Tursunov loses in Davis Cup doubles

   Even though Dmitry Tursunov and Igor Kunitsyn were playing at home in Russia, their straight-set loss Saturday in the Davis Cup came as little surprise.
   Tursunov, a longtime Sacramento-area resident, and Kunitsyn fell to Marcelo Melo and Bruno Soares of Brazil 6-4, 7-5, 6-2 in Kazan, Russia.
   Brazil leads the best-of-five-match World Group playoff 2-1 entering today's reverse singles matches. The winner will play in next year's World Group, while the loser will be relegated to zone competition.
   Melo and Soares have played 42 matches together this year to Tursunov and Kunitsyn's two.
   "I think the key was we don't play much doubles together at all," Kunitsyn, formerly Tursunov's regular partner, was quoted as saying on daviscup.com. "When you get to crucial points and you don't have the experience of playing doubles on a weekly basis, you're obviously going to make some wrong decisions or not take the risk you normally would."
   Also, Tursunov and Kunitsyn, both former top-50 doubles players, have fallen to No. 93 and No. 221, respectively. In contrast, Soares is ranked 22nd and Melo 35th.
  Today's scheduled singles matches are Mikhail Youhzny of Russia against Thomaz Bellucci followed by Igor Andreev of Russia against Ricardo Mello.
   Redding Women's Challenger -- Order was restored in the $25,000 Oak River Rehab Challenger at Sun Oaks Tennis and Fitness.
   After three seeds were upset in Friday's quarterfinals, each of which lasted three sets, third-seeded Julia Boserup and fifth-seeded Olga Puchkova breezed to straight-set victories.
   Boserup defeated wild card Allie Will 6-2, 6-3 in a matchup of 20-year-old residents of Boca Raton, Fla. Puchkova, a Russian who will turn 24 on Sept. 27, dismissed Yuliana Lizarazo, 18, of Colombia 6-1, 6-2.
   Boserup and Puchkova, both 5-foot-11, will vie for the title today at noon in their first career meeting. Boserup, ranked No. 293, seeks her first career singles title and Puchkova, who reached No. 32 in 2007 but has fallen to No. 287 because of injuries, her second.
   After the singles final, Yasmin Schnack of Elk Grove will play for her second consecutive Redding doubles title. The top-seeded team of Schnack and Maria Sanchez of Modesto will face second-seeded Brittany Augustine of Carson and Whitney Jones of St. Louis.
   Schnack made her professional debut in last year's tournament and won the doubles crown with Sacramento native Christina Fusano, who retired two weeks ago.