Sunday, August 5, 2012

Bryan twins earn Olympic gold medal

   Eleven Grand Slam men's doubles titles, including all four majors.
   A Davis Cup championship.
   And now, an Olympic gold medal.
   Top-seeded Bob and Mike Bryan of the United States added more hardware to their trophy case Saturday, defeating second-seeded Michael Llodra and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France 6-4, 7-6 (2) at Wimbledon. Afterward, Mike Bryan jumped into his identical twin's arms.
   "That's the longest we've hugged," Bob Bryan told reporters. "We've spent 50,000 hours together, and probably 30,000 on the court, working our butts off to get here. That hug right there was the culmination of it all."
   The 34-year-old former Stanford All-Americans competed in their third Olympics. They lost in the quarterfinals at Athens in 2004 and won the bronze medal at Beijing in 2008. After Saturday's match, Bob Bryan said he and his brother will retire after the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
   In the mixed doubles semifinals, top-seeded Victoria Azarenka and Max Mirnyi of Belarus edged third-seeded Lisa Raymond and Mike Bryan 3-6, 6-4, 10-7 tiebreak. Azarenka and Mirnyi will play Andy Murray and Laura Robson of Great Britain for the gold medal.
   ATP World Tour in Washington, D.C. -- Mardy Fish and Sam Querrey of the Sacramento Capitals in World TeamTennis lost in the semifinals of the Citi Open.
   Fish, seeded first, fell to fourth-seeded Tommy Haas of Germany 6-3, 7-5 in a matchup of 30-something players. Haas is 34 and Fish 30.
   Second-seeded Alexandr Dolgopolov of Ukraine ended the eighth-seeded Querrey's winning streak at seven matches with a 6-4, 6-4 victory. Querrey won the Farmers Classic in Los Angeles, the area where he grew up, for the third time in four years last Sunday. He missed last year's tournament because of elbow surgery.
   Women's/men's Challenger in Vancouver, British Columbia -- Mallory Burdette, a wild card from Stanford, beat fellow American Chi Chi Scholl 6-2, 6-3 in the semifinals of the $100,000 Odlum Brown Vanopen.
   Burdette will face unseeded Jessica Pegula of Boca Raton, Fla., for the title. Pegula, 18, reached the final of the Gold River Women's Challenger in the Sacramento area in June.
   Chinese Taipei's Jimmy Wang, who trains in the Sacramento suburb of Granite Bay, lost in the semifinals of men's doubles.
   Men's Challenger in Aptos -- Three top-100 players are entered in the $100,000 Comerica Bank Challenger starting Monday at the Seascape Sports Club, 80 miles south of San Francisco.
   Heading the field are No. 78 Brian Baker of Nashville, Tenn., No. 92 Igor Andreev of Russia and No. 93 Rajeev Ram of Carmel, Ind. Baker, 27, has shot up the rankings after missing six years because of multiple surgeries. He returned to action last year.
   Folsom resident Dmitry Tursunov, seeded first in qualifying, topped Devin Britton of Brandon, Miss., 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 in the first round. Britton, the 2009 NCAA champion as a freshman at Mississippi, won the $15,000 Sacramento Futures in June.
   Both Andreev and Tursunov, a Moscow native, have reached the top 20 in the world.
TV SCHEDULE
(All times PDT)
   Sunday -- Olympics, mixed doubles final, NBCSN, 4-5:30 a.m. (live); men's singles bronze-medal match, MSNBC, 4-6 a.m. (live); men's singles final, NBC, 6-8:30 a.m. (live); women's doubles final, NBCSN, 9:15-11 a.m. (live).  
PRO RANKINGS
   Following are this week's world rankings of professional players with Northern California ties (change from last week in parentheses):
Men
   Kevin Anderson, Sacramento Capitals (2012) of World TeamTennis -- No. 34 in singles (-1), No. 144 in doubles (-1).
   Bob Bryan, 1998 NCAA doubles champion from Stanford -- No. 3 in doubles (no change), unranked in singles.
   Mike Bryan, 1998 NCAA doubles champion from Stanford -- No. 3 in doubles (no change), unranked in singles.
   Mardy Fish, Capitals (2012) -- No. 15 in singles (-2), No. 732 in doubles (+1).
   John Paul Fruttero, Cal All-American in 2001 and 2002 -- No. 94 in doubles (+4), unranked in singles.
   Artem Ilyushin, Granite Bay resident -- No. 912 in singles (-10), No. 1,560 in doubles (-4).
   Bradley Klahn, 2010 NCAA singles champion and 2011 NCAA doubles runner-up from Stanford -- No. 559 in singles (+54), No. 864 in doubles (-2). 
   Mark Knowles, Capitals (2001-07, 2009-12), three-time World TeamTennis Male MVP (2001, 2005 and 2007) -- No. 91 in doubles (-20), unranked in singles.
   Scott Lipsky, 2002 NCAA doubles runner-up from Stanford -- No. 34 in doubles (no change), unranked in singles.
   Sam Querrey, San Francisco native, Capitals (2012) -- No. 38 in singles (+19), No. 58 in doubles (+5).
   Ryan Sweeting, Capitals (2012) -- No. 124 in singles (-6), No. 850 in doubles (-1).
   Dmitry Tursunov, Folsom resident -- No. 141 in singles (-3), No. 183 in doubles (+3).
   Jimmy Wang, Folsom resident -- No. 211 in singles (+5), No. 394 in doubles (-4).
   Pedro Zerbini, All-Pacific-10 Conference first team at Cal (2009-11) -- No. 628 in singles (-5), No. 733 in doubles (+1).
Women
   Jana Juricova, NCAA singles (2011) and doubles (2009) champion from Cal -- No. 940 in singles (-2), unranked in doubles.
   Vania King, Capitals (2010-12) -- No. 5 in doubles (no change), No. 55 in singles (+1).
   Raquel Kops-Jones, 2003 NCAA doubles champion from Cal -- Career-high No. 19 in doubles (no change), No. 701 in singles (+2).
   Asia Muhammad, Capitals (2012) -- No. 183 in doubles (no change), No. 529 in singles (-49).
   Maria Sanchez, Modesto resident -- No. 143 in doubles (-4), No. 222 in singles (-5).
   Yasmin Schnack, Elk Grove resident, Capitals (2011-12) -- No. 155 in doubles (-9), No. 450 in singles (+2).
   Romana Tedjakusuma, Tracy resident -- No. 453 in singles (+37), No. 1,147 in doubles (-6).
   CoCo Vandeweghe, Capitals (2009, 2012) -- No. 73 in singles (-3), No. 499 in doubles (-1).
CALENDAR
   Through Sunday -- OLYMPIC TENNIS TOURNAMENT, Wimbledon, www.london2012.com.
   Through Aug. 12 -- USTA National Championships, boys 18s and 16s, Kalamazoo, Mich. 
   Through Aug. 12 -- USTA National Championships, girls 18s and 16s, San Diego.
   Through Thursday -- USTA National Championships, girls 14s, Peachtree City, Ga.
   Through Aug. 12 -- $100,000 Comerica Bank Challenger, Seascape Sports Club, 1505 Seascape Blvd., Aptos, Calif., 95003, www.seascapesportsclub.com/challenger, (831) 688-1993.
   Sunday-Aug. 10 -- USTA National Championships, boys 14s, San Antonio.
   Sunday-Aug. 10 -- USTA National Championships, boys 12s, North Little Rock, Ark.
   Sunday-Aug. 10 -- USTA National Championships, girls 12s, Alpharetta, Ga. 
   Aug. 27-Sept. 9 -- U.S. OPEN, Flushing Meadows, N.Y., www.usopen.org.
   Sept. 9-16 -- $25,000 USTA Oak River Rehab Challenger, Sun Oaks Tennis & Fitness, 3452 Argyle Road, Redding, Calif., 96002, www.sunoakschallenger.com, (530) 227-3498.
   Sept. 14 -- World TeamTennis, Western Conference finals, Sacramento Capitals vs. Orange County Breakers, 3:30 p.m. PDT, Charleston, S.C.
   Sept. 15 -- WTT, Eastern Conference finals, Washington Kastles vs. New York Sportimes, 3:30 p.m. PDT, Charleston, S.C.
   Sept. 16 -- WTT Finals, Western Conference champion vs. Eastern Conference champion, 12:30 p.m. PDT, Charleston, S.C.
   Sept. 29-Oct. 7 -- Natomas Men's $100,000 Challenger, Natomas Racquet Club, 2450 Natomas Park Drive, Sacramento, Calif., 95833, www.natomaschallenger.com, (916) 649-0909.
   Oct. 6-14 -- First Republic Bank Men's $100,000 Challenger, Tiburon Peninsula Club, 1600 Mar West St., Tiburon, Calif., 94920, www.tiburon challenger.com, (415) 789-7900.

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