Schnack, top two seeds upset in Redding

   Three seeds, including Yasmin Schnack of Elk Grove, were upset on a wild day at the $25,000 Oak River Rehab Challenger in Redding.
   Schnack, seeded eighth, lost to unseeded Yuliana Lizarazo, 18, of Colombia 6-7 (3), 6-1, 6-1 in Friday's quarterfinals at Sun Oaks Tennis and Fitness. Afterward, Schnack said she landed awkwardly on a serve in the second set and strained a hamstring.
   Every quarterfinal went three sets. Top-seeded Camila Giorgi of Italy suffered a particularly agonizing loss to fifth-seeded Olga Puchkova of Russia. Not only was the score 6-2, 6-7 (3), 7-6 (5), the match ended on a net-cord winner.
   "I was feeling pretty bad for her," Puchkova, who played two matches for the Sacramento Capitals of World TeamTennis in 2008, told the Redding Record-Searchlight. "It was a tough match, and for it to end that way, it was unfair to her. She is a real good player, and it was a tight third set. But that's tennis."
   Puchkova, who reached No. 32 in the world in 2007, and Lizarazo will meet in one semifinal. Third-seeded Julia Boserup will face wild card and fellow Boca Raton, Fla., resident Allie Will in the other.
   Will, a junior on Florida's reigning NCAA championship team, edged second-seeded Kurumi Nara of Japan 0-6, 7-6 (5), 7-5. Will, who has lost the first set in each of her three matches, eliminated seventh seed and former Capital Tammy Hendler in the first round.
   Boserup outlasted sixth-seeded Lauren Davis, 17, of Boca Raton 3-6, 6-4, 6-4. Davis, only 5-foot-2, won the girls 18 singles title in the USTA National Championships last month in San Diego.
   Schnack lost in the quarterfinals for the third straight time in Redding, the first two times as a qualifier. But the 23-year-old former UCLA All-American will play for her second consecutive doubles title in the tournament.
   The top-seeded team of Schnack and her former USC rival, Maria Sanchez of Modesto, advanced to the final with a 6-3, 6-3 victory over unseeded Boserup and Malou Ejdesgaard of Denmark. Schnack and Sanchez will play second-seeded Brittany Augustine of El Segundo and Whitney Jones of St. Louis on Sunday.
   G'day, mate -- Newly crowned U.S. Open champion Samantha Stosur of Australia played one year in the Redding Challenger, losing in the first round of singles and reaching the doubles semifinals in 2003.