Fish named Davis Cup captain; no ex-Stanford clash

Mardy Fish warms up between sets during a Sacramento
Capitals home match in 2013. Photo by Paul Bauman 

   Mardy Fish, the runner-up in the 2009 SAP Open in San Jose and a former Sacramento Capital in World TeamTennis, was named the captain (coach) of the United States Davis Cup team today.
   Fish replaces Jim Courier, who stepped down in September after eight years.
   "It is something that is a dream job for me, something I won't take for granted," Fish, 37, said during a conference call. "To be the next Davis Cup captain is incredibly humbling."
   Fish retired in 2015 after battling an irregular heartbeat and severe anxiety. He competed in the Davis Cup from 2002 to 2012, won the singles silver medal in the 2004 Athens Olympics and reached a career-high No. 7 in 2011.
   Fish lost to Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic in the final of the 2009 SAP Open and played part-time for the Capitals in 2012 and 2013.
   The SAP Open ended a 125-year run in Northern California in 2013. The Capitals announced in February 2014 that they were moving to Las Vegas after 28 years in Sacramento and folded the following month.
   The Davis Cup will enter a new era this year. Instead of rounds being played months apart each year, an 18-team tournament is scheduled for Nov. 18-24 in Madrid.
   Australian Open qualifying -- Nicole Gibbs won't have to play a friend and former teammate for a berth in the main draw in Melbourne.
   The 18th-seeded Gibbs beat Paula Ormaechea of Argentina 7-5, 6-2 in the second round of qualifying, but Kristie Ahn lost to third-seeded Victorija Golubic of Switzerland 6-4, 6-4.
   Gibbs and Ahn played No. 1 and 2, respectively, on Stanford's 2013 NCAA championship team.
   Golubic, ranked No. 104, is 3-1 (2-1 on hard courts) against Gibbs, ranked No. 127. They last met in September, with Golubic winning 6-4, 6-2 in the second round of qualifying in Wuhan, China, on the WTA tour on an outdoor hard court.
   College rankings -- The NCAA defending champion Stanford women are No. 1 in the year's first rankings, and the Cardinal men are No. 10. Neither the Cal men nor women cracked the Top 25.

Ex-Stanford teammates could meet for Aussie Open spot

Nicole Gibbs, playing in the $60,000 Berkeley Tennis
Club Challenge last July, could face former Stanford
teammate Kristie Ahn for a berth in the Australian
Open main draw. Photo by Paul Bauman

   It will take an upset, but friends and former Stanford teammates Nicole Gibbs and Kristie Ahn could meet for a berth in the Australian Open main draw.
   Gibbs and Ahn -- who played No. 1 and 2, respectively, on Stanford's 2013 NCAA championship team -- won their first-round qualifying matches in straight sets today in Melbourne.
   The 18th-seeded Gibbs, a 25-year-old resident of Venice in the Los Angeles area, beat Elitsa Kostova of Bulgaria 6-4, 6-2. Ahn, 26, of Boca Raton, Fla., dismissed Gabriella Taylor of Great Britain 6-1, 6-1 in 62 minutes.
   On Wednesday (California time), Gibbs will play Paula Ormaechea of Argentina, and Ahn will face third-seeded Viktorija Golubic of Switzerland. The winners will meet for a spot in the main draw.
   Gibbs, ranked No. 127, and the 26-year-old Ormaechea, ranked No. 235, have split two career matches. Ormaechea won 6-2, 6-1 on a clay court in 2014, and Gibbs triumphed 6-2, 6-3 on a hard court in 2012. The 26-year-old Golubic, ranked No. 104, and Ahn, ranked No. 210, will meet for the first time.
   Gibbs, the runner-up in the inaugural $60,000 Berkeley Tennis Club Challenge last July, has reached the second round or better in the Australian Open main draw for the past four years. She advanced to the third round in 2017, losing to eventual champion Serena Williams 6-1, 6-3.
   Ahn seeks her second main-draw berth in Melbourne. As a wild card there last year, she lost to 20th-seeded Barbora Strycova of the Czech Republic 6-1, 7-5 in the first round.

Brooksby loses to Austin's son in $25K L.A. semifinals

Jenson Brooksby practices at the JMG Tennis Academy in
Sacramento last May. Photo by Paul Bauman

   Jenson Brooksby will have to be content with reaching his second consecutive semifinal in a professional tournament.
   The 18-year-old amateur from the Sacramento suburb of Carmichael lost to wild card Brandon Holt, the son of International Tennis Hall of Famer Tracy Austin, 6-7 (3), 6-1, 6-4 on Saturday in the semifinals of the Los Angeles $25,000 Pro Tournament.
   Holt is playing on his home courts at USC, where he is a junior.
   Brooksby, who won the USTA Boys 18 National Championships in Kalamazoo, Mich., last August to earn a wild card in the U.S. Open, also reached the semis of a $25,000 tournament in Waco, Texas, last November. He plans to enroll at Baylor in Waco in the fall or next January. Brooksby still seeks his first berth in a pro final.
 

NorCal juniors dominate; Brooksby routs top seed

Connie Ma, 15, of Dublin in the San Francisco Bay Area swept
the girls 18 titles in the USTA National Winter Championships
in Orlando, Fla. 2018 photo by Paul Bauman

   Juniors from Northern California, not more-heralded Florida or Southern California, dominated the singles events in past week's USTA National Winter Championships.
   Of the eight singles titles offered in Orlando, Fla., (boys and girls 18s and 16s) and Tucson, Ariz., (boys and girls 14s and 12s), NorCal players won five.
   Ishaan Ravichander (boys 18), Connie Ma (girls 18), and Luke Casper (boys 16) today joined Ria Bhakta (girls 14) and Mason Nguyen (boys 12) as champions.
   The 17th-seeded Ravichander, 16, defeated ninth-seeded Zachery Lim 7-6 (2) on a hard court at the USTA National Campus in a matchup of players from Sacramento's JMG Tennis Academy.
   Ravichander lost two sets in his seven tournament matches, including his 3-6, 7-6 (2), 6-1 victory over 17th-seeded Finn Garner of Annapolis, Md., in the fourth round.
   The fourth-seeded Ma, a 15-year-old resident of Dublin in the San Francisco Bay Area, downed third-seeded Alana Wolfberg of Orlando 6-4, 6-0.
   Ma, only 5-foot-3 (1.60 meters) and 95 pounds (43.1 kilograms), won the last nine games against the Oklahoma State signee and dropped no more than four games in a set in the tournament. She also won the doubles title with Anna Campana of Hillsborough in the Bay Area on Thursday.
   The fifth-seeded Casper, a Santa Cruz resident who turned 16 on Dec. 16, beat 13th-seeded Quinn Snyder of Delran, N.J., 7-6 (5), 6-4 on Har-Tru at the USTA National Campus.
   Casper never lost a set in the tournament, winning three tiebreakers.
   USTA Pro Circuit -- Unseeded Jenson Brooksby, an 18-year-old amateur from Carmichael in the Sacramento area, routed top-seeded Dmitry Popko, a 22-year-old Russia native who plays for Kazakhstan, 6-3, 6-0 in 68 minutes in $25,000 Los Angeles to reach the semifinals of a professional tournament for the second time.
   Popko, at No. 351, is the highest-ranked player and second consecutive top seed whom Brooksby has beaten. He also shocked 6-foot-8 (2.03-meter) Michael Redlicki of Fayetteville, Ark., en route to the semis of the $25,000 Waco (Texas) Futures in November.
   Brooksby, who plans to enroll at Baylor in Waco in the fall or next January, will meet wild card Brandon Holt, a USC junior and the son of International Tennis Hall of Famer Tracy Austin.

Ma, 2 others reach Winter finals; Brooksby survives; etc.

Connie Ma, 15, of Dublin in the San Francisco Bay Area, will
play for the girls 18 singles title in the USTA National Winter
Championships in Orlando, Fla. Photo by Paul Bauman

   Three more Northern California juniors will play for singles titles in the USTA National Winter Championships.
   Advancing today in Orlando, Fla., were 15-year-old Connie Ma of Dublin in the San Francisco Bay Area in the girls 18s, Zachery Lim of Fairfield in the boys 18s and Luke Casper of Santa Cruz in the boys 16s.
   Ria Bhakta of Saratoga in the Bay Area and Mason Nguyen of El Dorado Hills in the Sacramento region won the girls 14 and boys 12 crown, respectively, in Tucson, Ariz., on Wednesday.
   The fourth-seeded Ma, only 5-foot-3 (1.60 meters) and 95 pounds (43.1 kilograms),  routed eighth-seeded Carly Briggs of Calhoun, Ga., 6-2, 6-1. Ma will face third-seeded Alana Wolfberg, an Orlando resident and Oklahoma State recruit who topped unseeded India Houghton of Belvedere Tiburon in the Bay Area 7-6 (4), 6-4.
   Anna Campana of Hillsborough in the Bay Area and Ma, seeded 15th in doubles, beat fourth-seeded Allie Gretkowski of Mount Pleasant, S.C., and Anna Ross of Charleston, S.C., 6-4, 6-2 for the title.
   The ninth-seeded Lim defeated 14th-seeded Daniel Milavsky of Needham, Mass., 7-6 (4), 6-2 to set up a match against 17th-seeded Ishaan Ravichander of Belle Mead, N.J.
   Casper, seeded fifth, eliminated 11th-seeded Samir Banerjee of Basking Ridge, N.J., 6-1, 7-5. Casper will meet 13th-seeded Quinn Snyder of Delran, N.J.
   ITF World Tour -- Jenson Brooksby, 18, of Carmichael in the Sacramento region saved two match points in a 2-6, 7-6 (10), 7-5 victory over Brandon Nakashima, 17, of San Diego in the second round of the Los Angeles $25,000 Pro Tournament.
   Brooksby, who's headed to Baylor, won all three of his matches against Nakashima last year in straight sets. Each match was in the juniors, including the best-of-five-set final in the USTA Boys 18 National Championships in Kalamazoo, Mich.
   Brooksby will face top-seeded Dmitry Popko, a 22-year-old Russia native who plays for Kazakhstan, in the quarterfinals.
   WTA Tour -- Unseeded Viktoria Kuzmova of Slovakia held off Amanda Anisimova, a 17-year-old wild card from Aventura, Fla., 6-3, 2-6, 6-4 in the quarterfinals of the ASB Classic in Auckland, New Zealand.
   Anisimova, who won her first professional title at 15 in the 2017 Sacramento Challenger, ousted fifth-seeded Barbora Strycova of the Czech Republic in the second round.
   ATP Challenger Tour -- No. 14 seed Mathias Bourgue of France defeated wild card Sam Riffice, a Florida freshman from Roseville in the Sacramento area, 6-4, 5-7, 6-2 in the third round of the $50,000 Orlando (Fla.) Open.
   Riffice stunned fourth-seeded Filip Peliwo of Canada in the second round. Peliwo won the 2012 Wimbledon boys singles title.

Bhakta, Nguyen claim National Winter singles titles

   Ninth-seeded Ria Bhakta of Saratoga in the San Francisco Bay Area crushed fifth-seeded Kinaa Graham of Austin, Texas, 6-0, 6-0 today to win the girls 14 title in the USTA National Winter Championships in Tucson, Ariz.
   Bhakta lost an average of only 1.4 games per set in her seven tournament matches. Her closest match came in the fourth round, a 6-3, 6-4 victory over sixth-seeded Sia Chaudry of Midlothian, Va.
   Ninth-seeded Mason Nguyen of El Dorado Hills in the Sacramento area captured the boys 12 title in Tucson, beating fourth-seeded Maxwell Exsted of Savage, Minn., 6-4, 7-5.
   Nguyen was not tested until the semifinals, in which he ousted third-seeded Santiago Muhala of Katy, Texas, 6-4, 7-5. Nguyen also toppled second-seeded Cooper Woestendick of Olathe, Kan., 6-2, 6-0 in the fourth round.
   In Orlando, Fla., India Houghton of Belvedere Tiburon in the Bay Area and Luke Casper of Santa Cruz knocked off the top seed in the girls 18 and boys 16 quarterfinals, respectively.
   Houghton, the runner-up in the Orange Bowl 16s last month, took out Anessa Lee of San Marino in the Los Angeles region 6-3, 6-7 (2), 6-2.
   Advancing in the other half of the draw was fourth-seeded Connie Ma, 15, of Dublin in the Bay Area. Ma, who also reached the doubles semifinals with Anna Campana of Hillsborough, helped the United States win the Junior Fed Cup in Budapest, Hungary, in September.
   Casper surprised Jack Anthrop of Orlando 6-3, 6-4. In the other half of the draw, 17th-seeded John Kim of Sunnyvale beat unseeded Carter Morgan of Jacksonville, Fla., 6-2, 6-4.
   In the boys 18 quarterfinals, ninth-seeded Zachery Lim of Fairfield topped 17th-seeded Joshua Raab of Woodstock, Ga., 6-7 (5), 7-6 (5), 6-2. Lim will face 14th-seeded Daniel Milavsky, a resident of Needham, Mass., who downed 10th-seeded Aryan Chaudhary of Santa Clara 3-6, 7-6 (6), 6-3.
   Also in the boys 18s, fourth-seeded Logan Zapp of Fleming Island, Fla., beat unseeded Karl Lee of Sacramento 6-4, 6-3.
   Anisimova scores upset -- Amanda Anisimova, who won her first professional title at 15 in the 2017 Sacramento Challenger, surprised fifth-seeded Barbora Strycova, a 32-year-old Czech ranked 33rd, 6-3, 6-3 to reach the quarterfinals of the ASB Classic in Auckland, New Zealand.
   Anisimova, a 17-year-old wide card from Aventura, Fla., ranked 90th, will play Viktoria Kuzmova of Slovakia. Kuzmova beat Sofia Kenin of Pembroke Pines, Fla., 7-5, 5-7, 6-3 in a matchup of 20-year-olds. Kenin won a Northern California Challenger for the third consecutive year in Berkeley in July.
   Strycova outlasted Kenin 6-4 in the third set to help the Czech Republic defeat the United States 3-0 in the Fed Cup final in Prague in November. Kenin played in the international team competition for the first time and Strycova for the last.

Fed tops Serena; Bryan back; Stephens stumbles; etc.

   Roger Federer and Belinda Bencic beat Frances Tiafoe and Serena Williams 4-2, 4-3 (5-3) today, lifting Switzerland to a 2-1 victory over the United States in the Hopman Cup in Perth, Australia.
   It was the first meeting between Federer, who has won a record 20 Grand Slam singles titles, and Williams, who needs one more major singles crown to tie Margaret Court's mark of 24.
   Both Williams and Federer are 37. Williams has a residence in Silicon Valley, and Federer made his Northern California debut in a San Jose exhibition last March.
   Bryan returns -- Robert Lindstedt of Sweden and Milos Raonic of Canada edged top-seeded Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan, 40-year-old identical twins, 3-6, 6-4 (10-7) in the first round of the Brisbane International.
   Bob Bryan played for the first time since hurting his hip in the Madrid final in May. He underwent surgery on Aug. 2.
   All four players have Northern California connections.
   The Bryans led Stanford to the NCAA team title in both of their years there (1997-98).
   Lindstedt, 41, played at Fresno State before transferring to Pepperdine and reaching the 1998 NCAA doubles final, in which he and Kelly Gullett lost to the Bryans.
   Raonic, 28, never lost a set in the SAP Open in San Jose, winning the last three titles (2011-13) before the tournament ended a 125-year run in NorCal.
   Stephens ousted early -- Johanna Konta of Great Britain eliminated third-seeded Sloane Stephens, who grew up in Fresno, 6-4, 6-3 in the first round of the Brisbane International. Konta won the 2016 Bank of the West Classic at Stanford.
   Riffice scores big upset -- Wild card Sam Riffice, a Florida freshman from Roseville in the Sacramento area, stunned fourth-seeded Filip Peliwo of Canada 1-6, 6-2, 6-0 in the second round of the $50,000 Orlando (Fla.) Open. Peliwo won the 2012 Wimbledon boys singles title.
   USTA National Winter Championships -- Ria Bhakta of Saratoga in the San Francisco Bay Area and Mason Nguyen of El Dorado Hills in the Sacramento region reached the girls 14 and boys 12 singles final, respectively, in Tucson, Ariz.
   Both players are seeded ninth. Bhakta will meet fifth-seeded Kinaa Graham of Austin, Texas, and the Nguyen will play fourth-seeded Maxwell Exsted of Savage, Minn.
   Three boys and two girls from NorCal reached the 18s quarterfinals in Orlando. Advancing were ninth-seeded Zachery Lim of Fairfield, 10th-seeded Aryan Chaudhary of Santa Clara, unseeded Karl Lee of Sacramento, fourth-seeded Connie Ma of Dublin and unseeded India Houghton of Belvedere Tiburon.
   Moving into the boys 16 singles quarterfinals in Orlando were fifth-seeded Luke Casper of Santa Cruz and 17th-seeded John Kim of Sunnyvale.