Gerasimov ousts defending champ Kokkinakis in Aptos

Defending champion Thanasi Kokkinakis, who shocked
Roger Federer last year, lost to Egor Gerasimov 7-6 (2),
6-4 today in the second round of the Nordic Naturals
Challenger in Aptos, Calif. 2018 photo by Paul Bauman

   Sixth-seeded Egor Gerasimov of Belarus beat defending champion Thanasi Kokkinakis of Australia 7-6 (2), 6-4 today in the second round of the $81,240 Nordic Naturals Challenger at the Seascape Sports Club in Aptos, Calif.
   The 6-foot-5 (1.96-meter) Gerasimov, 26, saved both break points against him and converted his only one against the 6-foot-4 (1.93-meter) Kokkinakis, 23.
   Gerasimov reached two quarterfinals on the ATP Tour, in Los Cabos and Moscow, last year. He defeated three top-60 players in the process, including then-No. 28 Sam Querrey in Los Cabos.
   Kokkinakis, whose promising career has been derailed by injuries, shocked Roger Federer in the second round in Miami in March 2018. He is ranked No. 171 after climbing as high as No. 69 at 19 years old in 2015.
   Gerasimov, ranked No. 146, is scheduled to face 12th-seeded Emilio Gomez, an Ecuadorian ranked No. 169, on Thursday for a quarterfinal berth. They will meet for the first time.
   Top-seeded Damir Dzumhur of Bosnia and Herzegovina beat Keegan Smith, a 6-foot-7 (2.01-meter) qualifier from San Diego, 6-4, 6-4. Smith won the NCAA doubles title as a UCLA sophomore with Maxime Cressy last May in Orlando, Fla.
   The 5-foot-9 (1.75-meter) Dzumhur, who has plunged from a career-high No. 23 last July to No. 109, will meet unseeded Lukas Lacko of Slovakia.
   The 31-year-old Lacko, down from a career-high No. 44 in 2013 to No. 227, topped 6-foot-7 American Christopher Eubanks, an Aptos semifinalist last year, 7-6 (1), 7-6 (5).
   Dzumhur and Lacko have split two career matches.
   Fifth-seeded Bjorn Fratangelo of Orlando beat Italy's Jannik Sinner, who won last week's $54,160 tournament in Lexington, Ky., 7-6 (6), 6-3. Fratangelo won the $100,000 Fairfield (Calif.) Challenger last October and reached the Aptos semifinals in 2015 and 2016.
   Second-seeded Steve Johnson of Redondo Beach in the Los Angeles area dismissed Roberto Quiroz of Ecuador 6-1, 6-2 in 48 minutes. Johnson, the 2012 Aptos champion, has tumbled from a career-high No. 21 in 2016 to No. 93.
   Johnson will meet unseeded Liam Broady, a left-hander from Great Britain. Broady, the 2017 Aptos runner-up, beat 14th-seeded Ramkumar Ramanathan of India 7-6 (2), 6-4.
   Here are the updated Aptos singles and doubles draws and Thursday's schedule. Live streaming is available.

Kenin upsets No. 1 Barty; Ahn earns U.S. Open berth

Sofia Kenin, shown en route to the Berkeley title last
year, earned her first victory over a top-five player.
Photo by Paul Bauman

   Sofia Kenin continued her meteoric rise today.
   The 20-year-old American, who won Northern California Challengers in three consecutive years, ousted top-ranked Ashleigh Barty of Australia 6-7 (5), 6-3, 6-4 in the second round of the Rogers Cup in Toronto.
   Kenin, ranked 29th, had been 0-3 against top-five players and 0-3 against Barty, who was playing in her first tournament since reaching the fourth round at Wimbledon. She won the French Open in June for her first Grand Slam singles title.
   Kenin captured the title in Sacramento in 2016, Stockton in 2017 and Berkeley in 2018. She will play the winner of Wednesday's match between former world No. 1 Victoria Azarenka and 19-year-old rising star Dayana Yastremska of Ukraine on Thursday.
  Marie Bouzkova, a 21-year-old Czech qualifier, stunned seventh-seeded Sloane Stephens, a 26-year-old Fresno product, 6-2, 7-5. Stephens is ranked eighth and Bouzkova 91st.
   Tatjana Maria, a 32-year-old qualifier and mother from Germany, eliminated China's Zheng Saisai, who won last week's Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic in San Jose, in the first round.
   Ahn in U.S. Open – Kristie Ahn, a 27-year-old Stanford graduate from Englewood Cliffs, N.J., earned a wild card in the U.S. Open by reaching the quarterfinals of last week's Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic in San Jose as a qualifier.
   Ahn, ranked No. 138, will make her second appearance in the main draw of the U.S. Open. She qualified at age 16 in 2008 and lost in the first round to Dinara Safina of Russia in the first round. Safina was ranked seventh at the time and reached No. 1 the following year.
   USTA Pro Circuit – Here are the updated singles and doubles draws and Wednesday's schedule in the Nordic Naturals Challenger at the Seascape Sports Club in Aptos, Calif. Live streaming is available.

Zheng wins San Jose with a lot of help from her friend

Champion Zheng Saisai, middle, and members of the San Jose State football
team pose in front of Spartan statues. The university's football stadium is next
to the site of the Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic. Photo by Mal Taam

   SAN JOSE, Calif. – After a strong start to the clay-court season in the spring, Zheng Saisai thought she was on her way.
   Instead, the 25-year-old Chinese player lost six of her next seven matches on clay and grass. She arrived in San Jose with first-round losses in her last four tournaments. Granted, three of the four came against top-16 players, and the other was against 35-year-old Samantha Stosur, who has won seven Grand Slam titles (one in singles, three in women's doubles and three in mixed doubles).
   But after a conversation with her best friend, the unseeded Zheng (pronounced Jung) knocked off four consecutive seeds in the second annual Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic, which launches the hardcourt U.S. Open series, en route to her first WTA singles title. In Sunday's final, Zheng toppled second-seeded Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus 6-3, 7-6 (3).
   Zheng also:
   –Demolished eighth-seeded Danielle Collins, an American who reached last year's semifinals in San Jose, 6-2, 6-0 in the second round.
   –Outlasted 17-year-old American Amanda Anisimova, the fourth seed who reached the French Open semifinals in June, 5-7, 7-5, 6-4 in the quarterfinals in the longest match of the tournament (2 hours, 52 minutes).
   –Frustrated seventh-seeded Maria Sakkari, last year's runner-up from Greece, 7-6 (5), 6-2 in the semifinals.
   "Before, I wasn't (playing) this well," Zheng, who pocketed $151,070 in her second career WTA final to surpass $3 million in career earnings, said after the final. "After Wimbledon, I (was) back in China. My best friend (Ng Kwan-yau, a 22-year-old player from Hong Kong) tell me, 'You know, Saisai, when you are calm and not so emotional, you can use your brain. You will play your best tennis. But she doesn't see that last few months. Then I realized, OK, I probably (feel) too much pressure, too much expectation. This week, I start to enjoy and don't think (about) the result and play each point.
   "I really want to thank her. I was losing a lot, and I realized (feeling pressure) is a problem. I fixed it this week, and it turns out good."

Zheng Saisai used her outstanding movement to upset top-10 player Aryna Saba-
lenka in Sunday's final. Photo by Mal Taam

   Zheng recorded her fifth victory over a top-10 player and became the first Chinese singles champion in the 49-year history of the San Francisco Bay Area stop on the WTA tour, the longest-running women's professional tournament in the world. She won the doubles title in the 2015 Bank of the West Classic at Stanford with compatriot Xu Yifan and earned the first of her first 302 main-draw singles victories on the WTA tour at Stanford in 2012.
   Both Zheng and Sabalenka, 21, equaled their career highs in today's new weekly world rankings. Zheng jumped 17 places to No. 38, and Sabalenka improved one spot to No. 9.
   Sunday's final matched the 5-foot-7 (1.70-meter) Zheng's outstanding movement and consistency against the 5-foot-11 (1.82-meter) Sabalenka's tremendous power. Zheng prevailed by mixing up her shots and keeping the ball in play until Sabalenka made an error.
   "Obviously, you don't want to play fast, fast, fast with her," said Zheng, who improved to 2-0 against Sabalenka. "She the best (at) this. The tactic is (to) put the ball deep, and whenever I see space, let her run and change (the pace) if I can (with) slice or high ball. If I give her same ball, she will hit winner from any corner, so I was just trying to mix it up.
   "I was focused. I wasn't overthinking anything. I (told myself) this is not a final; this is a normal match. Just enjoy."

Aryna Sabalenka said she was "freaking out" against Zheng Saisai. Photo by
Mal Taam

   Sabalenka sounded much like the 5-foot-8 (1.72) Sakkari, another hard hitter, after losing to Zheng.
   When asked what went wrong, Sabalenka said "everything – my game, my reaction, my backhand, forehand, serve, tactic (in) the match. Emotional side was really ... I was freaking out. I couldn't do anything today with myself. I couldn't control my emotions. I was screaming some s---. I was throwing the racket, always speaking with my team trying to get something from them, but actually it was in my head. They couldn't do anything, but I was looking to them like, Tell me something that's going to help me come back in this match because she's like crazy player. She's going for crazy (moonballs), then slice, then flat backhand, and you always have to adjust for the ball.
   "Yesterday's match (against Donna Vekic) was kind of like flat (shots), but here it was completely different game. I just wasn't ready for this match. This is my mistake. I knew her game – we watched her a little bit – but still it wasn't enough to actually play."
   Zheng's high balls were particularly effective.
   "Her game destroy me because I couldn't use my power," said Sabalenka, who lost in the first round of qualifying in San Jose last year to Maria Sanchez, a Modesto, Calif., product ranked No. 258, after leading 6-2, 5-3. "I wasn't ready for that. In practice, I work a lot on these shots, and I know how to play, but I never actually played against those kind of players. Probably I have to work a little bit more on this game."
   Sabalenka committed eight double faults, including one on Zheng's first championship point, and struggled to return Zheng's modest serve, repeatedly slugging not only first but second serves out.
   Sabalenka was playing in her first final since winning her third career WTA singles title in Shenzhen, China, in the first week of the year. She had the same problem with pressure on Sunday that Zheng solved.
   "Of course, I wanted to do well," said Sabalenka, who collected $80,500 to top $3.5 million for her career. "That's why I (had) a lot of emotions on the court. Next time, if I will be a little bit relaxed on the court, just enjoy, probably things can happen different direction. The main thing is I just need to be calm on the court and play my tennis and don't care about anything else."

Forty-four-year-old Kveta Peschke, left, won her second consecutive San Jose
doubles title, this time with Nicole Melichar. Photo by Mal Taam

   Sabalenka's coach, former top-20 player Dmitry Tursunov, praised Zheng and said his protege needs to be more patient.
   "(Sabalenka) didn't play well, for sure, but the main thing is her opponent managed to make her not play well," said Tursunov, who moved alone from his native Moscow to Los Altos in the San Francisco Bay Area at 12 to train and owns a townhouse in the Sacramento suburb of Folsom that he rents out. "Watching that match, I kept thinking of a (Fabrice) Santoro-(Marat) Safin matchup where Safin was losing his mind. It's a tough matchup. For Aryna, these types of opponents will always create problems. You have to really know how to play them and develop your game in such a way where you can stay in points long enough to earn an opportunity to attack.
   "Right now, definitely, there (are) too many premature attacks, and (there's) chaotic behavior on the court. It's part of the growing process. It's kind of a David and Goliath matchup where you have to really develop your game to be able to maybe not use so much power, maybe use a little more finesse and develop the point versus trying to just win it outright."
   Santoro, a 5-foot-10 (1.78-meter) Frenchman, reached career highs of No. 17 in singles in 2001 and No. 6 in doubles in 1999. He was 7-2 against the 6-foot-4 (1.93-meter) Safin, Tursunov's teammate on Russia's 2006 Davis Cup championship team who was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 2016.
   After Sabalenka held serve for 3-4 in the first set Sunday, Zheng reeled off four straight games to lead 2-0 in the second set. Sabalenka then won three games in a row, breaking Zheng twice, to get back in the match. But Sabalenka double-faulted twice in the next game, including on break point, for 3-3.
   Both players then held serve to send the set into a tiebreaker. Zheng raced to a 4-1 lead (one mini-break) with the help of two Sabalenka errors. With Zheng leading 5-3, Sabalenka sailed a forehand return of an 80-mph (128.8-kilometer) first serve long to give Zheng her first championship point. After Sabalenka missed her first serve, Zheng stood several feet inside the baseline to receive the second delivery, which Sabalenka netted. Sabalenka then slammed her racket on the court, picked it up and flung it at her chair.
   Ng, of course, isn't the only one who has helped Zheng.
   "I want to thank Alan (Ma, the head coach of the Star River Professional Tennis Club in Guangzhou, China)," Zheng said."He always support me. He the one believe in me from the beginning. He's saying I'm going to be good. Even I don't know if I'm going to be good or if I'm going to go pro, but he tell me, 'You're going to be good. You just keep going.' I really want to thank him."
   Zheng wasn't finished.
   "One more. I want to thank my mom," Zheng added, eliciting a  big laugh from the media. "She's the one bring me to play tennis, always support me, believe in me. Whenever tough moments, she will say, 'If you don't want to play, OK, let's go back.' You always know someone is there. It's a lot of love."
   No pun intended.
   Earlier Sunday, 44-year-old Kveta Peschke of the Czech Republic won her second consecutive San Jose doubles title, this time with 26-year-old Nicole Melichar, a Czech-born American. The top-seeded pair beat unseeded Shuko Aoyama and Ena Shibahara of Japan 6-4, 6-4. Peschke won last year's title with Latisha Chan of Taiwan.
   Here are the complete San Jose singles and doubles draws.
   Here are the singles qualifying draw, singles main draw, doubles main draw and Tuesday's schedule in the $81,240 Nordic Naturals Challenger at the Seascape Sports Club in Aptos, Calif., a one-hour drive south of San Jose on the Pacific Ocean. In its 32nd year, the tournament is the longest-running men's Challenger in the United States. It's being streamed live.

Zheng upsets Sabalenka for first WTA singles title

   SAN JOSE, Calif. – Unseeded Zheng Saisai of China won her first WTA singles title today, beating second-seeded Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus 6-3, 7-6 (3) in the second annual Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic at San Jose State University. A complete story with quotes and photos will be posted Monday.

Crafty Zheng, powerful Sabalenka reach San Jose final

   SAN JOSE, Calif. – With her crafty game, Zheng Saisai is quietly making a name for herself in Northern California.
   The unseeded Zheng reached her first Premier Level singles final today, beating seventh seed and 2018 runner-up Maria Sakkari 7-6 (5), 6-2 in the second annual Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic at San Jose State.
   Zheng, 25, of China also played in the doubles semifinals. Top-seeded Nicole Melichar, a Czech-born American, and Kveta Peschke, a 44-year-old Czech, downed the unseeded Zheng and 18-year-old Liang En-Shuo of Taiwan 6-4, 4-6 [10-3]. Peschke won last year's title with Latisha Chan of Taiwan.
   Zheng will play second-seeded Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus on Sunday at 4 p.m. (Tennis Channel). The 10th-ranked Sabalenka, a sturdy 5-foot-11 (1.82 meters), overpowered fifth-seeded Donna Vekic, a slender 5-foot-10 (1.79-meter) Croat, 6-4, 6-3 at night.
   "I just hit the ball as hard as I could, and everything went in," the 21-year-old Sabalenka, who lost in the first round of qualifying last year in San Jose, said with a laugh.
   Zheng defeated Sabalenka 7-5, 6-3 in the first round of a $60,000 tournament in Zhuhai, China, in March 2017 in their only meeting.
   Sabalenka, who seeks her fourth career WTA singles title, is coached by former top-20 player Dmitry Tursunov, a Moscow native who moved alone to the San Francisco Bay Area at 12 to train and was based in the Sacramento area for most of his professional career.
   "He knows me really well," Sabalenka said of her 36-year-old mentor. "Before I say something, he actually knows what I'm going to say. That's amazing. I think he was the same as me when he was playing – same emotions, same problems – so he knows how to help me."
   Zheng is playing in the Bay Area for the first time since 2016, when she lost to eventual champion Johanna Konta in the quarterfinals of the Bank of the West Classic at nearby Stanford. Zheng won the doubles title there in 2015 with compatriot Xu Yifan.
    Mixing up her shots and playing tremendous defense, Zheng wore down the hard-hitting Sakkari in 85-degree (29.4 Celsius) heat that felt 20 degrees warmer. In fact, a woozy ballgirl had to be helped off the court late in the first set.
   Most of the modest crowd favored Sakkari. The 24-year-old Greek is known as "The True Spartan" at the home of the San Jose State Spartans.
   "I played really, really bad for the whole match," lamented the chiseled Sakkari, who fell to 1-2 against Zheng in their first match since 2016. "I was not playing even my minimum level. She has a tricky game, which played a huge role in the match. My level was pretty poor today to win that match after coming from a win like that yesterday. Maybe I was a little bit mentally fatigued after coming back yesterday from a set and 5-2 down."
   Sakkari stormed back from a 6-1, 5-2 deficit and saved four match points to shock top-seeded Elina Svitolina in a three-set match that lasted 2 hours, 32 minutes on Friday afternoon. Zheng needed 20 more minutes to outlast 17-year-old U.S. phenom Amanda Anisimova in the featured night match.
   "Today's match was quite different than yesterday's," Zheng said in an on-court interview. "(Sakkari) had much more spin, so I had to adapt to her game. She was really aggressive on her forehand, which gave me a lot of trouble, but I hung in there."
   Zheng's career has been slowed by injuries. After coming to San Jose on a four-match losing streak, she will improve from No. 55 to at least No. 42, four spots below her career high at the end of last year.
   Zheng frustrated Sakkari with "slice, lobs, drop shots," Sakkari said. "She's not one of the nicest players to play – tennis-wise ... she's a nice girl. You don't find this kind of player playing loopy balls at this level. Her ball has no pace. We're used to bang, bang, bang, so it's quite tough.
   "I didn't know she was going to play like that. To tell you the truth, I haven't watched her for a long time. I didn't prepare the right way. It was not so much about the drop shots. It was more about these loopy balls that I was playing when I was under 12."
   The last point of the first set was typical as Sakkari muscled a moonball long.
   In addition to making repeated errors, Sakkari served poorly. She converted only 49 percent of her first deliveries and had no aces and eight double faults, including two to get broken for 1-1 in the second set and two to lose her serve in the last game of the match. In both games, Sakkari double-faulted on break point. In the final game, her first double fault bounced in front of the net, and her second one sailed way long.
   Sakkari was mystified afterward about the cause of her serving woes.
   "That's a good question," she said. "That's something I want to ask my coach. If I (knew) what was wrong, I would (have changed) it. Maybe my legs were heavy, and I was not pushing enough to get power and height."
   Here are the San Jose singles and doubles draws and Sunday's schedule. Here's the singles draw for next week's $81,240 Nordic Naturals Challenger in Aptos, Calif. The men's tournament will be held at the Seascape Sports Club, a one-hour drive south of San Jose.
   Citi Open – Wild cards Cori Gauff, 15, of Delray Beach, Fla., and Caty McNally, 17, of Cincinnati beat fourth-seeded Maria Sanchez, a 29-year-old Modesto, Calif., product, and Fanny Stollar, 20, of Hungary 6-2, 6-2 in the final in Washington, D.C.
   Gauff last month became the youngest player to reach the singles round of 16 at Wimbledon since Jennifer Capriati in 1991.

Sakkari stages stunning comeback, ousts top seed in S.J.

Maria Sakkari, playing in the final of last year's inaugural Mubadala Silicon Valley
Classic in San Jose, rallied from a big deficit and saved four match points to stun
top-seeded Elina Svitolina in Friday's quarterfinals. Photo by Mal Taam

   Maria Sakkari made a dramatic comeback on Friday to stun top-seeded Elina Svitolina in the Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic.
   After trailing 6-1, 5-2, the seventh-seeded Sakkari saved four match points in a 1-6, 7-6 (3), 6-3 victory in the quarterfinals of the second annual tournament at San Jose State.
   The 30th-ranked Sakkari, last year's runner-up in San Jose, also lost her serve in the first game of the third set but immediately broke back. She broke again to lead 4-2.
   "My coach came in, and he said, 'If you did it once in Rabat (where she beat Johanna Konta from a set and a break down in the final on clay in early May), you can do it again,' " Sakkari, 24, of Greece said on wtatennis.com.
   Svitolina, ranked seventh, last month became the first Ukrainian woman to reach the Wimbledon semifinals, her best performance in a Grand Slam tournament.
   Sakkari is scheduled to play unseeded Zheng Saisai of China today at 2 p.m. (Tennis Channel). Zheng, ranked No. 55, surprised fourth-seeded Amanda Anisimova, 17, of Aventura, Fla., 5-7, 7-5, 6-4 in 2 hours, 52 minutes on Friday night to reach the biggest semifinal of her career.
   Anisimova won her first professional title at 15 in the 2017 Sacramento Challenger and in June stunned defending champion Simona Halep to become the youngest American woman to reach the French Open semifinals since 14-year-old Jennifer Capriati in 1990.
   Sakkari and Zheng, 25, have split two matches, both in 2016.
   In the other semifinal, second-seeded Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus will face fifth-seeded Donna Vekic of Croatia at 7 p.m. (Tennis Channel).
   Sabalenka, 21, outlasted sixth-seeded Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain 3-6, 6-2, 6-4 during the day session.
   Sabalenka is coached by former top-20 player Dmitry Tursunov, a Moscow native who moved alone to the San Francisco Bay Area at 12 to train and was based in the Sacramento area for most of his professional career.
   Suarez Navarro won the doubles title in the 2014 Bank of the West Classic at nearby Stanford with countrywoman Garbine Muguruza, who last week withdrew from the Silicon Valley Classic for the second consecutive year because of an injury.
   Vekic, 23, eliminated U.S. qualifier Kristie Ahn, a 27-year-old Stanford graduate, 7-5, 6-0. Ahn ousted third-seeded Elise Mertens of Belgium in the second round for her first victory over a top-20 player.
   The 26th-ranked Vekic is 3-0 against the 10th-ranked Sabalenka, all on hardcourts. They last met in 2017.
   In the doubles quarterfinals, unseeded Shuko Aoyama and Ena Shibahara of Japan beat third-seeded Lyudmyla Kichenok and Nadiia Kichenok, 27-year-old twins from Ukraine and last year's runners-up, 6-1, 6-4.
   Shibahara, a 21-year-old native of Rancho Palos Verdes in the Los Angeles area who starred at UCLA, won the Stockton (Calif.) doubles title with Haley Carter last October.
   After tonight's singles match, International Tennis Hall of Famers Andy Roddick and Michael Chang and former top-10 players James Blake and Mark Philippoussis will compete in a one-night, single-elimination tournament. Each match will be one set.
   Here are the San Jose singles and doubles draws and today's schedule.

It's Ahn to the San Jose quarterfinals after big upset

Stanford graduate Kristie Ahn, playing in Berkeley two weeks ago,
stunned third-seeded Elise Mertens to reach the quarterfinals of a
WTA tournament for the second time. Photo by Paul Bauman

   Kristie Ahn almost cracked the top 100 in early 2018.
   It could happen this year.
   Ahn, a qualifier from Englewood Cliffs, N.J., stunned third-seeded Elise Mertens of Belgium 6-3, 6-3 today to reach the quarterfinals of the Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic at San Jose State.
   The 20th-ranked Mertens, a semifinalist in last year's inaugural tournament in San Jose, committed 10 double faults to none for the 178th-ranked Ahn.
   Ahn, a 27-year-old graduate of nearby Stanford from Englewood Cliffs, N.J., earned her first victory over a top-20 player and advanced to the quarters of a WTA tournament for the second time. She will soar to at least No. 137, 32 spots below her career high, on Monday.
   Ahn, only 5-foot-5 (1.65 meters), shocked 2017 French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko in the first round on clay in Bogota in April and earned her first Wimbledon main-draw berth last month.
   In her last tournament, Ahn became so frustrated in a semifinal loss to Madison Brengle in the $60,000 Berkeley Tennis Club Challenge that she flung her racket into the crowd. No one was hurt.

   Ahn is scheduled to play fifth-seeded Donna Vekic of Croatia for the first time on Friday not before 4 p.m. Vekic, ranked No. 25, beat former world No. 1 Victoria Azarenka, who won the 2010 Bank of the West Classic at Stanford, 6-4, 6-3.
   In Friday night's featured match at 7, fourth-seeded Amanda Anisimova, 17, of Aventura, Fla., will play unseeded Zheng Saisai of China.

Donna Vekic of Croatia celebrates during her 6-4, 6-3
victory over former world No. 1 Victoria Azarenka.
Photo by Mal Taam

   Anisimova, ranked No. 23 after reaching the French Open semifinals in June, overpowered Brengle, the Berkeley champion, 6-2, 6-2 in 54 minutes. Zheng, ranked No. 55, whipped eighth-seeded Danielle Collins, an American who reached the San Jose semifinals last year, 6-2, 6-0 in 61 minutes.
   Anisimova, who won her first professional title at 15 in the 2017 Sacramento Challenger, overwhelmed Zheng 6-1, 6-1 in the second round at Hiroshima last September en route to her first WTA final, in which she lost to crafty veteran Hsieh Su-Wei of Taiwan.
   In Friday's other quarterfinals, second-seeded Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus will meet sixth-seeded Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain at noon, followed by top-seeded Elina Svitolina of Ukraine against seventh seed and 2018 runner-up Maria Sakkari of Greece.
   The 5-foot-11 (1.82-meter) Sabalenka, 21, is 2-0 against the 5-foot-4 (1.62-meter) Suarez Navarro, 30, including a 6-1, 6-4 victory in the New Haven final last August.
   Suarez Navarro won the doubles title in the 2014 Bank of the West Classic with countrywoman Garbine Muguruza, who last week withdrew from the Silicon Valley Classic for the second consecutive year with an injury.
   Svitolina, a semifinalist in the 2015 Bank of the West Classic in her only other San Francisco Bay Area appearance, defeated Sakkari 6-3, 6-7 (1), 6-2 in the third round at Wimbledon last month in their only career meeting. Svitolina, 24, went on to become the first Ukrainian woman to reach the semifinals at the All England Lawn Tennis Club, her best Grand Slam result.
   Here are the San Jose singles and doubles draws and Friday's schedule.