Veteran journalist Paul Bauman, based in Sacramento, covers Northern California professional, collegiate and junior tennis. Contact him at norcaltennisczar@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter @norcaltenczar.
Rankings mover of the week: Maria Sanchez (up)
Maria Sanchez, right, shown with doubles partner Zoe Scandalis
after they lost in the Sacramento Challenger final last month,
won last week's Vancouver Challenger with Asia Muhammad.
Modesto product Maria Sanchez improved 13 places to a career-high No. 90 in the world in doubles after winning the Vancouver Challenger last week with Asia Muhammad.
It was the second doubles title of the year for Sanchez, 24, and ended a four-match losing streak in Challenger finals, including Sacramento last month. She won her first career WTA crown in singles or doubles in January, teaming with Sharon Fichman of Canada in Auckland.
The 5-foot-10 (1.78-meter) Sanchez paired with Muhammad, a 23-year-old former member of the defunct Sacramento Capitals in World TeamTennis, for the first time since they reached the Yakima (Wash.) semifinals in July 2013.
Also that month, Sanchez climbed to a career-high No. 107 in singles. She has plummeted to No. 321 but advanced to the quarterfinals of last month's Carson and Lexington Challengers, the latter as a qualifier, before falling in the first round in Vancouver to Romina Oprandi of Switzerland. Oprandi is ranked No. 157 after ascending to a career-high No. 32 in June 2013.
Sanchez was named the 2011 Pacific-10 Conference Women's Player of the Year as a senior at USC.
PRO RANKINGS
Following are this week's world rankings of professional players with Northern California ties (change from last week in parentheses):
Bob Bryan, 36 years old, 1998 NCAA doubles champion from Stanford -- Career-high No. 1 in doubles (no change), unranked in singles.
Mike Bryan, 36 years old, 1998 NCAA doubles champion from Stanford -- Career-high No. 1 in doubles (no change), unranked in singles.
Bradley Klahn, 23 years old, 2010 NCAA singles champion and 2011 NCAA doubles runner-up from Stanford -- No. 92 in singles (no change), No. 249 in doubles (-20).
Scott Lipsky, 32 years old, 2002 NCAA doubles runner-up from Stanford -- No. 44 in doubles (no change), unranked in singles.
Sam Querrey, 26 years old, San Francisco native, Sacramento Capitals (2012-13) -- No. 68 in singles (-5), No. 102 in doubles (+14).
Dmitry Tursunov, 31 years old, trains at Gorin Tennis Academy in Sacramento suburb of Granite Bay -- No. 38 in singles (-8), No. 117 in doubles (-2).
Mallory Burdette, 23 years old, NCAA singles runner-up in 2012 and NCAA doubles champion in 2011 and 2012 from Stanford -- No. 1,079 in singles (-25), unranked in doubles.
Nicole Gibbs, 21 years old, NCAA singles champion in 2012 and 2013 and NCAA doubles champion in 2012 from Stanford -- Career-high No. 142 in singles (+4), No. 604 in doubles (-2).
Macall Harkins, 28 years old, Concord resident -- No. 417 in doubles (-14), No. 689 in singles (-3).
Raquel Kops-Jones, 31 years old, San Jose resident, 2003 NCAA doubles champion from Cal -- No. 18 in doubles (-5), No. 779 in singles (+276).
Maria Sanchez, 24 years old, born and raised in Modesto -- Career-high No. 90 in doubles (+13), No. 321 in singles (-4).
Allie Will, 23 years old, born in San Mateo -- No. 140 in doubles (+17), No. 485 in singles (+42).
Posted by Paul Bauman at 5:26 PM
Labels: mover, rankings, Sanchez
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