Sunday, May 1, 2016

Lipsky title, college tourney finals, USTA 30 Indoors

   Fourth-seeded Eric Butorac and Scott Lipsky of the United States edged top-seeded Lukasz Kubot and Marcin Matkowski of Poland 6-4, 3-6 [10-8] today to win the Millennium Estoril Open in Portugal.
   Both champions are 34-year-old doubles specialists with Northern California connections.
   Butorac, a left-hander living in Cambridge, Mass., won the first of his 18 ATP World Tour doubles titles in the SAP Open in San Jose in 2007 with Jamie Murray, Andy's older brother who's now ranked No. 1 in men's doubles. Butorac also played for the Sacramento Capitals of World TeamTennis in 2008.
   The last SAP Open was played in 2013 after 125 years in Northern California under various names, and the Capitals were disbanded in 2014 after 28 years in Sacramento.
   Lipsky, a right-hander living in Irvine, Calif., led Stanford to the NCAA team title in 2000 and reached the 2002 NCAA doubles final with David Martin. Two of Lipsky's 15 ATP doubles titles came in San Jose (2008 with Martin and 2011 with Rajeev Ram).
   Entering Estoril, Lipsky was ranked 42nd and Butorac 48th.
   Lipsky won his second straight Estoril title and third overall. He triumphed with Butorac in 2009 and Treat Huey, a Washington, D.C., native who plays for the Philippines, last year.
   "I wish I new the secret of our success here, because then I could just do the same thing everywhere else," Lipsky said on atpworldtour.com. "I love the weather here. It reminds me of California, where I live. If we could do this every week, it'd be great."
   Butorac has won at least one doubles title in each of the past 10 years and Lipsky in each of the past nine. Estoril was their third title together; they also won Valencia last year.
   "Eric and I have been friends for a long time, and we played together for six or eight months back in 2009," Lipsky said. "We've talked about playing together again for a long time. After Wimbledon last year, we gave it a shot and have had good success. Being friends on and off the court helps a lot in doubles."
   Colleges -- The third-seeded UNLV women surprised top-seeded Fresno State 4-2 to win the Mountain West Conference Championships in Fort Collins, Colo.
   The Lady Rebels (24-1), ranked 72nd, earned an automatic bid in the NCAA Championships, which begin May 13 at campus sites. The Bulldogs (19-9), ranked 47th, could receive an at-large bid when the bracket is announced on Tuesday. The NCAA singles and doubles fields will be released on Wednesday.
   The top-seeded Weber State men and third-seeded Idaho women also earned automatic NCAA bids with titles in the Big Sky Conference Championships at the Gold River Racquet Club in the Sacramento area.
   The Wildcats edged second-seeded Idaho 4-3, and the Vandals coasted past top-seeded Northern Arizona 4-0 for their second straight crown.
   USTA 30 Indoors -- No. 3 seed Tyler Browne, 30, of Walnut Creek defeated No. 1 Jan Tiilikainen, 44, of Reno 6-3, 6-4 in the men's semifinals of the USTA National Men's, Women's & Mixed 30 Indoor Championships at the Spare Time Indoor Tennis Center in Gold River.
   Tiilikainen has won the title six times, including the last two.
   Browne, a former Cal standout and now the associate head coach of the Bears men, will face No. 2 seed Calle Hansen of Newbury Park in the Los Angeles region for the title on Monday at 11 a.m.
   Hansen, a 6-foot-5 (1.96-meter) former Pepperdine All-American, dominated unseeded Vittorio Fratta of Walnut Creek 6-0, 6-2.
   Hansen, 36, is playing in the USTA 30 Indoors for the first time since winning his second straight title in the tournament in 2013.
   On the women's side, No. 1 seed Evgenia Dockter of Atlanta and No. 2 seed and defending champion Marisue Jacutin-Mariona of Los Altos advanced to Monday's 9 a.m. final in contrasting fashion.
   Dockter crushed Brooke Biddle of Dallas 6-0, 6-1, while Jacutin-Mariona outlasted Francesca LaO of San Francisco 7-5, 4-6, 7-5.

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