Defending champion Querrey ousted in Acapulco

   Sam Querrey suffered another heartbreaking loss today, this time as the defending champion.
   In a battle of 30-year-olds, Matthew Ebden of Australia ousted the seventh-seeded Querrey 6-3, 1-6, 7-6 (5) in the first round of the Abierto Mexicano Telcel in Acapulco.
   Querrey lost in a third-set tiebreaker for the third consecutive match. The 6-foot-6 (1.98-meter) San Francisco native fell to 6-foot-8 (2.03-meter) Kevin Anderson of South Africa in the final of the inaugural New York Open in Uniondale, N.Y., two weeks ago and to 20-year-old American Taylor Fritz in the opening round at Delray Beach last week.
   Meanwhile, Ebden upset a tall American for the second time this year. He eliminated 6-foot-10 (2.08-meter) John Isner, seeded 16th, in the first round of the Australian Open last month before losing to Alexandr Dolgopolov of Ukraine.
   Ebden, ranked 87th, improved to 1-2 against Querrey, ranked a career-high 11th. They met for the first time since Querrey prevailed 7-6 (3), 7-6 (1) on grass in the first round at Newport, R.I., in 2015.
   Ebden, the runner-up in the 2013 Napa and Tiburon Challengers, will face 21-year-old American Jared Donaldson, the runner-up to Fritz in the 2015 Sacramento Challenger, on Wednesday. Donaldson defeated Nikoloz Basilashvili of Georgia 6-2, 3-2, retired.
   Rafael Nadal, a two-time Acapulco champion (2005 and 2013) and last year's runner-up, withdrew with a right hip injury. The 31-year-old Spaniard retired from his Australian Open quarterfinal against Marin Cilic with a similar problem.
   In the opening round of the Acapulco women's draw, top-seeded Sloane Stephens beat Pauline Parmentier of France 6-0, 6-4. Stephens, a 24-year-old Fresno product, had lost eight straight matches since winning the U.S. Open last September for her first Grand Slam title.
   Stephens will play Dutch qualifier Arantxa Rus, a 4-6, 6-1, 6-0 winner over 18-year-old U.S. wild card Kayla Day, on Wednesday.

San Jose product Novikov wins 50K Morelos title

   Third-seeded Dennis Novikov, a 24-year-old San Jose product, defeated Christian Garin of Chile 6-4, 6-3 today to win the $50,000 Morelos (Mexico) Open.
   The 6-foot-4 (1.93-meter), 200-pound (91-kilogram) Novikov, now based in Los Angeles, pounded 11 aces and saved nine of 10 break points against him.
   Novikov jumped 45 places to No. 165 with his third career Challenger singles title and first since he won Cary (N.C.) and Columbus (Ohio) back-to-back in 2015. He reached a career-high No. 119 in August 2016.
   Garin, 21, won the French Open boys singles title five years ago, beating Alexander Zverev in the final. Zverev is now ranked fifth and Garin 242nd.

Cal's Griffith pulls upset, but No. 2 Stanford coasts

   Cal's Billy Griffith scored a big upset, but No. 2 Stanford defeated the No. 36 Bears 4-1 today in Berkeley.
   Griffith, a senior from Fresno ranked 79th, beat Tom Fawcett, ranked 14th, 6-4, 7-6 (4) on Court 1.
   No. 32 Axel Geller, a freshman from Argentina, clinched the match for the Cardinal (10-1) with a 7-6 (9), 2-6, 6-3 victory over J.T. Nishimura, a senior from San Jose, on Court 2.
   Geller, who ended 2017 as the world's top junior, is featured in "Faces in the Crowd" in this week's Sports Illustrated.
   Several Stanford players will compete in the Pacific Coast Doubles Championships in La Jolla next weekend before dual-match play resumes against Arizona State in Tempe, Ariz., on March 8.
   Cal (3-4) will play at San Diego State on Thursday and then in the Pacific Coast Doubles tournament.

New West Coast Tour will feature two Bay Area stops

   The West Coast Tennis Tour will debut this spring and summer with 13 open prize money tournaments from San Diego to Seattle.
   The coed circuit will begin May 20-21 and May 27-29 in San Diego and end Aug. 8-13 in the San Francisco Bay Area suburb of Moraga at the Moraga Country Club. The only other Northern California tournament on the tour is scheduled for June 8-11 in Danville, also in the Bay Area, at the Crow Canyon Country Club.
   "We want to get young players to compete more," tour organizer West Nott,  a former USC women's assistant coach, said in a news release. "The tour is geared toward high school and college players who are seeking more pressure-filled match play. All levels are welcome. This is one giant road trip, and we are connecting all the dots A to Z for a memorable life experience and seeing sights along the way."
   All results will go toward a player's Universal Tennis Rating.
   For more information on the West Coast Tennis Tour, visit westcoasttennistour.com.
   Nott also will host a trip to the NCAA Men's and Women's Team Championships, May 17-22 at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C., for juniors 13-18. For more information, go to info@collegetennistours.com.

Bellis, 18, loses to Muguruza in late Dubai match

   In a match that began at about midnight (noon PST), second-seeded Garbine Muguruza beat 18-year-old wild card CiCi Bellis 6-3, 7-5 today in the second round of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships in the United Arab Emirates.

   Muguruza, a 6-foot (1.82-meter) Spaniard, pounded six aces and won 64 percent of the points on her first serve (29 of 45). Bellis, a 5-foot-7 (1.68-meter) native of San Francisco who grew up in nearby Atherton, had no aces and took 49 percent of the points on her first delivery (26 of 53).

   It was the first meeting between the third-ranked Muguruza, who won the French Open in 2016 and Wimbledon last year, and the 41st-ranked Bellis, the youngest player in the top 50 by almost two years.

   Bellis will fall about seven spots in the rankings on Monday after reaching the Dubai quarterfinals last year. The tournament dropped from the Premier 5 level with a 64 draw to the Premier classification with a field of 32 this year.

Bellis beats Mertens in Dubai, will face Muguruza

   Elise Mertens became CiCi Bellis' latest high-profile victim today.
   And it wasn't close.
   Bellis, an 18-year-old wild card who was born in San Francisco and raised in nearby Atherton, dispatched Mertens, an Australian Open semifinalist last month, 6-3, 6-3 in the opening round of the Dubai (United Arab Emirates) Duty Free Tennis Championships.
   Mertens, a Belgian ranked 21st, won only 29 percent of the points on her second serve (8 of 28) versus 50 percent (13 of 26) for Bellis, ranked 41st, in their first career meeting.
   Bellis will face Garbine Muguruza, ranked third and seeded second, for the first time in Wednesday's late match at about 9 a.m. PST. Muguruza, who won the French Open in 2016 and Wimbledon last year, received a first-round bye.
   A victory over Muguruza would be the biggest of Bellis' career, topping her win over No. 5 Karolina Pliskova in the third round at Doha last week. It also would be Bellis' fourth triumph over a Grand Slam singles champion after her victories over Jelena Ostapenko (who later won the French Open), Petra Kvitova and Svetlana Kuznetsova.
   ATP World Tour -- In a battle of California natives, 20-year-old Taylor Fritz edged fourth seed and 2016 champion Sam Querrey 2-6, 6-3, 7-6 (4) in the first round of the Delray Beach (Fla.) Open. 
   The 30-year-old Querrey, originally from San Francisco, played two days after he lost to Kevin Anderson, also in a third-set tiebreaker, in the final of the inaugural New York Open in Uniondale, N.Y.

Staggs, UCLA lose in Men's Team Indoors final

   Top-ranked Wake Forest won its first national championship today, defeating No. 7 UCLA 4-2 in the ITA National Men's Team Indoor Championships in Seattle.
   Skander Mansouri, ranked 22nd, clinched the match for the Demon Deacons (9-0) with a 6-4, 7-6 (7) victory over No. 107 Keegan Smith on Court 3.
   Wake Forest's Bar Botzer, ranked 112th, topped Logan Staggs, a senior from Tracy ranked 58th, 6-4, 6-4 on Court 4.
   The Demon Deacons overcame deficits of 1-0 and 2-1.
   The match between top-ranked Martin Redlicki of UCLA (11-2) and 100th-ranked Borna Gojo on Court 1 was abandoned at one set apiece and 40-40 in the first game of the third set.