. Gordon, who recently reached the Wimbledon girls quarterfinals for the second straight year, will turn 16 on Sunday.
   The 1,091st-ranked Vyrlan, playing at home in the Sacramento area, led 4-3 in the first set, but Bellis, a resident of Atherton in the Bay Area ranked No. 167, used her punishing forehand to reel off the next seven games and nine of the last 10.
   "I was a little nervous in the beginning," Bellis admitted. "Then I started to relax."

Bellis won the girls 18 title in the NorCal
Junior Sectionals at Sacramento State three
years ago. 2012 photo by Paul Bauman

   Players, especially seeds, often get nervous in the first round as they adjust to new conditions. Bellis, though, faced added pressure after losing to Jovana Jaksic of Serbia in the first round of last week's inaugural Stockton Challenger.
   The Stockton match was Bellis' first in seven weeks because of age restriction rules. She no longer plays junior tournaments.
   Tuesday's victory marked Bellis' first appearance in the Sacramento area since she won the girls 18 title in the NorCal Junior Sectional Championships at Sacramento State three years ago.
   "It feels like yesterday," Bellis said wistfully. "I still remember every single match I played there. It feels like no time has passed."
   Yet so much has happened since then. Bellis had a better year in 2014 than Chevron. In chronological order, she:
   --Won the girls 18 singles title in the prestigious Easter Bowl in Indian Wells.
   --Reached the French Open girls doubles final with Marketa Vondrousova of the Czech Republic.
   --Became the youngest winner of the USTA Girls 18 National Championships since Lindsay Davenport, also 15, in 1991. The title gave Bellis an automatic wild card in the women's main draw of the U.S. Open.
   --Became the youngest player to win a main-draw match in the U.S. Open since Anna Kournikova, also 15, in 1996. And Bellis didn't beat just anyone. She shocked 12th-seeded Dominika Cibulkova, the runner-up in the Australian Open that year.
   --Helped the United States win the Junior Fed Cup in San Luis Potosi, Mexico, in September.
   --Won back-to-back $25,000 Challenger singles crowns in Rock Hill, S.D., and Florence, S.C., in October as an amateur.
   --Ended last year as the No. 1 junior in the world.

Vyrlan, playing at home in the Sacramento area, led 4-3 in the first set
before Bellis reeled off seven straight games and nine of the last 10.
Photo by Paul Bauman

   This year, Bellis won a $25,000 Challenger in Rancho Santa Fe in the San Diego area in February and reached the third round at Miami on the elite WTA tour in March. In Miami, Bellis whipped then-No. 32 Zarina Diyas, who had beaten her in three sets in the second round of the U.S. Open, 6-2, 6-1 in the second round before losing to someone named Serena Williams 6-1, 6-1.
   Beating Cibulkova was a mixed blessing, Bellis revealed.
   "It helped me in a way -- it was my first big match and first big win. But in the tournaments following that, it put more pressure on me. Even after that, the tournaments I won and Miami, it's put me in a place where people expect me to win most of the matches I play. That's one of the down sides of it, but once you get better and better, that always happens, so you just get used to it," Bellis said.
   Playing Williams was "pretty scary," Bellis continued.
   "My coach (Tom Gutteridge) and I were talking today and joking, and I said, 'I'm probably never going to play anyone ever again that's as good as her,' " Bellis said with a laugh. "She's probably the best player to ever pick up a racket. To play her was unbelievable for me and a good experience. I think it will help me to play players like that."

Saratoga's Michaela Gordon, who will turn 16 on Sun-
day, ousted fifth-seeded Jacqueline Cako, 23, in the
final round of qualifying. Photo by Paul Bauman

   August will be another big month for Bellis. She received a wild card to play in the Bank of the West Classic on the WTA tour at Stanford, 5-10 minutes away from her home, for the first time.
   "It means everything to me," Bellis said. "Every year I've gone, I've been thinking about how long it'll take for me to be able to play in that tournament, and I never thought it would be this soon.
   "It's basically in my back yard. I played there so many times when I was younger in clinics and practices. It's one of my favorite places to play, and it's such a beautiful campus, so I think it's going to be amazing to play there."
   Bellis could play Williams again in the Bank of the West, which Williams won for the third time last year. Bellis said she's OK either way.
   "If I play her again, I won't be nervous because I've already played her once," Bellis declared.
   After the Bank of the West, Bellis plans to get her driver's license.
   "I'm so excited," she gushed. "I was supposed to get it earlier this year, but I haven't had time."
   Then comes the U.S. Open, which begins in late August. Bellis expects to get another wild card, if necessary, at Flushing Meadows.
   The home-schooled Bellis said if she cracks the top 100, her goal, she'll turn pro. And if she doesn't, there's always the possibility of attending that school down the road.
   Lele Forood, the Stanford women's coach, probably could make room for Bellis on the roster.      
   Notes -- Maria Sanchez, who won the inaugural Gold River Challenger three years ago, withdrew Monday without giving a reason, according to USTA supervisor Missy Malool.
   Sanchez, a 25-year-old USC graduate, suffered an agonizing first-round loss in Stockton, about a 30-minute drive from where she grew up in Modesto. She fell to Jessica Moore of Australia 3-6, 7-5, 7-5 after serving for the match at 6-3, 5-4, leading 4-2 in the third set and getting broken in the final game. ...
   Mayo Hibi and Jessica Pegula beat fourth-seeded Jamie Loeb and Sanaz Marand 7-6 (4), 6-1 in the first round. All except Hibi are American, and even though the 19-year-old Hibi plays for her native Japan, she grew up in Irvine in the Los Angeles area.
   Loeb and Marand won the Stockton Challenger.
   Both Hibi and the 21-year-old Pegula, whose billionaire father owns the NFL's Buffalo Bills and the NHL's Buffalo Sabres, have had singles success in the Gold River Challenger. Hibi won the title two years ago, and Pegula was the runner-up to Sanchez in 2012.

$50,000 FSP GOLD RIVER WOMEN'S CHALLENGER

At Gold River Racquet Club in Gold River, Calif.
Final-round qualifying

   Ashley Weinhold, United States, def. Renata Zarazua (7), Mexico, 4-6, 6-2, 6-4.

   Nicole Frenkel (8), United States, def. Kelly Chen, United States, 6-4, 6-3.

   Michaela Gordon, Saratoga, def. Jacqueline Cako (5), United States, 6-2 6-3.
   Mari Osaka (6), Japan, def. Alexandra Stevenson (1), United States, 6-3, 7-5.

First-round singles

   Anhelina Kalinina (8), Ukraine, vs. Samantha Crawford, United States, 7-6 (4), 6-1.
   CiCi Bellis (3), Atherton, def. Karina Vyrlan, Sacramento, 6-4, 6-1.
   Eri Hozumi (2), Japan, def. Caitlin Whoriskey, United States, 6-4, 6-2. 

First-round doubles

   Mayo Hibi, Japan, and Jessica Pegula, United States, def. Jamie Loeb and Sanaz Marand (4), United States, 7-6 (4), 6-1.
   Robin Anderson and Maegan Manasse, United States, def. Jacqueline Cako, United States, and Chanel Simmonds, South Africa, 4-6, 6-3 [10-6].
   Nao Hibino, Japan, and Rosie Johanson, Canada, def. CiCi Bellis, Atherton, and Rianna Valdes, United States, 3-6, 6-2 [10-8].

Today's schedule

Stadium
(Not before 1 p.m.)

   Asia Muhammad, United States, vs. Naomi Cavaday, Great Britain.

   Kimiko Date-Krumm (7) vs. Jessica Pegula, United States.
   Nao Hibino (4), Japan, vs. Sanaz Marand, United States.
   Samantha Crawford and Asia Muhammad, United States, vs. Naomi Cavaday, Great Britain, and    Alexandra Stevenson, United States (possible court change).

(Not before 6:30 p.m.)

   An-Sophie Mestach (1), Belgium, vs. Melanie Oudin, United States.
   Alexandra Facey and Kat Facey, Cameron Park, vs. Jillian Taggart, Fair Oaks, and Karina Kristina Vyrlan, Sacramento.

Court 3
(Starting at noon)

   Ashley Weinhold, United States, vs. Mari Osaka, Japan.
   Jamie Loeb, United States, vs. Kelly Chen, United States.
   Jennifer Brady, United States, vs. Clothilde De Bernardi, France. 
   Jovana Jaksic, Serbia, and Anhelina Kalinina, Ukraine, vs. Usue Maitane Arconada and Kylie McKenzie, United States.

Court 4 

(Starting at noon)

   Mayo Hibi (7), Japan, vs. Nicole Frenkel, United States.
   Julia Boserup, United States, vs. Jan Abaza, United States.
   Robin Anderson, United States, vs. Lauren Embree, United States.

Court 5

(Starting at noon) 

   Jovana Jaksic, Serbia, vs. Manon Arcangioli, France.

   Kristie Ahn, United States, vs. Chanel Simmonds, South Africa.

   Brooke Austin, United States, vs. Michaela Gordon, Saratoga.

Tursunov wins Munich doubles; Klinger takes junior title

Dmitry Tursunov, shown at Indian Wells
in March, won the doubles title in Munich
with Jarkko Nieminen. Photo by Paul Bauman

   Dmitry Tursunov has spent the past three months rebounding in singles.
   Now he's starting to do the same in doubles.
   Tursunov, a 30-year-old Russian based in the Sacramento area, and Jarkko Nieminen of Finland defeated Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus and Eric Butorac of Rochester, Minn., 6-1, 6-4 on Sunday to win the BMW Open on clay in Munich. Both teams were unseeded.
   "I think today both of us were so nervous and so tight," Tursunov said on atpworldtour.com. "We're just glad it's finally over. It wasn't the prettiest match for both teams, but we had some good points.
   "It helped us (this week) that the courts were a little bit slow with the weather and conditions, so we were able to hit a lot of groundstrokes. It's tough for the doubles guys; they're so used to high-paced shots. We were able to take our time and pick our spots."
   Tursunov and Nieminen upended top seeds Alexander Peya of Austria and Bruno Soares of Brazil in the Munich quarterfinals and No. 3 seeds Julian Knowle of Austria and Filip Polasek of Slovakia in the semifinals.
   With the sixth ATP World Tour doubles title of his career but first since late 2010, Tursunov skyrocketed 124 places in the rankings to No. 146. He reached a career-high No. 36 in 2008.
   In singles, Tursunov has improved from No. 122 to No. 57 this year. He has been as high as No. 20, in 2006, during his injury-plagued career.
   A right-hander with a two-handed backhand, Tursunov missed three months early last year with a left wrist injury and never got untracked in 2012. He also missed this past January to rest nagging back, left wrist and right shoulder injuries.
   Tursunov has won seven ATP singles titles. The Munich crown was his first on clay in singles or doubles. All of his doubles titles have come with different partners.     
   Ironically, Nieminen handed Tursunov probably the most heartbreaking loss of his career, prevailing 7-5, 6-4, 6-7 (2), 6-7 (6), 9-7 in the round of 16 at Wimbledon in 2006. It's the closest Tursunov has come to reaching the singles quarterfinals of a Grand Slam tournament.
   In doubles, Tursunov has advanced to the quarterfinals twice and semifinals once in the French Open with countryman Igor Kunitsyn from 2007 to 2009.
   Tursunov and Butorac both have played for the Sacramento Capitals in World TeamTennis. Tursunov was named the WTT Rookie of the Year in 2004 for Sacramento, and Butorac competed for the Capitals in 2008. They were teammates for one match in 2008.

Cameron Klinger, 15, of San Jose won
the boys 18 singles title at the Rio del
Oro Junior Championships in Sacra-
mento. Photo by Paul Bauman

   Juniors -- Cameron Klinger of San Jose defeated Nikita Matveyko of Kirkland, Wash., 7-5, 6-2 to win the boys 18 singles title at the Rio del Oro Junior Championships in Sacramento. Both players were unseeded.
   Matveyko served for the first set at 5-4.
   "I played a couple good games to win the set," said Klinger, whose height (6-foot-2) and power belie his age (15). "I think that hurt him mentally (in the second set)."
   Klinger, who swept the USTA national boys 14 singles and doubles titles in 2011, was playing in his first tournament in two months.
   "I was burned out," he explained. "I spent three or four months (playing) in Florida. I feel a lot better now."
   Klinger recently began working with Fresno-based Brad Stein, the former coach of International Tennis Hall of Famer Jim Courier.
   In the girls 18 final, unseeded Emma Critser of Mountain View in the San Francisco Bay Area beat fifth-seeded Karina Vyrlan of Sacramento 6-2, 6-4. Critser is a high school junior; Vyrlan, a 14-year-old freshman, has been home-schooled since fourth grade.
   Fifth-seeded Jessi Muljat (pronounced Mul-yat), 12, of Gold River in the Sacramento area topped unseeded Maria Kozyreva of Granite Bay 6-4, 6-4 to win the girls 16 singles title.
   Following are results of the other Rio del Oro finals:
   Boys 16 singles -- Lane Leschly (8), Atherton, def. Trenton Neild (9), La Selva Beach, 6-1, 6-2.
   Boys 14 singles -- Keenan Mayo (2), Roseville, def. Austen Huang (1), Elk Grove, 6-4, 4-6, 6-0.
   Boys 12 singles -- Stefan Leustian (6), Mather, def. Aidan Mayo (3), Roseville, 7-5, 6-2.
   Girls 14 singles -- Jillian Taggart, Fair Oaks, def. Ashley Yeah (5), Los Gatos, 6-1, 6-0.
   Girls 12 singles -- Muskan Mahajan (4), San Ramon, def. Jennamarie Gordon (1), Los Altos Hills, 6-4, 6-1.
   Boys 18 doubles -- Wyatt Kershaw, Clovis, and Deric Wanland (1), Sacramento, def. Arshak Ghazaryan, Granite Bay, and Nikita Matveyko, Kirkland, Wash., 8-5.
   Boys 16 doubles -- Joseph Conlin, Alameda, and Jayson Fung, San Francisco, def. Peter Shin, Dublin, and Satyajit Simhadri (1), Saratoga, 8-2.
   Boys 14 doubles -- Austen Huang, Elk Grove, and Keenan Mayo (1), Roseville, def. Randy Cory, Salinas, and Andrew Ton (2), Milpitas, 9-8.
   Boys 12 doubles -- Mason Fung, San Francisco and Ryder Jackson (1), Nicasio, def. Ryan Ali, Mill Valley, and Ilan Leventhal (4), San Mateo, 8-3.
   Girls 18 doubles -- Bridget Guenard, Elk Grove, and Stephanie Lin (1), Pinole, def. Paige Cline, Kentfield, and Isabella Heidenreich, Napa, 8-6.
   Girls 16 doubles -- Darya Possokhova and Katya Tabachnik (1), San Francisco, def. Rebecca Li, Pleasanton, and Seriana Saltzen (2), Cameron Park, 8-6.
   Girls 14 doubles --Jenna Schlatter, Saint Helena, and Jillian Taggart, Fair Oaks, def. Niluka Madurawe, Sunnyvale, and Jacquie Tan, Elk Grove, 8-5.
   Girls 12 doubles -- Julia Owens, Los Altos, and Monica Stratakos (1), Saratoga, def. Alexandra Accinelli, Sacramento, and Jasjot Sandhu, Rancho Cordova, 8-2. 

Vyrlan, 14, and Muljat, 12, post big upsets

Karina Vyrlan, 14, overwhelmed top-seeded Mariska Chamdani
6-0, 6-0 in the girls 18 quarterfinals. Photo by Paul Bauman

   SACRAMENTO -- Keep an eye on Karina Vyrlan and Jessi Muljat.
   Playing way up, the 14-year-old Vyrlan and the 12-year-old Muljat (pronounced Mull-yat) knocked off No. 1 seeds Saturday in the Rio del Oro Junior Championships at the club by the same name.
   The fifth-seeded Vyrlan, from Sacramento, crushed Mariska Chamdani of Santa Clara 6-0, 6-0 in the girls 18 quarterfinals. The fifth-seeded Muljat, from Gold River in the Sacramento area, outsteadied Darya Possokhova of San Francisco 6-4, 6-2 in the girls' 16 semifinals.
   Chamdani, a high school senior and four-star recruit on tennisrecruiting.net, has verbally committed to Brown University, an Ivy League school in Providence, R.I.
   Vyrlan will face unseeded Sara Choy of San Francisco in the 18s semis today at 8 a.m., with the winner advancing to the 11:30 a.m. final.

Jessi Muljat, 12, knocked off No. 1 seed
Darya Possokhova 6-4, 6-2 in the girls 16
semifinals. Photo by Paul Bauman

   Muljat will play unseeded Maria Kozyreva of Granite Bay for the 16s title today at 8 a.m. Kozyreva downed fifth-seeded Stephanie Nguyen of San Jose 7-5, 6-2.

   Not to be outdone, Cameron Klinger, 15, of San Jose demolished Justin Sun of Fremont 6-0, 6-0 in a matchup of unseeded players in the boys 18 semifinals. Sun had ousted top-seeded Manpreet Tiwana of Cupertino 6-3, 0-6, 6-3 in the quarterfinals.
    Klinger will meet unseeded Nikita Matveyko of Kirkland, Wash., for the title today at 9 a.m. Neither player has lost a set en route to the final.
   The long-legged Vyrlan, 5-foot-9, earned her first WTA ranking point in March.
   "That was so cool," she said with a big smile.
   Vyrlan qualified for a $10,000 tournament in Metepec, Mexico, and won her first-round match in the main draw before losing to Slovakia's Lenka Wienerova, 10 years older, 6-1, 6-2 in the second round. Wienerova is ranked No. 415 after reaching a career-high No. 128 in 2009.

Cameron Klinger, 15, trounced Justin Sun 6-0, 6-0
in the boys 18 semifinals. Photo by Paul Bauman

   Gary Muljat, meanwhile, said of his daughter: "The neat thing is she never had to be pushed to play. She always wanted to play, then take lessons, then play tournaments. She has always driven the process. Neither my wife nor I play."
   The 6-foot-2 Klinger, a home-schooled sophomore, hopes to turn pro or play in NCAA Division I after high school.  
   "I want to keep both options open," said Klinger, who swept the USTA boys 14 singles and doubles titles in 2011.

   Klinger favors USC or UCLA over Stanford, about 20 miles up the freeway from home, or Cal.
   "(USC and UCLA) are a lot higher ranked (in tennis) right now," he explained. "I kind of want to get out of Northern California but stay in California."    

Junior champions span West Coast

   The USTA West Coast Junior Championships lived up to its name in boys and girls 18 singles.
   Emmett Egger of Issaquah, Wash., near Seattle, and Christina Makarova of San Diego, took the titles Tuesday at the Rio del Oro Racquet Club in Sacramento. Both players were seeded No. 1.
   Egger, ranked fourth nationally in the 18s, wore down his good friend, second-seeded Connor Farren of Hillsborough, 7-6 (5), 6-3 in the final. Farren is No. 2 in the United States in the boys 16s.
   Egger and Farren recently returned to the United States after traveling to European tournaments together for seven weeks.
   In the first set of the final, "there was a little nervous tension after spending that much time together," said Egger, 18. "I hit some key serves at good times (in the match), which helped me because Connor has such good returns."
   Makarova, ranked second nationally in the girls 16s, outsteadied unseeded Alison Ho, a left-hander from Thousand Oaks, 6-4, 6-3 for the title.
   "She gave me a lot of free points by hitting too hard," said Makarova, 15.
   Like Egger, Makarova admitted to being nervous in the first set, which had been tied 4-4. She resorted to hitting moonballs.
   "I was trying to be aggressive, but I guess I got tight because it was a final and fell into that," she said.
   Egger's parents, recreational players, introduced him to tennis when he was 7. He said growing up in the rainy Pacific Northwest did not hurt his tennis development because he has spent most of his time at academies in Florida, Texas and California since he was 14.
   Egger, who studied at an online high school, will play on scholarship at the University of Washington in Seattle beginning in the fall.
   "I liked the coach, Matt Anger," Egger said of the former touring pro who reached a career-high No. 23 in the world in 1986. "That's what sold me. I like the way he coaches and what he thought about my game. He changes (his style according) to the player. He's definitely not 'one size fits all.' He (talked about) mixing it up and keeping it deep, and he's helping me with my volley."
   If Egger becomes a successful pro player, as he hopes, he will not be the first from Washington.
   Tom Gorman of Seattle reached the semifinals at Wimbledon, the U.S. Open and the French Open in the early 1970s and coached the U.S. Davis Cup team to titles in 1990 and 1992.             
   Patrick Galbraith of Tacoma reached No. 1 in the world in doubles in 1993, and Jan-Michael Gambill of the Spokane area in eastern Washington climbed to No. 14 in singles 10 years ago.
   Makarova was born in Montreal to Russian parents and moved with her family to San Diego when she was 4 because of her father's job. Michael Popkov is a scientist. Christina's mother and coach, Luda, was once the highest-ranked woman in the Soviet Union.
   Makarova, who will be a sophomore at an online high school in the fall, will either turn pro in the next few years or attend college.            
   "It depends on how things go," she said.
   Champions from Northern California in the West Coast Junior Championships were:
   --Eighth-seeded Sarah Hu of Oakland in girls 16 singles.
   --Unseeded Katya Tabachnik of San Francisco in girls 14 singles.
   --Second-seeded Richard Pham of Saratoga and Brandon Sutter of El Dorado Hills in boys 18 doubles.
   --Unseeded Kristy Jorgensen of San Carlos and Christi Tain of Milpitas in girls 16 doubles.
   --Top-seeded Grace Lin of South San Francisco and Karina Vyrlan of Sacramento in girls 14 doubles.