Stanford-bound Hardebeck, Scholl beat top seeds

   Krista Hardebeck, a Stanford-bound resident of Santa Ana, and Chalena Scholl of Pompano Beach, Fla., upset top-seeded Ellen Allgurin of Sweden and Eugenie Bouchard of Canada 6-4, 6-4 Wednesday in the first round of girls 18 doubles at the prestigious Orange Bowl in Plantation, Fla.
   Hardebeck, the top female recruit in the nation, and Scholl are scheduled to meet Peggy Porter of Dallas and -- take a deep breath -- Clementina Eugenia Riobueno de Paola of Venezuela on Thursday. Porter and Riobueno de Paola advanced by a walkover from Katy Dunne of Great Britain and Deborah Kerfs of Belgium.
   Meanwhile, three players from the San Francisco Bay Area reached the girls 16 doubles semifinals.
   Unseeded Caroline Doyle of San Francisco and Kimberly Yee of Las Vegas, who stunned top-seeded Katie Boulter of Great Britain and Alexandra Morozova of Plantation in the first round, routed eighth-seeded Alexandra and Madison Bourguignon of Issaquah, Wash., 6-1, 6-2.
   Unseeded Hadley Berg of Greenbrae and Mary Closs of Menlo Park downed third-seeded Rasheeda McAdoo, a Palmetto Bay, Fla., resident and the daughter of basketball Hall of Famer Bob McAdoo,  and Johnnise Renaud of North Miami, Fla., 6-1, 7-6 (5).
   Doyle, the reigning Easter Bowl champion in girls 16 singles, also advanced to the third round of that event with a 7-5, 6-2 victory over -- what is it with these names? -- Tornado Ali Black of Boca Raton, Fla.
   Hillsborough's Connor Farren, the last remaining player in boys or girls 18 singles, lost to 16th-seeded Hassan Ndayishimye of Burundi 6-3, 6-3 in the second round.
   But Farren, Mackenzie McDonald of Piedmont and Stanford-bound Trey Strobel of Bradenton, Fla., moved into the second round of boys 18 doubles with separate partners.
   Farren is seeded sixth with Marco Aurelio Nunez of Mexico. McDonald is playing with Filip Peliwo of Canada, and Strobel is teaming with Markos Kalovelonis of Greece.

Czar's schedule includes trip to Australian Open

   Coming soon to NorCal Tennis Czar:

   This month

   1. A big feature story on the Sacramento Clay Court League, clay courts in general and league Commissioner Ben Combs.
   2. Serbs Dusan Vemic, a member of the Sacramento Capitals in World TeamTennis for the past two seasons, and Ilija Bozoljac, the runner-up in the Aptos Challenger in July, discuss countryman Novak Djokovic and their country's unlikely rise to power.
   3. The first annual Slammies: 2011 awards in Northern California tennis.

This month or early next year

   1. Why tennis is better than golf (unless I sell this puppy to a major publication or national Web site for big bucks).
   2. The fate of the Capitals following owner Bob Cook's declaration of bankruptcy.  

   3. Photos with stories. 

January

   1. Preview of the Stanford, Cal, Sacramento State, UC Davis and Pacific men and women.
   2. Tennis Down Under: Playing in Sydney and attending the Australian Open. 

February

   1. Milos Raonic of Canada defends his stunning title in the SAP Open in San Jose.

Meanwhile

   After the first round of the prestigious Orange Bowl on clay in Plantation, Fla., unseeded Connor Farren of Hillsborough is the only player with Northern California ties left in boys or girls 18 singles.
   Farren, who beat Vlad Victor Cornea of Romania 4-6, 6-4, 6-2 Monday, is scheduled to face 16th-seeded Hassan Ndayishimiye of Burundi on Wednesday. Ndayishimiye advanced with a 6-0, 6-4 victory Tuesday over John Harrison Richmond of Pawleys Island, S.C.
   (If tennis doesn't work out for Cornea, there's always ophthalmalogy.) 
   Trey Strobel, a Bradenton, Fla., resident headed to Stanford, and Piedmont's Mackenzie McDonald lost to seeds  Tuesday. Strobel fell to No. 5 Kyle Edmund of Great Britain 6-2, 7-5, and McDonald succumbed to No. 7 Patrick Ofner of Austria 6-4, 3-6, 7-5.
   Top seeds Dominic Thiem of Austria and Eugenie Bouchard of Canada won their first-round matches in straight sets Tuesday.
   Farren, Strobel, McDonald and Stanford-bound Krista Hardebeck, who lost to third-seeded Indy De Vroome of the Netherlands 7-5, 6-3 Monday, are scheduled to play their first-round doubles matches in the 18s Wednesday.
   (If tennis doesn't work out for De Vroome, there's always auto racing.)
   The unseeded team of Hadley Berg, from Greenbrae, and Mary Closs, from Menlo Park, are set for their second-round match in girls 16 doubles after advancing by walkover.
   Closs lost to eighth-seeded Anna Maria Heil of Austria 6-3, 6-2 Monday in the first round of 16 singles. Berg is playing doubles only.

Farren advances, Hardebeck ousted in Orange Bowl

   Connor Farren of Hillsborough defeated Vlad Victor Cornea of Romania 4-6, 6-4, 6-2 Monday in the first round of boys 18 singles at the prestigious Orange Bowl in Plantation, Fla.
   Farren will meet the winner of today's match between 16th-seeded Hassan Ndayishimiye of Burundi, a nation of 10 million people in south central Africa, and qualifier John Harrison Richmond of Pawleys Island, S.C.
   Krista Hardebeck, a wild card from Santa Ana who will be a freshman at Stanford next fall, lost to third-seeded Indy De Vroome, a 15-year-old Dutch player with the perfect name for a race car driver, 7-5, 6-3 in opening round of girls 18 singles.
   Mary Closs of Menlo Park fell to eighth-seeded Anna Maria Heil of Austria 6-3, 6-2 in the first round of girls 16 singles.
   Scheduled to play first-round singles matches today are top-seeded Dominic Thiem of Austria, Mackenzie McDonald of Piedmont and Stanford-bound Trey Strobel of Bradenton, Fla., in boys 18 singles and No. 1 seed Eugenie Bouchard of Canada in girls 18 singles.
   Thiem, 18, reached the final of this year's French Open boys tournament and beat former world No. 1 Thomas Muster, 44, in the first round at Vienna on the ATP World Tour in October. Bouchard, 17, won the 2011 Wimbledon girls doubles title with Grace Min of Lawrenceville, Ga.
   The Orange Bowl, in its 65th year, is being played on clay for the first time since 1998. Former champions include Roger Federer, Bjorn Borg, John McEnroe, Ivan Lendl, Jim Courier, Andy Roddick, Chris Evert, Gabriela Sabatini, Vera Zvonareva and Anna Kournikova.
   New rankings -- Following are this week's world rankings of professional players with Northern California ties (change from last week in parentheses):

Men

   Bob Bryan, 1998 NCAA doubles champion from Stanford -- No. 1 in doubles (no change), unranked in singles.
   Mike Bryan, 1998 NCAA doubles champion from Stanford -- No. 1 in doubles (no change), unranked in singles.
   John Paul Fruttero, Cal All-American in 2001 and 2002 -- Career-high No. 117 in doubles (no change), unranked in singles.
   Kiryl Harbatsiuk, three-time Big Sky Conference MVP (2009-11) at Sacramento State -- No. 762 in singles (no change), No. 1,247 in doubles (+8).
   Mark Knowles, Sacramento Capitals of World TeamTennis (2001-07, 2009-11) -- No. 58 in doubles (no change), unranked in singles.
   Scott Lipsky, 2002 NCAA doubles runner-up from Stanford -- No. 29 in doubles (no change), unranked in singles.
   David Martin, 2002 NCAA doubles runner-up from Stanford -- No. 105 in doubles (no change), No. 753 in singles (no change).
    Conor Niland, 2006 Pacific-10 Conference Player of the Year and two-time All-American at Cal -- No. 286 in singles (+1), unranked in doubles.
   Sam Querrey, San Francisco native -- No. 93 in singles (no change), No. 38 in doubles (no change).
   Dmitry Tursunov, Folsom resident -- No. 40 in singles (no change), No. 236 in doubles
(+1).
   Dusan Vemic, Capitals (2010-11) -- No. 498 in doubles (+3), No. 1,513 in singles (+1).
   Jimmy Wang, Folsom resident -- No. 275 in singles (-1), No. 524 in doubles (-1).

Women

   Vania King, Capitals (2010-11) -- No. 6 in doubles (no change), No. 76 in singles (no change).
   Raquel Kops-Jones, 2003 NCAA doubles champion from Cal -- No. 37 in doubles (no change), No. 721 in singles (no change).
   Maria Sanchez, Modesto resident -- No. 266 in doubles (-1), No. 696 in singles (-2).

   Yasmin Schnack, Elk Grove resident, Sacramento Capitals of World TeamTennis (2011) -- Career-high No. 179 in doubles (no change), No. 414 in singles (-3).

Motevassel wins national 40s; amazing streak ends

   Oren Motevassel was determined that this year would be different.
   After losing to Jeff Tarango in three sets in last year's final, Motevassel beat him 6-4, 6-3 Sunday to win the men's singles title of the USTA National 40 Hard Court Championships in La Jolla.
   Tarango, a former Stanford All-American from Manhattan Beach, was seeded first and Motevassel of Sunnyvale second. Both are left-handed former touring professionals.
   "After last year, I was kind of upset," Motevassel admitted in a news release. "I had the match. I was up a set, and I was up a break. I just lost a little focus. I was playing too defensive from the back and allowed him to dictate. I played too tentative last year.
   "I was focused today. I had a good game plan, and it worked fine. I took the ball a little earlier. I put him on the defense more. Getting the ball more on the rise helped me a lot today."
   In father-son doubles, top seeds and eight-time defending champions Brian and Brett Joelson of Beaverton, Ore., lost to fourth-seeded Peter and Tanner Smith of Los Alamitos 6-7 (9), 7-6 (5), 7-5 in the semifinals.

   Brett Joelson played for the Sacramento Capitals of World TeamTennis last year. Peter Smith is the head coach of the USC men, who have won the last three NCAA team titles.

   In the father-son final, third-seeded Tom Rettenmaier of Fountain Valley and Travis Rettenmaier, a touring pro living in Las Vegas, outlasted the Smiths 6-4, 3-6, 6-4. 

Tarango to play Motevassel in national 40 final again

   For the second straight year, Jeff Tarango and Oren Motevassel will meet in the men's singles final of the USTA National 40 Hard Court Championships in La Jolla.
   The top-seeded Tarango, a former Stanford All-American from Manhattan Beach, advanced when his boss, fourth-seeded Peter Smith of Los Alamitos, retired at 6-2, 5-7 because of illness. Smith is the head coach of the USC men, and Tarango is a Trojans assistant.
    The second-seeded Motevassel, a Sunnyvale resident, defeated third-seeded Jeff Greenwald of Corte Madera 3-6, 6-3, 6-1.
   Tarango, who reached No. 42 in the world in singles in 1992 and No. 10 in doubles in 1999, beat Motevassel in three sets in last year's final.
   Second-seeded Jennifer Dawson, a Carlsbad resident and last year's runner-up in women's singles, took the title when unseeded Dina McBride of Woodland Hills retired at 3-3 in the first set with an Achilles tendon injury.
   Second-seeded Alissa Finerman of Santa Monica and Erika Smith of Oakland won the women's doubles title with a 6-4, 6-3 victory over top-seeded Gretchen Magers of San Diego and Ros Nideffer of Poway.
   Magers reached the singles quarterfinals at Wimbledon (1989), the U.S. Open (1982) and the French Open (1983). Nideffer, born Rosalyn Fairbank in South Africa, won the French Open women's doubles title in 1981 with Tanya Harford and in 1983 with Candy Reynolds.
   No. 3 seeds Brian Cory of Salinas and Rick Kepler of Aptos lost to second-seeded Neel Grover and Richard Leach, both of Laguna Beach, 6-2, 3-6, 6-1 in the men's doubles semifinals.
   Second-seeded Kepler and Smith, meanwhile, lost to top-seeded Leach and Patricia Tarabini of Carlsbad 6-0, 6-0 in the mixed doubles final. Tarabini won the 1996 French Open mixed doubles title with fellow Argentine Javier Frana and a bronze medal in women's doubles with Paola Suarez in the 2004 Athens Olympics.
   No. 1 seeds Brian and Brett Joelson, residents of Beaverton, Ore., seeking their ninth consecutive father-son doubles title, won two matches to reach the semifinals. Brett played for the Sacramento Capitals of World TeamTennis in 2009.

Joelsons seek ninth straight father-son title

   Roger Federer hasn't done it. Rafael Nadal has a shot.
   Some of the greatest teams in sports history -- Casey's Stengel's New York Yankees, Chuck Noll's Pittsburgh Steelers, Red Auerbach's Boston Celtics, Toe Blake's Montreal Canadiens and John Wooden's UCLA Bruins -- couldn't pull it off, either.
   Winning nine consecutive titles in anything -- Parcheesi, Tiddlywinks, rock/paper/scissors -- is virtually impossible. Something is bound to go wrong in the interim. Skill declines. Interest wanes. Competitors get hurt. Rosters change. Luck runs out. Or, if you're an NFL player, you get busted.
   Brian and Brett Joelson, however, are on track for their ninth straight crown in father-son doubles at the USTA National Hard Court Championships in La Jolla.
   The top seeds coasted in two matches Friday to reach the round of 16. Brian, a 50-year-old stockbroker from Beaverton, Ore., and Brett, a 26-year-old assistant coach at Davidson College in North Carolina who played for the Sacramento Capitals of World TeamTennis last year, defeated James and Billy Rowe of Coronado 6-2, 6-1 and Scott and Jake Douglas of Rolling Hills by the same score.
   "I’ve got a good son," Brian said in a news release. "One thing about doubles: Always make sure you’ve got a good partner. We’ve played a lot together. Our games really mesh together well. We get a little lucky here and there. Brett is one of the best doubles players in the tournament. I just kind of hold my own.”
   Nadal, who can clinch Spain's third Davis Cup title in four years Sunday against visiting Argentina (live at 4 a.m. PST on Tennis Channel), has won the Monte Carlo Masters on clay for the past seven years.
   Joining the Joelsons in the round of 16 were ninth-seeded Douglas and Andrew Carlisle of Portola Valley and unseeded Michael Fischer and Michael Fischer Jr. of Fairfield.
   In today's women's 40 singles final, second-seeded Jennifer Dawson of Carlsbad will play unseeded Dina McBride of Woodland Hills. McBride knocked off top seed, defending champion and five-time winner Gretchen Magers of San Diego in the semifinals.
   In the men's 40 singles semifinals, top seed and defending champion Jeff Tarango of Manhattan Beach will face fourth-seeded Peter Smith of Los Alamitos, and second-seeded Oren Motevassel of Sunnyvale will meet third-seeded Jeff Greenwald of Corte Madera.
   Smith is the head coach of the USC men, and Tarango is an assistant coach for the Trojans and a former Stanford All-American.
   USC is on a streak of its own with three consecutive NCAA team championships. The Trojans still have a long way to go to catch the Joelsons, though.

Tarango to face his boss in USTA 40 Hard Court semis

   Jeff Tarango might want to go easy on Peter Smith on Saturday.
   After all, Smith is Tarango's boss.
   The top-seeded Tarango, an assistant coach for the USC men, will meet the fourth-seeded Smith, the Trojans' head coach, in the semifinals of the USTA National Men's and Women's Hard Court Championships in La Jolla. USC has won the last three NCAA team titles.
   Tarango, a former Stanford All-American from Manhattan Beach who reached the top 50 in the world in singles, eliminated unseeded John Saviano of Los Altos Hills 6-4, 6-1 Thursday. Smith, from Los Alamitos, defeated ninth-seeded Andy Stewart of Huntington Beach 6-3, 6-3.
   Saturday's other semifinal features two players from the San Francisco Bay Area. Second-seeded Owen Motevassel of Sunnyvale will take on third-seeded Jeff Greenwald of Corte Madera.
   In the women's singles semifinals, unseeded Dina McBride of Woodland Hills stunned No. 1 seed Gretchen Magers of San Diego 6-4, 6-1, and second-seeded Jennifer Dawson of Carlsbad blitzed fourth-seeded Kim-Trang Nguyen of Santa Ana 6-0, 6-0. Magers, a five-time titlist and the defending champion, reached No. 13 in the world in the 1980s.
   Top-seeded Magers and Ros Nideffer of Poway, meanwhile, will face second-seeded Alissa Finerman of Santa Monica and Erika Smith of Oakland in the women's doubles final Saturday.
   Third-seeded Brian Cory of Salinas and Rick Kepler of Aptos advanced to the men's doubles semifinals, and second-seeded Kepler and Smith moved into the mixed doubles semis.