Sock reaches quarterfinals despite sprained ankle

   Jack Sock was struggling in his match on two good ankles.
   On one, though, he played fine.
   Despite rolling his left ankle early in the third set, the 19-year-old wild card from Overland Park, Kan., beat Roman Borvanov of Moldova 6-1, 3-6, 6-3 Wednesday in the second round of the $100,000 Rely Aid Natomas Racquet Club Challenger in Sacramento.
   Sock, who later won his first-round doubles match with Nicholas Monroe of Chapel Hill, N.C., advanced to the quarterfinals of a Challenger for the second time. Making his Challenger debut last February while still a public high school student, he lost to Australia's Matthew Ebden in Dallas.
   Sock, an upset winner over eighth-seeded James Ward of Great Britain in the first round, is scheduled to meet either top-seeded James Blake of Tampa, Fla., or 6-foot-7 left-hander Chris Guccione of Australia on Friday. Their match was postponed by rain until Thursday at 11 a.m.
   In the only other singles match completed Wednesday, fourth-seeded Bobby Reynolds of Acworth, Ga., extended his winning streak to seven matches with a 6-2, 5-7, 6-2 victory over 2010 Sacramento quarterfinalist Frederik Nielsen of Denmark. Reynolds, 29, won the singles and doubles titles in the $50,000 Tulsa, Okla., Challenger three weeks ago.
  Two former All-Americans from Bay Area colleges advanced to the doubles quarterfinals.
   John Paul Fruttero, a two-time All-American at Cal (2001-02), and Raven Klaasen of South Africa upset top-seeded Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah, both of Colombia, 7-6 (6), 6-3. Fruttero, a right-hander who played with a strained ligament in his right index finger, and Klaasen won the last five points of the tiebreaker, saving three set points.
   David Martin, an NCAA singles semifinalist and doubles finalist for Stanford in 2002, and Jordan Kerr of Australia beat wild cards Junaid Hossain and Brian Martinez of Sacramento 6-4, 6-2. 
   Fruttero has reached the doubles final in Sacramento twice, teaming with Mirko Pehar in the inaugural tournament in 2005 and with native Sacramentan Sam Warburg in 2007. Pehar now coaches Croatian countryman Ivo Karlovic, seeded second in this year's Sacramento Challenger. Warburg retired two years ago. 
   Cabal reached the French Open doubles final this year with Eduardo Schwank of Argentina, and Farah won the 2008 NCAA doubles title with USC teammate Kaes Van't Hof.
   Sock, who turned pro in July and won the U.S. Open mixed doubles title with Melanie Oudin last month, appeared to be on his way to an easy victory when he served at 3-2 in the second set. But Borvanov reeled off the next four games to win the set.
   In the first game of the third set, Sock held serve after trailing 15-40 and later double-faulting twice in a row. After Sock served way long for the second double fault, he swatted a ball in the stands and received a warning.
   With Borvanov serving at 0-15 in the next game, Sock hurt his ankle returning a drop shot but won the point. After getting the ankle taped during a three-minute medical timeout, Sock pounded serves and groundstrokes to shorten the points. It worked. He broke serve for 2-0, and both players held the rest of the way.
    "I went for broke on his serve and tried to get free points on my serve (after the injury)," said Sock, who last year became the first American to win the U.S. Open junior boys title since fellow Nebraska native Andy Roddick in 2000. "I did (the latter) pretty well and was able to hold."
   As often happens, the injury seemed to hurt the opponent more than the victim.
   "I personally thought he rolled the ankle pretty bad," said Borvanov, a 29-year-old graduate of the University of Portland. "I tried too much to run him. I knew I had to be aggressive (regardless of the injury), and I think I got tighter.
   "It was already 0-30 in that game. He started slapping the ball -- that was the toughest thing. The quality of his forehand improved after the injury, and he put pressure on me. Also, his service percentage got better. In the second set, I was getting a lot of returns back, but in the third set, he started serving better."
   Sock said he didn't consider retiring from the match. He had a similar experience last December, when he rolled an ankle while leading Denis Kudla 6-2, 3-2 in the semifinals of the Australian Open wild-card playoff in Norcross, Ga. After taking a medical timeout, Sock completed a 6-2, 7-5 victory.
   "I hoped the same thing would happen today," said Sock, who lost to fellow 18-year-old Ryan Harrison 7-6 (3), 6-2, 6-7 (4), 6-4 the next day in the wild-card final. "I was fortunate to get the win."
   ATP World Tour -- In match between two players with Sacramento-area ties, Santiago Giraldo of Colombia defeated Dmitry Tursunov 6-4, 7-6 (4) in the second round of the Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships in Tokyo.
   Giraldo won the 2009 Sacramento Challenger, beating Jesse Levine of Boca Raton, Fla., in the final. Tursunov, a Moscow native, lives in Folsom.
    Scott Lipsky, Martin's partner in the 2002 NCAA doubles final, and longtime Sacramento Capital Mark Knowles lost in separate doubles matches in the first round of the China Open in Beijing.
   WTA tour -- Fresno's Raquel Kops-Jones, the 2003 NCAA doubles champion from Cal with Sacramento native Christina Fusano, and Abigail Spears of San Diego lost to second-seeded Liezel Huber and Lisa Raymond, who won the U.S. Open women's doubles title last month, 6-1, 3-6, 10-5 tiebreak in the quarterfinals of the China Open.  
   Fourth-seeded Vania King, a Capital who grew up in Long Beach, and Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazkhstan routed Italians Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci 6-1, 6-2 in the second round. 
   ITF Women's Circuit -- Wild cards Yasmin Schnack of Elk Grove and Maria Sanchez of Modesto lost in the first round of singles in the $50,000 Women's Pro Tennis Classic in Kansas City, Mo.
   Schnack fell to Ashley Weinhold of Spicewood, Texas, 6-2, 7-5, and Sanchez dropped a 7-6 (1), 1-6, 6-2 decision to qualifier Eugenie Bouchard of Canada.         

    RELY AID NATOMAS CHALLENGER

At Natomas Racquet Club

Second-round singles

   Bobby Reynolds (4), Acworth, Ga., def. Frederik Nielsen, Denmark, 6-2, 5-7, 6-2. Jack Sock, Overland Park, Kan., def. Roman Borvanov, Moldova, 6-1, 3-6, 6-3.

First-round doubles

   Sanchai Ratiwatana and Sonchat Ratiwatana, Thailand, def. Laurynas Grigelis, Lithuania, and Uladzimir Ignatik, Belarus, 6-2, 6-7 (2), 15-13 tiebreak. John Paul Fruttero, San Jose, and Raven Klaasen, South Africa, def. Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah (1), Colombia, 7-6 (6), 6-3. Vasek Pospisil, Canada, and Bobby Reynolds, Acworth, Ga., def. Steve Johnson, Orange, and Sam Querrey, Las Vegas, 5-7, 6-3, 17-15 tiebreak. Jordan Kerr, Australia, and David Martin (4), Huntington Beach, def. Junaid Hossain and Brian Martinez, Sacramento, 6-4, 6-2. Frederik Nielsen, Denmark, and Travis Parrott (3), Portland, Ore., def. Pierre-Ludovic Duclos, Canada, and Adam Hubble, Australia, 6-1, 6-4.

Thursday's schedule

(Beginning at 11 a.m.)

Center Court 

   Blake (1) vs. Guccione, Estrella vs. Karlovic (2), Gremelmayr vs. Querrey (3), Kerr and Martin (4) vs. Rettenmaier and Stadler.

Court 1

   Kuznetsov vs. Van der Merwe (6), Phau vs. Ignatik, Ratiwatana and Ratiwatana vs. Ball and Guccione.

Court 2

   De Bakker vs. Duclos, Pospisil and Reynolds vs. Nielsen and Parrott (3), Fruttero and Klaasen vs. Monroe and Sock.

Karlovic wins thriller; Blake, Querrey, Sock advance

   At 6-foot-10, Ivo Karlovic is known mostly for his booming serve.
   Two years ago, the Croat set a Davis Cup record with 78 aces only to lose to Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic 16-14 in the fifth set in a match lasting 5 hours, 59 minutes. In March, Karlovic hit a 156-mph serve in a Davis Cup match against Germany to break Andy Roddick's record by 1 mph.
   But there's more to Karlovic's game than his serve, as he showed Tuesday in the Rely Aid Natomas Racquet Club Challenger in Sacramento.
   The oldest player in the singles draw at 32 years, 7 months and the tallest ever in the top 100 on the ATP World Tour, the No. 2 seed used his poise under intense pressure, underrated groundstrokes and -- yes -- serve to pull out a 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (8) victory over dogged Martin Fischer of Austria in the first round of the $100,000 tournament.
   Karlovic overcame a 4-1 deficit (two minibreaks) in the tiebreaker and later saved two match points against the 5-11 Fischer, who displayed an outstanding return of serve in the first career meeting between the players.
   On the first match point, Fischer ripped what appeared to be a winning return of Karlovic's first serve to the corner. Karlovic not only reached the ball, he pounded a cross-court backhand. The 25-year-old Fischer -- who improved his year-end ranking every year from 2004 through 2010 but has fallen from No. 133 to No. 185 this year -- then netted an ill-advised backhand drop shot for 6-6.
   On the second match point, Karlovic followed a strong first serve with a forehand putaway volley for 8-8. A service winner gave him his second match point, and Fischer hit a backhand long to end the 2-hour, 7-minute match.
   Karlovic converted his last eight first serves in the tiebreaker, including three aces and one service winner, after missing his opening one. He finished with 22 aces to Fischer's three.
   Karlovic won't out-rally many players, but he has surprisingly good mobility for someone so tall and powerful, reliable groundstrokes.
   "If you look at my serve, of course my other strokes look worse," said Karlovic, a classic gentle giant off the court. "But they're not as bad as people think. That's mostly the perspective of people who aren't pro tennis players. Pro tennis players know it's not only the serve."
   The past, present and future of American men's tennis also advanced.
   Top-seeded James Blake, 31, defeated Amer Delic of Bosnia and Herzegovina 6-4, 7-5. It was the second straight year that Delic, the 2003 NCAA singles champion from Illinois and 2006 doubles runner-up in Sacramento, faced the No. 1 seed in the first round of the tournament. He fell to Tobias Kamke of Germany 6-2, 4-6, 7-5 last year.
   Third-seeded Sam Querrey, who will turn 24 Friday, outlasted Laurynas Grigelis, a 20-year-old Lithuanian who won the $100,000 Aptos Challenger in July, 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-2.
   "I can see how he won Aptos," said Querrey, a San Francisco native who is playing in his second tournament since undergoing surgery to remove bone spurs from his right (playing) elbow in June. "He has an unbelievable backhand."
   And Jack Sock, a 19-year-old wild card who won the U.S. Open mixed doubles title with Melanie Oudin last month, ousted No. 8 seed James Ward of Great Britain 6-3, 7-6 (3).
   The only other seed to lose Tuesday was No. 5 Vasek Pospisil, a Canadian who fell to the Netherlands' Thiemo de Bakker, the 2006 Wimbledon junior boys champion, 6-7 (5), 7-6 (2), 6-3.
   Roman Borvanov of Moldova ended the winning streak of qualifier Steve Johnson, the reigning NCAA singles champion from USC, at 13 matches with a 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 victory.
   Karlovic was playing his first match since reaching the third round of the U.S. Open one month ago. His Jamaican wife, Alsi, gave birth to their first child, a daughter named Jada, on Sept. 15 in Miami, where the family lives.
   "I didn't practice a lot, and I knew (Fischer) can play good," Karlovic said. "I was struggling a lot, but in the end, I played good."
   Karlovic enjoyed considerable success before undergoing surgery in July 2010 to remove part of a bone impinging his left Achilles' tendon and missing the last half of the year.
   He helped Croatia win its only championship in Davis Cup history in 2005, reached the 2007 SAP Open final in San Jose before losing to Andy Murray 6-7 (3), 6-4, 7-6 (2), climbed to a career-high No. 14 in 2008 and advanced to the Wimbledon quarterfinals in 2009.
  Oh, and he led all players in aces from 2007 through 2009.
  With Karlovic, who has fallen to No. 76, it always comes back to the serve.
   Natomas notes -- Give Querrey credit for looking on the bright side.
   Regarding his string of physical problems -- falling through a glass table two years ago at a tournament in Bangkok, his elbow surgery and his subsequent umbilical infection -- he said, "At least I'm meeting my insurance deductible." ...
   After the first round, Querrey is the only American left in the bottom half of the singles draw. Tim Smyczek, the only other one when the tournament started, lost to qualifier Pierre-Ludovic Duclos 6-2, 7-5. Four Americans remain in the top half: Blake, Sock, fourth-seeded Bobby Reynolds and Alex Kuznetsov. ...
    In a matchup of former Loomis Futures champions, Victor Estrella of the Dominican Republic beat qualifier Michael Venus of New Zealand 6-2, 6-4. Estrella, only 5-8, will meet his doubles partner, Karlovic, in the second round. ...
   Trivia question: Who was de Bakker's female counterpart as Wimbledon junior champion five years ago? Answer: Caroline Wozniacki, now the top-ranked woman in the world. De Bakker is No. 207. ...
   Izak Van der Merwe, the defending champion in doubles with fellow South African Rik de Voest, and Treat Conrad Huey of the Philippines lost to Australians Carsten Ball and Chris Guccione 2-6, 7-6 (6), 10-4 tiebreak Monday in the opening round. De Voest is playing on the ATP World tour in Beijing this week.   
  ATP World Tour -- Dmitry Tursunov, a Moscow native living in Folsom, upset sixth-seeded Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia 7-6 (6), 6-7 (3), 7-5 in the first round of the $1,214,500 Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships in Tokyo. Tipsarevic, who reached the U.S. Open quarterfinals last month, won his first ATP World Tour title last week in the Malaysian Open in Kuala Lumpur.
   Former Stanford All-Americans Bob and Mike Bryan, seeded first, beat Lukas Dlouhy of the Czech Republic and Alexandr Dolgopolov of Ukraine 6-2, 6-2 in the first round of the $2.1 million China Open in Beijing. 
   WTA tour -- Raquel Kops-Jones, a former Cal All-American from Fresno, and Abigail Spears of San Diego reached the doubles quarterfinals in the China Open with a 6-1, 6-4 victory over sixth-seeded Iveta Benesova and Barbora Zahlavova Strycova of the Czech Republic.
   ITF Women's Circuit -- Yasmin Schnack of Elk Grove and Amanda Fink defeated Madison Brengle and Gail Brodsky 6-2, 6-3 in an All-American match in the first round of doubles at the $50,000 Women's Pro Tennis Classic in Kansas City, Mo.
   In another All-American match, Maria Sanchez of Modesto and Whitney Jones lost to fourth-seeded Alexandra Mueller and Asia Muhammed 6-2, 6-2.

RELY AID NATOMAS CHALLENGER
At Natomas Racquet Club
First-round singles
   James Blake (1), United States, def. Amer Delic, Bosnia and Herzegovina, 6-4, 7-5. Ivo Karlovic (2), Croatia, def. Martin Fischer, Austria, 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (8). Sam Querrey (3), United States, def. Laurynas Grigelis, Lithuania,  6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-2. Thiemo de Bakker, Netherlands, def. Vasek Pospisil (5), Canada, 6-7 (5), 7-6 (2), 6-3. Izak Van der Merwe (6), South Africa, def. Blake Strode, United States, 6-3, 6-4. Bjorn Phau (7), Germany, def. Robert Farah, Colombia, 6-1, 6-4. Jack Sock, United States, def. James Ward (8), Great Britain,  6-3, 7-6 (3). Chris Guccione, Australia, def. Juan Sebastian Cabal, Colombia, 6-3, 6-4. Roman Borvanov, Moldova, def. Steve Johnson, United States, 3-6, 6-4, 6-3. Frederik Nielsen, Denmark, def. Nick Monroe, United States, 6-2, 5-7, 6-4. Alex Kuznetsov, United States, def. Simon Greul, Germany, 4-6, 6-4, 6-4. Uladzimir Ignatik, Belarus, def. Fritz Wolmarans, South Africa, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4. Denis Gremelmayr, Germany, def. Jamie Baker, Great Britain, 6-1, 3-6, 6-4. Pierre-Ludovic Duclos, Canada, def. Tim Smyczek, United States, 6-2, 7-5. Victor Estrella, Dominican Republic, def. Michael Venus, New Zealand, 6-2, 6-4.
Final-round doubles qualifying
   Pierre-Ludovic Duclos, Canada, and Adam Hubble, Australia, def. Laurynas Grigelis, Lithuania, and Uladzimir Ignatik, Belarus, 6-7 (3), 6-4, 12-10 tiebreak.
Wednesday's schedule
Center Court
(Beginning at 10 a.m.)
   Reynolds (4) vs. Nielsen, Borvanov vs. Sock, Kuznetsov vs. Van der Merwe (6), Kerr and Martin (4) vs. Hossain and Martinez not before 3 p.m., Blake (1) vs. Guccione.
Court 1
(Beginning at 11 a.m.)
   Ratiwatana and Ratiwatana vs. Grigelis and Ignatik, Cabal and Farah (1) vs. Fruttero and Klaasen, Pospisil and Reynolds vs. Johnson and Querrey, Duclos and Hubble vs. Nielsen and Parrott, Estrella and Karlovic vs. Monroe and Sock.

Blake having a ball, even in minor leagues

   Playing in front of a few hundred spectators at the Natomas Racquet Club in Sacramento doesn't exactly compare to battling Andre Agassi before 20,000 screaming fans and a national, prime-time television audience in the U.S. Open quarterfinals.
   But James Blake isn't complaining. It's still professional tennis.
   "I don't mind," the top-seeded Blake said Monday after practicing with third seed and fellow American Sam Querrey for the $100,000 Rely Aid Natomas Racquet Club Challenger. "I love competing. I haven't played since the U.S. Open (one month ago). I've just been training and wanted to get some practice in. At this point in my career, I didn't feel like going to Asia (for ATP World Tour events). I came here to get ready for the European swing and gear up for next year.
   "It's still fun to me. There are great players here like Querrey and (Ivo) Karlovic. I'm feeling great now, the best I've felt in the last two years, and I'm excited about that. Tour level or Challenger level, it just feels good to be on the court."
   Blake, who splits his time between his childhood home of Fairfield, Conn., and training base of Tampa, Fla., is scheduled to meet Amer Delic, the 2003 NCAA singles champion for Illinois from Bosnia and Herzegovina, today at 4:30 p.m. or later in the first round. 
   Ranked a career-high No. 4 in 2006, Blake plunged to No. 173 in March because of chronic tendinitis in his right knee. He "briefly considered" retiring last year but has rebounded to No. 75.
   "I was opposed to taking Advil or Motrin, but it was not getting better," said Blake, who will turn 32 in December. "Eventually, I broke down and took Motrin, which made a big difference. The knee is not perfect, but it's much better. It doesn't have to be perfect. Nothing is."
   Blake undoubtedly has the most unusual background in professional tennis. How many players do you know who:
   --Have a white, English mother and African-American father?
   --Were diagnosed with severe scoliosis (curvature of the spine) at 13 and wore a full-length back brace for 18 hours a day, though not while playing tennis, for five years?
   --Attended Harvard for two years, becoming the top-ranked player in the country before turning pro?
   --Within two months in 2004, broke his neck during practice, lost his father to stomach cancer and developed zoster (shingles)?
   Blake was injured when he slipped on a wet clay court in Rome while racing to return a drop shot and struck the net post. Zoster, a viral disease often caused by stress, temporarily paralyzed the left side of his face and affected his balance.
   But he rebounded from the horrific sequence of events to have the best years of his career. His 3-6, 3-6, 6-3, 6-3, 7-6 (6) loss to Agassi in the 2005 U.S. Open quarterfinals is considered perhaps the greatest match in the tournament's history. Almost all of the 20,000 fans in attendance stayed until the pulsating match ended at 1:09 a.m.
   Blake was named the Comeback Player of the Year in 2005, again reached the U.S. Open quarterfinals in 2006 and helped the United States end its longest Davis Cup title drought in history, 12 years, in 2007.
   "I was on the right path (before 2004), but I got injured," said the 6-foot-1 Blake, who has a fearsome serve and forehand and tremendous speed. "(The bouts of adversity) gave me great perspective on my career and life in general. Spending time with my family and friends game me peace on the court, knowing that people appreciate me as more than just a tennis player."
   Blake's 2007 book, "Breaking Back: How I lost Everything and Won Back My Life," reached No. 15 on the New York Times' bestseller list. The following year, he was named the Arthur Ashe Humanitarian of the Year for his fundraising efforts on behalf of cancer research.
   Blake isn't sure how much longer he'll play.
   "I always said the body or mind will determine that," he said. "One won't be able to function, probably the body. I hope for another year, but we'll see."
    Gonzalez withdraws -- Former world No. 5 Fernando Gonzalez withdrew from the Natomas Challenger because of a sinus infection, tournament spokesman Glenn Davis said.
   Gonzalez, a 31-year-old Chilean, has plunged to No. 300 after undergoing right hip surgery one year ago today. He reached the 2007 Australian Open final, losing to Roger Federer, to climb to a career-high No. 5.
   Monday's results -- Only one main-draw match was completed before rain halted play for the day. American Bobby Reynolds, seeded fourth and coming off the singles and doubles titles in the $50,000 Tulsa, Okla., Challenger three weeks ago, eked out a 6-3, 2-6, 7-5 victory over Carlos Salamanca of Colombia.
   Salamanca, the runner-up in the $15,000 Natomas Futures in 2009, served for the match at 5-4 in the third set and twice was within two points of victory. But Reynolds, 29, of Acworth, Ga., prevailed with deep service returns against the 6-foot-5 left-hander and steady groundstrokes.
   Steve Johnson, the reigning NCAA singles champion from USC, defeated Carsten Ball, who beat Salamanca for the 2009 Natomas Futures title, 6-4, 6-4 to advance to the main draw. The longtime friends and practice partners from Orange County met for the first time.
   Johnson has won 12 consecutive matches, including titles in $10,000 tournaments in Claremont and Costa Mesa. Including college matches, he had a 39-match winning streak snapped by former UCLA rival Daniel Kosakowski in the final of the $15,000 Park Terrance Futures in Sacramento in June.
   Johnson is taking this semester off to play pro tournaments as an amateur but plans to return to USC in the spring. He'll try to join Stanford's Paul Goldstein (1995-98) as the only men to play on four national championship teams and earn All-America honors all four years.


$100,000 RELY AID NATOMAS CHALLENGER
At Natomas Racquet Club
In Sacramento
Final-round singles qualifying
   Steve Johnson, United States, def. Carsten Ball (5), Australia, 6-4, 6-4. Michael Venus, New Zealand, def. Simon Stadler (6), Germany, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4. Blake Strode, United States, def. Jamie Baker (3), Great Britain, 6-0, 6-2. Pierre-Ludovic Duclos (4), Canada, def. Alex Bogdanovic (7), Great Britain, 7-6 (7), 6-2.
First-round singles
   Bobby Reynolds (4), United States, def. Carlos Salamanca, Colombia, 6-3, 2-6, 7-5. Alex Kuznetsov, United States, leads Simon Greul, Germany, 4-6, 6-4, 4-3 (postponed by rain).
First-round doubles
   Carsten Ball and Chris Guccione, Australia, def. Treat Conrad Huey, Philippines, and Izak Van Der Merwe (2), South Africa, 2-6, 7-6 (6), 10-4 tiebreak. Travis Rettenmaier, United States, and Simon Stadler, Germany, def. Denis Gremelmayr, Germany, and Bjorn Phau, Germany, 6-3, 3-6, 10-8 tiebreak.
Tuesday’s schedule
(Beginning at 10 a.m.)
Center Court
   Smyczek vs. Duclos, Greul vs. Kuznetsov (to finish), Sock vs. Ward (8), Blake (1) vs. Delic not before 4:30 p.m.
Court 1
   Nielsen vs. Monroe, Grigelis vs. Querrey (3), Fischer vs. Karlovic (2), Grigelis and Ignatik vs. Duclos and Hubble (final-round qualifying).
Court 2
   Strode vs. Van der Merwe (6), Ignatik vs. Wolmarans, Phau (7) vs. Farah, Guccione vs. Cabal.
Court 3
   Borvanov vs. Johnson, Pospisil (5) vs. De Bakker, Gremelmayr vs. Baker, Venus vs. Estrella.

Gonzalez withdraws; Sacramento results, schedule

   The $100,000 Rely Aid Natomas Racquet Club Challenger lost a former top-five player Monday.
   But the Sacramento tournament still has one more, plus two competitors who have cracked the top 20.
   Fernando Gonzalez withdrew from the Natomas Challenger because of a sinus infection, spokesman Glenn Davis said.
   The 31-year-old Chilean climbed to No. 5 in the world after reaching the 2007 Australian Open final. He underwent right hip surgery one year ago tomorrow, though, and has plunged to No. 300.
   The top three seeds -- No. 1 James Blake, No. 2 Ivo Karlovic and No. 3 Sam Querrey -- are scheduled to play Tuesday (see schedule below). Blake reached No. 4 in 2006, Karlovic No. 14 in 2008 and Querrey No. 17 in January. All are coming back from injuries.    

$100,000 RELY AID NATOMAS CHALLENGER
At Natomas Racquet Club
Final-round singles qualifying
   Steve Johnson, United States, def. Carsten Ball (5), Australia, 6-4, 6-4. Michael Venus, New Zealand, def. Simon Stadler (6), Germany, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4. Blake Strode, United States, def. Jamie Baker (3), Great Britain, 6-0, 6-2. Pierre-Ludovic Duclos (4), Canada, def. Alex Bogdanovic (7), Great Britain, 7-6 (7), 6-2.
First-round singles
   Bobby Reynolds (4), United States, def. Carlos Salamanca, Colombia, 6-3, 2-6, 7-5. Alex Kuznetsov, United States, leads Simon Greul, Germany, 4-6, 6-4, 4-3 (postponed by rain).
First-round doubles
   Carsten Ball and Chris Guccione, Australia, def. Treat Conrad Huey, Philippines, and Izak Van Der Merwe (2), South Africa, 2-6, 7-6 (6), 10-4 tiebreak. Travis Rettenmaier, United States, and Simon Stadler, Germany, def. Denis Gremelmayr, Germany, and Bjorn Phau, Germany, 6-3, 3-6, 10-8 tiebreak.
Tuesday’s schedule
(Beginning at 10 a.m.)
Center Court
   Smyczek vs. Duclos, Greul vs. Kuznetsov (to finish), Sock vs. Ward (8), Blake (1) vs. Delic not before 4:30 p.m.
Court 1
   Nielsen vs. Monroe, Grigelis vs. Querrey (3), Fischer vs. Karlovic (2), Grigelis and Ignatik vs. Duclos and Hubble (final-round qualifying).
Court 2
   Strode vs. Van der Merwe (6), Ignatik vs. Wolmarans, Phau (7) vs. Farah, Guccione vs. Cabal.
Court 3
   Borvanov vs. Johnson, Pospisil (5) vs. De Bakker, Gremelmayr vs. Baker, Venus vs. Estrella.

Murray routs Young; Natomas results, schedule

   Donald Young's breakthrough week ended with a thud.
   Top-seeded Andy Murray of Great Britain demolished the unseeded Young 6-2, 6-0 Sunday to win the $587,000 PTT Thailand Open in Bangkok.
   Murray, ranked fourth in the world, won his third singles title of the year on the ATP World Tour and 19th overall.
   Young, who won the 2008 Sacramento Challenger, was playing in his first ATP final. The 22-year-old Atlanta resident will crack the top 50 in the world for the first time at about No. 43 on Monday.
   "He played well. I couldn’t do much, and it showed in the score," Young, who beat ninth-ranked Gael Monfils in the semifinals, said on the ATP Web site. "It was great play from him. It was my first final on the ATP World Tour; I’ve had a semi and the fourth round of a Slam, but there’s nothing like your first final. It’s great. I beat some high-caliber players, and I played well.
   "It was definitely great to win four matches, and I’m into the top 50, which is great for me. It was one of my goals at the start of the year. I just hope I can build on that and have more tournaments like this."
   Young fell to 1-2 lifetime against Murray, with all matches coming this year. Young won 7-6 (4), 6-3 in the first round at Indian Wells in March, and Murray breezed 6-2, 6-3, 6-3 in the round of 16 at the recent U.S. Open.
   Both players have won the Aptos Challenger, Murray in 2005 and Young in 2007.
   Natomas qualifying -- Steve Johnson, the reigning NCAA singles champion from USC, extended his winning streak to 12 matches with a 7-5, 6-1 victory over Giuseppe Menga of Italy on Sunday in the second round of qualifying for the $100,000 Rely Aid Natomas Racquet Club Challenger in Sacramento.
   Johnson, coming off titles in two $10,000 tournaments in Southern California, will meet fifth-seeded Carsten Ball of Australia at 10 a.m. Monday for a berth in the main draw.

$100,000 RELY AID NATOMAS CHALLENGER
At Natomas Racquet Club, Sacramento
Singles qualifying
Second round  
  Steve Johnson, United States, def. Giuseppe Menga, Italy, 7-5, 6-1. Carsten Ball (5), Australia, def. Artem Sitak, New Zealand, 6-0, 6-3. Michael Venus, New Zealand, def. Travis Rettenmaier, United States, 3-6, 6-2, 6-4. Simon Stadler (6), Germany, def. Andrei Daescu, Romania, 6-4, 6-2. Jamie Baker (3), Great Britain, def. Kiryl Harbatsiuk, Sacramento, 6-1, 2-6, 6-2. Blake Strode, United States, def. Brandon Sutter, El Dorado Hills, 6-0, 6-1. Pierre-Ludovic Duclos (4), Canada, def. Rhyne Williams, United States, 6-7 (5), 6-4, 6-3. Alex Bogdanovic (7), Great Britain, def. Sergey Betov, Belarus, 3-6, 7-6 (4), 6-2.
Doubles qualifying
Semifinals  
   Laurynas Grigelis, Lithuania, and Uladzimir Ignatik, Belarus, def. Thiemo de Bakker, Netherlands, and Martin Fischer, Austria, 7-6 (9), 7-6 (10). Pierre-Ludovic Duclos, Canada, and Adam Hubble, Australia, def. Brian Battistone and Chris Wettengel, United States, 4-6, 6-0, 10-7 tiebreak.

Monday’s schedule
(Beginning at 10 a.m.)
Center Court  
   Johnson vs. Ball (winner advances to main draw), Bobby Reynolds (4) vs. Carlos Salamanca, Simon Gruel vs. Alex Kuznetsov, Jack Sock vs. James Ward (8) not before 5 p.m.
Court 1  
   Venus vs. Stadler (winner advances to main draw), Duclos vs. Bogdanovic (winner advances to main draw), Rettenmaier and Stadler vs. Denis Gremelmayr and Bjorn Phau, Grigelis and Ignatik vs. Duclos and Hubble.
Court 2  
   Baker vs. Strode (winner advances to main draw), Ball and Chris Guccione vs. Treat Conrad Huey and Izak Van Der Merwe.

Four former top-20 players to play in Sacramento

   Officially, it's the Rely Aid Natomas Racquet Club Challenger.
   Perhaps a better name would be the Comeback Classic.
   Four former top-20 players trying to work their way back up the rankings after major injuries are entered in the $100,000 tourmament that starts Monday in Sacramento. They consist of the top three seeds -- No. 1 James Blake, No. 2 Ivo Karlovic and No. 3 Sam Querrey -- and unseeded Fernando Gonzalez. Querrey and Gonzalez accepted wild cards.
   Blake, ranked a career-high No. 4 in 2006, missed most of the clay-court season last year because of a knee injury and plunged to No. 173 in March. The 31-year-old resident of Tampa, Fla., has fought his way back to No. 74.
   The 6-foot-10 Karlovic, who reached No. 14 in 2008, has followed a similar path. The 32-year-old Croatian missed the last six months of 2010 with an Achilles' injury and plummeted to No. 239 in March. He has climbed back to No. 77.
    Querrey, ranked a career-high No. 17 in January, missed three months this summer after operations for bone spurs in his elbow and an umbilical infection. The San Francisco native, who turns 24 on Friday, has fallen to No. 119.
   Gonzalez, who reached the 2007 Australian Open final to attain a career-high ranking of No. 5, underwent hip surgery last October. The 31-year-old Chilean has dropped to No. 300.
    Natomas qualifying -- The top two seeds lost in the first round of Natomas qualifying Saturday.
   No. 1 Raven Klaasen of South Africa fell to Steve Johnson of Orange 6-1, 6-2. Johnson is coming off two consecutive titles in $10,000 tournaments in Southern California. The reigning NCAA singles champion from USC plans to return for his senior season and a shot at four NCAA team championships.
   No. 2 Alejandro Gonzalez of Colombia lost to Michael Venus of New Zealand 6-4, 6-2. Venus won a $15,000 tournament in Loomis, near Sacramento, last year.
   Former Sacramento State star Kiryl Harbatsiuk of Belarus beat his doubles partner, Boris Nicola Bakalov of Bulgaria, 2-6, 6-2, 6-1. In a matchup of Sacramento-area wild cards, junior player Brandon Sutter defeated Eric Roberson 6-3, 6-2.
   ATP World Tour in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia -- Second-seeded Eric Butorac of Rochester, Minn., and Jean-Julien Rojer of Netherlands Antilles edged fourth-seeded Scott Lipsky of Huntington Beach and Rajeev Ram of Carmel, Ind., 6-3, 6-7 (5), 10-6 in the doubles semifinals of the $850,000 Malaysian Open.
   Lipsky won the doubles title in the inaugural Sacramento Challenger in 2005 with former Stanford teammate David Martin. Ram reached the Sacramento singles final in 2006 and doubles final (with John Isner) in 2008.

Young shocks Monfils to reach first ATP final

   Unseeded Donald Young of Atlanta stunned second-seeded Gael Monfils of France 4-6, 7-6 (5), 7-6 (5) early Saturday in the $587,000 PTT Thailand Open in Bangkok to reach his first career ATP World Tour final.
   Young, ranked a career-high 55th in the world, will crack the top 50 regardless of how he does against top-seeded Andy Murray of Great Britain. The fourth-ranked Murray advanced with a 6-2, 3-6, 6-2 victory over third-seeded Gilles Simon of France. Monfils is ranked ninth.
   Young, who won the 2008 Sacramento Challenger, is 1-1 lifetime against Murray. Both matches have come this year. Young won 7-6 (4), 6-3 in the first round at Indian Wells in March, and Murray coasted 6-2, 6-3, 6-3 in the round of 16 at the recent U.S. Open.
   Both players have won the Aptos Challenger, Murray in 2005 and Young in 2007.      
   NorCal players fall -- It was a rough day for Northern California players.     Maria Sanchez of Modesto lost twice, in a rout and a heartbreaker, Friday; Yasmin Schnack of Elk Grove also fell in the heartbreaker; and former Sacramento State star Kiryl Harbatsiuk lost to a 137-pound player.
   Unseeded Alexa Glatch of Newport Beach routed Sanchez, a wild card, 6-1, 6-1 in the quarterfinals of the $50,000 Lexus of Las Vegas Open. Then the third-seeded team of Glatch and Mashona Washington of Houston edged the unseeded Sanchez and Schnack 3-6, 7-5, 10-8 tiebreak in the doubles semifinals.
   Meanwhile, qualifier Sanam Singh of India defeated the unseeded Harbatsiuk, from Belarus, 7-5, 6-3 in the quarterfinals of the $10,000 USTA Futures of Laguna Niguel. Both players ended their four-year college careers in May. Singh starred at Virginia, reaching the NCAA semifinals in 2009.
   Natomas Men's Challenger in Sacramento -- Top-seeded Raven Klaasen of South Africa will meet reigning NCAA champion Steve Johnson of USC today in the first round of qualifying for the $100,000 Rely Aid Natomas Racquet Club Challenger.
  Klaasen, ranked a career-high No. 216, and Johnson, coming off two consecutive Futures singles titles in Southern California, are scheduled to play the fourth match on Center Court. Play begins at 10 a.m.
  The other qualifying seeds, in order, are Alejandro Gonzalez of Colombia, Jamie Baker of Great Britain, Pierre-Ludovic Duclos of Canada, Carsten Ball of Australia, Simon Stadler of Germany, Alex Bogdanovic of Great Britain and Daniel Kosakowski of Downey.
   Kosakowski, UCLA's top player as a freshman last season, turned pro after winning the $15,000 Park Terrace Pro Tennis tournament in Sacramento in June.