King cruises in women's doubles at U.S. Open

   Vania King of the Sacramento Capitals and Yaroslava Shvedova are rolling as they defend their U.S. Open women's doubles title.
   The third seeds dispatched Eleni Daniilidou of Greece and Polona Hercog of Slovenia 6-2, 6-2 in Flushing Meadows, N.Y., in the second round for their sixth consecutive victory. 
   King, a Long Beach product living in Boynton Beach, Fla., and Shvedova, from Kazakhstan, won the women's doubles title in Cincinnati two weeks ago. They have not lost more than two games in a set in this year's U.S. Open and next face American wild cards Jessica Pegula, 17, and Taylor Townsend, 15.
   Richard Williams, the father of Venus and Serena Williams, was quoted in the New York Times last week as saying Townsend, an African-American left-hander from Stockbridge, Ga., is better than his daughters were at the same age. Pegula's father, Terrence, owns the Buffalo Sabres of the NHL.
   King, meanwhile, lost in the first round of mixed doubles with Rohan Bopanna of India. The fifth seeds fell to Barbora Zahlavova Strycova of the Czech Republic and Philipp Petzschner of Germany 7-6 (1), 4-6, 10-7 tiebreak.
   King's teammate on the Capitals, Mark Knowles of the Bahamas,  advanced in men's doubles and mixed doubles.
   Knowles and Belgium's Xavier Malisse, seeded 15th in men's doubles, advanced to the third round with a 6-3, 6-3 victory over Martin Emmrich of Germany and Andreas Siljestrom of Sweden.
   The unseeded team of Knowles and Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia beat wild cards Christina Fusano, a Sacramento native and former NCAA women's doubles champion from Cal, and ex-Stanford All-American David Martin 6-2, 7-5 in the first round of mixed doubles.
   Raquel Kops-Jones, who won the 2003 NCAA women's doubles title with Fusano, and fellow American Rajeev Ram lost in the second round of mixed doubles to Czechs Lucie Hradecka and Frantisek Cermak 7-5, 7-5.
   Wild cards Hilary Barte and Mallory Burdette, the reigning NCAA women's doubles champions from Stanford, fell to unseeded Andreja Klepac of Slovenia and Anna Tatishvili of Georgia 6-2, 3-6, 6-3.