King falls to Wimbledon champion Kvitova

   Vania King faced a fellow Wimbledon champion, Petra Kvitova, in singles Wednesday at the Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo.
   The problem for King was that her Wimbledon crown came in women's doubles.
   Kvitova, seeded fifth, eliminated the Sacramento Capital 6-1, 7-6 (4) in the third round of the $2.05 million tournament.
   Kvitova, a 21-year-old Czech who stands 6-foot, won Wimbledon in July for her first Grand Slam title.
   King, a 22-year-old Long Beach product who's only 5-5, captured the Wimbledon doubles championship last year with Yaroslava Shvedova. It was the first of two Grand Slam titles for the pair, who also won the U.S. Open last year.
   Kvitova will meet 6-2 Maria Sharapova, the second seed and 2004 Wimbledon champion, in the quarterfinals. They are 1-1 lifetime against each other.
   In doubles Wednesday, King and Shvedova reached the semifinals with a 6-4, 6-4 victory over Natalie Grandin of South Africa and Vladimira Uhlirova of the Czech Republic. Grandin and Uhlirova were coming off their first title together Sunday in Seoul, South Korea.
   Kng and Shvedova will face No. 2 seeds Gisela Dulko and Flavia Pennetta, the reigning Australian Open champions. The teams have split two career meetings, both last year. King and Shvedova won 6-3, 6-3 in the quarterfinals of the U.S. Open, and Dulko and Pennetta prevailed 6-4, 6-4 in the semifinals of the WTA Championships in Doha, Qatar.
   ATP World Tour in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia -- Folsom resident Dmitry Tursunov, seeded seventh, brushed aside Belgian wild card David Gofffin 6-3, 6-3 in the second round of the $850,000 Malaysian Open.
   Tursunov, a Moscow native ranked No. 41, will meet second-seeded Viktor Troicki, a Serb ranked 15th, in the quarterfinals. Tursunov is 0-3 lifetime against Troicki. 
   Women's Challenger in Las Vegas -- Wild card Maria Sanchez of Modesto defeated Monica Puig of Puerto Rico 6-1, 7-5 in the first round of the $50,000 Lexus of Las Vegas Open.
   Sanchez, 21, was named the Pacific-10 Conference Women's Player of the Year in May as a senior at USC. She will meet qualifier Krista Hardebeck, who turned 17 two weeks ago, in the second round.
   Hardebeck upset fourth-seeded Mirjana Lucic, 29, of Croatia 7-6 (4), 6-4. Lucic became the youngest player to win an Australian Open title when she took the 1998 women's doubles crown at 15 years, 10 months with Martina Hingis.
   At 17, Lucic reached the 1999 Wimbledon singles semifinals. She was the lowest-ranked player (No. 134) at the time to reach a Grand Slam semifinal but since has been surpassed. Her career was derailed by problems with her father, who Mirjana has said physically abused her and tampered with her prize money.
   Puig, who turned 18 Tuesday, advanced to the Australian Open and French Open junior finals this year.
   Men's Futures in Laguna Niguel -- Connor Farren, a 16-year-old wild card from Hillsborough, beat lucky loser Aaron Yovan, 27, of Irvine 6-1, 6-4 in the first round of the $10,000 USTA Futures of Laguna Niguel.
   Farren, who turns 17 Monday, will meet Kiryl Harbatsiuk -- a native of Minsk, Belarus, who graduated from Sacramento State in May -- on Thursday in the second round.