Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Capitals' King scores another upset

   One week after beating a top-10 singles player for the first time, Vania King pulled off another big victory Monday night.
   In a matchup of current and former Sacramento Capitals, the 90th-ranked King knocked off No. 16 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-4, 7-6 (6) in the second round of the $2.05 million Toray Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo.
   King, a Long Beach product who has played for the Capitals for the last two seasons, is known primarily as a doubles star. The 22-year-old veteran, quick but lacking power at 5-foot-5, and 5-11 Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan won Wimbledon and the U.S. Open last year and narrowly lost in the U.S. Open final this year.
   But King stunned No. 10 Marion Bartoli, the 2007 Wimbledon runner-up, last week in the second round of the Hansol Korea Open in Seoul, South Korea.
   Pavlyuchenkova, seeded 11th in Tokyo, played for the Capitals in 2006 just after turning 15. The 5-10 Russian, now 20, reached her first Grand Slam singles quarterfinals this year at the French Open and the U.S. Open.
   Next for King is reigning Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova, a 6-foot Czech who dispatched Mandy Minella of Luxembourg 6-2, 6-3. Kvitova beat King 6-4, 6-2 in the third round of this year's French Open in their only career meeting.
   Tursunov advances -- Folsom resident Dmitry Tursunov, seeded seventh at No. 41 in the world, defeated Paul Capdeville of Chile 6-2, 2-6, 6-1 in the first round of the $850,000 Malaysian Open in Kuala Lumpur.
   Tursunov, a 28-year-old Moscow native, was coming off a victory in the deciding match for host Russia against Brazil in the Davis Cup two weeks ago. He next faces 20-year-old wild card David Goffin, a 5-4 Belgian ranked No. 276.
   Goffin's countryman, Steve Darcis, beat Tursunov in consecutive weeks last month in the second round at Winston-Salem, N.C.,  and the first round of the U.S. Open.
    Tursunov could face second-seeded Viktor Troicki, who gave Serbia its first Davis Cup title with a victory in the deciding match against France last year, in the quarterfinals. Tursunov is 0-3 lifetime against the 15th-ranked Troicki.
   Schnack loses in qualifying -- Eighth-seeded Yasmin Schnack of Elk Grove lost to Gabriela Dabrowski, 19, of Canada 6-4, 7-5 in the second round of qualifying for the $50,000 Lexus of Las Vegas Open.
   Schnack, 23, and Maria Sanchez of Modesto are scheduled to face second-seeded Kathrin Woerle of Germany and Irena Pavlovic of France today in the first round of the doubles main draw.
   Schnack and Sanchez won the Redding doubles title two weeks ago.

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