NorCal's Jovic falls in 2nd round of $25K Newport Beach

Jovana Jovic has been plagued by injuries since reaching
a career-high No. 102 in 2014 at age 20. 2018 photo by
Paul Bauman

   Second-seeded Mariam "The Librarian" Bolkvadze of Georgia beat Jovana "White" Jovic (formerly Jaksic), a 27-year-old Serb living in Sacramento, Calif., 6-4, 6-3 today in the second round of a $25,000 tournament in Newport Beach, Calif.

   Bolkvadze, a 23-year-old left-hander, reached her first singles quarterfinal since November 2019. Jovic was trying to advance to her first singles quarterfinal since last March.

   Jovic, ranked No. 250, has been plagued by injuries since climbing to a career-high No. 102 in 2014 at age 20.

   ATP Challenger Tour — Top-seeded Jesper De "Mah" Jong and "Yosemite" Sem Verbeek (University of the Pacific, 2013-16) of the Netherlands dismissed unseeded Alessandro "Ain't Too Proud To" Bega of Italy and Skander "St. Louis" Mansouri, a former All-American at Wake Forest University from Tunisia, 6-2, 6-3 in the semifinals of the $36,680 Grand Palace Championship in St. Petersburg, Russia.

   De Jong, 20, and Verbeek, a 25-year-old left-hander, are scheduled to face second-seeded Christopher "Bob" Eubanks of Atlanta and Roberto "Clemente" Quiroz, a former All-American at the University of Southern California from Ecuador, on Saturday.

   Eubanks, 6-foot-7 (2.01 meters), and Quiroz eliminated unseeded Benjamin "Franklin" Hassan of Germany and Alexey "You're Darn" Vatutin of Russia 6-4, 6-2.

Czech Machac snaps McDonald's win streak at six

Mackenzie McDonald had won nine of his last 10 matches
before today's loss in Kakakhstan. 2018 photo by Paul Bauman

   Tomas Machac, a 20-year-old Czech, beat Mackenzie McDonald, a 25-year-old product of Piedmont in the San Francisco Bay Area, 6-4, 6-1 today in a second-round matchup of unseeded players in the $156,240 Forte 125 Challenger in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan. 

   McDonald, now based in Orlando, Fla., had won six consecutive matches and nine of his last 10. He reached the fourth round of the recent Australian Open, losing to eventual runner-up Daniil Medvedev in straight sets, and won last week's $104,160 Forte 100 Challenger in Nur-Sultan.

   ATP Challenger Tour in St. Petersburg, Russia — Top-seeded Jesper De Jong and Sem Verbeek (University of the Pacific, 2013-16) of the Netherlands dominated Pavel Kotov and Roman Safiullin of Russia 6-2, 6-2 in the quarterfinals of the $36,680 Grand Palace Championship.

   De Jong, 20, and Verbeek, a 25-year-old left-hander, are scheduled to meet unseeded Alessandro Bega of Italy and Skander Mansouri of Tunisia on Friday. Bega and Mansouri eliminated third-seeded Teymuraz Gabashvili and Kontstantin Kravchuk of Russia 6-3, 3-6 [10-6].

   ATP Tour in Buenos Aires —Tomislav Brkic of Bosnia & Herzegovina and Nikola Cacic of Serbia defeated Andre Goransson (University of California, Berkeley, 2011-14) of Sweden and Thiago Monteiro of Brazil by walkover in the quarterfinals of the Argentina Open.

   ITF Women's Tour in Newport Beach, Calif. — Jovana Jovic (formerly Jaksic), a 27-year-old Serb living in Sacramento, Calif., outlasted wild card Kayla Day, a 21-year-old left-hander born in Santa Barbara, Calif., 6-3, 4-6, 7-5 in the completion of a suspended first-round match in a $25,000 tournament. The match, which resumed after the first set, lasted 3 hours, 4 minutes.

   Jovic, ranked No. 250, is slated to meet second-seeded Mariam Bolkvadze, 23, of Georgia on Friday. Bolkvadze, ranked No. 191, beat qualifier Emina Bektas of the United States 6-4, 7-5.

   In the opening round of doubles later today, Jovic and Conny Perrin of Switzerland lost to Bektas and Tara Moore of Great Britain 7-6 (5), 6-4.

   Fourth-seeded Vania King and fellow Southern Californian Maegan Manasse (Cal, 2014-17) beat Naiktha Bains of Great Britain and Quinn Gleason of the U.S. 6-3, 7-6 (5) in the quarterfinals. 

  King, a former Sacramento Capital in World TeamTennis, won Wimbledon and the U.S. Open in 2010 with Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan.

Sem survives in St. Petersburg

   Top-seeded Jesper De Jong and Sem Verbeek (University of the Pacific, 2013-16) of the Netherlands topped Ergi Kirkin of Turkey and Rudolf Molleker of Germany 6-2, 3-6 [10-6] today in the first round of the $36,680 Grand Palace Championship in St. Petersburg, Russia.

   De Jong, 20, and Verbeek, a 26-year-old left-hander, are scheduled to play Pavel Kotov and Roman Safiullin of Russia on Thursday. Kotov and Safiullin routed Uladzimir Ignatik of Belarus and Vit Kopriva of the Czech Republic 6-1, 6-2.

   Verbeek and Andre Goransson (University of California, Berkeley, 2014-17) of Sweden reached the final of the 2019 Fairfield, Calif., Challenger, falling to Darian King of Barbados and Peter Polansky of Canada in a 12-10 match tiebreaker.

McDonald stays hot, conquers Canadian in Kazakhstan

Mackenzie McDonald practices his serve during the
2017 Fairfield (Calif.) Challenger, which he won.
McDonald grew up in nearby Piedmont. Photo by
Paul Bauman

   Mackenzie McDonald, a 25-year-old product of Piedmont in the San Francisco Bay Area, outlasted Brayden Schnur of Canada 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 today in the first round of the $156,240 Forte 125 Challenger in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan.

   McDonald, now based in Orlando, Fla., has won six consecutive matches and nine of his last 10. He reached the fourth round of the recent Australian Open, losing to eventual runner-up Daniil Medvedev in straight sets, and won last week's $104,160 Forte 100 Challenger in Nur-Sultan.

   McDonald, is scheduled to play Tomas Machac, 20, of the Czech Republic for the first time on Thursday. Machac surprised seventh-seeded Henri Laaksonen of Switzerland 7-5, 6-2.

   ATP Tour in Buenos Aires — Andre Goransson (Cal, 2011-14) of Sweden and Thiago Monteiro of Brazil ousted second-seeded Marcelo Demoliner of Brazil and Santiago Gonzalez of Mexico 6-4, 6-3 in the opening round of the Argentina Open.

   ATP Tour in Rotterdam, Netherlands — Third-seeded Wesley Koolhof of the Netherlands and Lukasz Kubot of Poland topped Ben McLachlan (University of California, Berkeley, 2011-14) and Kei Nishikori of Japan 7-5, 3-6 [10-6] in the first round of the ABN Amro World Tennis Tournament.

   McLachlan, 28, was born and raised in New Zealand, but his mother, Yuriko, is Japanese.

   WTA Tour in Doha, Qatar — Monica Niculescu of Romania and Jelena Osapenko of Latvia ousted third-seeded Shuko Aoyama and Ena Shibahara of Japan 6-4, 6-2 in the opening round.

   Aoyama, 33, and Shibahara, a 23-year-old native of Mountain View in the Bay Area, have lost three consecutive matches after starting the year 13-0 with two titles.

   ITF Women's Tour in Newport Beach, Calif. — Fourth-seeded Vania King and Maegan Manasse (Cal, 2014-17), both playing in their first WTA or ITF tournament in one year, edged fellow Americans Hanna Chang and Katerina Stewart 3-6, 6-3, 10-7 in the first round of a $25,000 tournament.

   King, a former Sacramento Capital in World TeamTennis, won Wimbledon and the U.S. Open in 2010 with Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan. 

   Second-seeded Beatrice Gumulya and Jessy Rompies of Indonesia eliminated wild cards Allura and Maribella Zamarripa, 18-year-old identical twins from St. Helena in the Napa Valley, 6-4, 6-3.

Sakkari sacks Sherif in Qatar opener

   Maria Sakkari of Greece routed wild card Mayar Sherif (Fresno State, 2015-16) of Egypt 6-0, 6-3 in 61 minutes today in the first round of the Qatar Total Open 2021 in Doha.

   Sakkari, the runner-up in the inaugural Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic in San Jose, Calif., in 2018, won 90 percent of the points on her first serve (18 of 20) and 61.1 percent on her second delivery (11 of 18). She saved the only break point against her.

   Sherif, 24, qualified for last month's Australian Open and became the first Egyptian woman to win a main-draw match in a Grand Slam tournament.

   Sherif also qualified for the French Open last fall in her tournament debut and extended second-seeded Karolina Pliskova, the runner-up at Stanford in 2015, to 6-4 in the third set in the opening round.

McDonald routs Rodionov for third Challenger title

Mackenzie McDonald has won eight of his last nine matches.
The 25-year-old San Francisco Bay Area product reached the
fourth round of the recent Australian Open. 2016 photo by
Paul Bauman

   It didn't take long for Mackenzie McDonald to defeat Jurij Rodionov for a third Challenger singles title.

   The unseeded McDonald, a 25-year-old product of Piedmont in the San Francisco Bay Area, routed the sixth-seeded Rodionov of Austria 6-2, 6-1 in 56 minutes today in the $104,160 Forte 100 Challenger in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan.

   McDonald, only 5-foot-10 (1.78 meters) and 160 pounds (73 kilograms), pounded seven aces to none for Rodionov, a 6-foot-3 (1.91-meter) left-hander, on an indoor hardcourt and saved all four break points against him. The players met for the first time. 

   It was the eighth victory in nine matches for McDonald, now based in Orlando, Fla. As the last remaining American man in the recent Australian Open, he lost to eventual champion Daniil Medvedev in straight sets in the fourth round.

   McDonald, who ousted top-seeded Mikhail Kukushkin of Kazakhstan in the first round in Nur-Sultan, also lost only three games in the semifinals against fifth-seeded Henri Laaksonen of Switzerland. 

   The champion's closest call in the tournament came in a 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (3) victory over left-hander Frederico Ferreira Silva, also 25 years old and 5-foot-10 (1.78 meters), of Portugal in the quarterfinals.

   McDonald earned $14,400 for winning the Kazakhstan title, a pittance compared to the $248,800 he pocketed at the Australian Open. More importantly, he will rise 21 more places in the world rankings to No. 118 on Monday. Entering the Australian Open, McDonald was ranked No. 192.

   McDonald climbed to a career-high No. 57 in April 2019 but underwent right hamstring surgery the following June and missed seven months. 

   The Kazakhstan crown was McDonald's first since the 2018 Seoul Challenger. His maiden title came in Fairfield, Calif., 40 miles (64.4 kilometers) north of Piedmont, in 2017. 

   Rodionov, a 21-year-old native of Germany, collected $8,480 after falling to 3-1 in Challenger singles finals. He will improve 13 spots to No. 139.

   McDonald is scheduled to play Brayden Schnur of Canada in the first round of next week's $156,240 Forte 125 Challenger in Nur-Sultan. Both players are unseeded. 

McDonald coasts into final of Kazakhstan Challenger

Mackenzie McDonald seeks his third Challenger singles title
and first since 2018. The Northern California product had ham-
 string surgery in 2019. File photo by Paul Bauman 

   One day after barely surviving in the quarterfinals of the $104,160 Forte 100 Challenger in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan, Mackenzie McDonald breezed in the semifinals.

   The unseeded McDonald, who was born and raised in Piedmont in the San Francisco Bay Area, routed fifth-seeded Henri Laaksonen of Switzerland 6-2, 6-1 Friday night PST on an indoor hardcourt.

   McDonald, now based in Orlando, Fla., edged unseeded Frederico Ferreira Silva of Portugal 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (3) on Thursday in a quarterfinal matchup of 5-foot-10 (1.78-meter) 25-year-olds. 

   McDonald, ranked No. 139, evened his record against Laaksonen, ranked No. 134, at 1-1 (the other match was on clay) and won for the seventh time in his last eight matches. He lost to eventual runner-up Daniil Medvedev in straight sets in the fourth round of the Australian Open.

   Laaksonen, who was born in Finland to a Finnish mother and Swiss father, reached the doubles final in the 2018 Fairfield, Calif., Challenger with Harri Heliovaara of Finland.

   McDonald is set to face sixth-seeded Jurij Rodionov, a 6-foot-3 (1.91-meter) left-hander from Austria, for the first time on Sunday at 5 a.m. Rodionov, a 21-year-old native of Germany, topped fourth-seeded Prajnesh Gunneswaran, a 31-year-old left-hander from India, 6-2, 3-6, 6-3.

  Gunneswaran advanced to the Tiburon semifinals in 2017 and Aptos quarterfinals the following year in Northern California Challengers.

   McDonald seeks his third Challenger singles title and first since Seoul in 2018. His maiden crown came in Fairfield, 40 miles (64.4 kilometers) north of Piedmont, in 2017. 

  Shortly after climbing to a career-high No. 57 in 2019, McDonald underwent right hamstring surgery and missed seven months.

  Rodionov, ranked No. 152, is 3-0 in Challenger singles finals.