Tursunov continues to haunt Brazil; new rankings

   Dmitry Tursunov is driving Brazil nuts.
   After giving host Russia a 3-2 Davis Cup victory over Brazil last month, the Folsom resident outlasted Brazilian No. 1 Thomaz Bellucci 6-7 (5), 6-4, 7-5 early today in the first round of the $3.24 million Shanghai Rolex Masters.
   Tursunov did not play Bellucci in the Davis Cup. In fact, they had never faced each other before today. They have similar rankings, Bellucci at No. 35 and Tursunov at No. 41. But Bellucci is a 23-year-old left-hander and Tursunov a 28-year-old right-hander.
   Bellucci probably would just as soon not see another Russian for a while. Mikhail Youzhny saved two match points to edge Bellucci 2-6, 6-3, 5-7, 6-4, 14-12 in five hours and even the Davis Cup series at 2-2, setting up Tursunov's heroics against Ricardo Mello.
   But Tursunov isn't in such an enviable position, either. He must face red-hot Andy Murray, who received a first-round bye as the second seed in Shanghai. Murray, ranked fourth, is coming off titles in Bangkok and Tokyo in the past two weeks In the Tokyo final Sunday, Murray beat Rafael Nadal 3-6, 6-2, 6-0.
   Murray, a 24-year-old Scotland native, is 5-0 lifetime against Tursunov. They will meet for the first time in three years.
   Tursunov's former teammate on the Sacramento Capitals, Mark Knowles, lost in the first round of doubles. The 40-year-old Bahamian teamed with Lukasz Kubot of Poland in a 2-6, 7-6 (5), 10-7 tiebreak decision against Marcel Granollers of Spain and Viktor Troicki of Serbia.
   WTA tour in Osaka, Japan --Third-seeded Raquel Kops-Jones, a former Cal star from Fresno, and Abigail Spears of San Diego defeated Japanese wild cards Misaki Doi and Kurumi Nara 6-2, 6-2 in the first round of doubles at the $220,000 HP Japan Women's Open.
   ATP Challenger Tour in Tiburon -- All first-round matches in the $100,000 First Republic Bank Tiburon Challenger were rained out.
   Seeded in singles are No. 1 Ryan Sweeting of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., No. 2 Ivo Karlovic of Croatia, No. 3 Sam Querrey of Las Vegas, No. 4 Bobby Reynolds of Acworth, Ga., No. 5 Vasek Pospisil of Canada, No. 6 Izak Van der Merwe of South Africa, No. 7 Wayne Odesnik of Weston, Fla., and No. 8 Bjorn Phau of Germany.
   The 6-foot-10 Karlovic won the singles title in last week's $100,000 RelyAid Natomas Racquet Club Challenger in Sacramento. Odesnik, who won the 2007 Sacramento Challenger, returned to action in January after serving a one-year suspension for importing human growth hormone into Australia.
   The doubles seeds are No. 1 Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah of Colombia, No. 2 Treat Conrad Huey of the Philippines and Van der Merwe, No. 3 Frederik Nielsen of Denmark and Travis Parrott of Portland, Ore., and No. 4 Jordan Kerr of Australia and David Martin of Huntington Beach.
   Martin returns to the San Francisco Bay Area, where he starred at Stanford from 2000 to 2003.
   New rankings -- Following are this week's world rankings of professional players with Northern California ties (change from last week in parentheses):

Men

   Bob Bryan, 1998 NCAA doubles champion from Stanford -- No. 1 in doubles (no change), unranked in singles.
   Mike Bryan, 1998 NCAA doubles champion from Stanford -- No. 1 in doubles (no change), unranked in singles.
   Scott Lipsky, 2002 NCAA doubles runner-up from Stanford -- No. 26 in doubles (-1), unranked in singles.
   Mark Knowles, Sacramento Capitals of World TeamTennis (2001-07, 2009-11) -- No. 43 in doubles (-3), unranked in singles.
   Dmitry Tursunov, Folsom resident -- No. 41 in singles (-1), No. 168 in doubles (-61).
   Sam Querrey, San Francisco native -- No. 120 in singles (no change), No. 34 in doubles (+1).
   David Martin, 2002 NCAA doubles runner-up from Stanford -- No. 94 in doubles (-4), No. 707 in singles (-5).
   John Paul Fruttero, Cal All-American in 2001 and 2002 -- Career-high No. 133 in doubles (+3), 1,249 in singles (-+11).
   Conor Niland, 2006 Pacific-10 Conference Player of the Year and two-time All-American at Cal -- No. 193 in singles (+10), unranked in doubles. 
   Jimmy Wang, Folsom resident -- No. 382 in singles (+9), No. 668 in doubles (-).
   Dusan Vemic, Capitals (2010-11) -- No. 503 in doubles (+5), No. 1,531 in singles (+5).
   Kiryl Harbatsiuk, three-time Big Sky Conference MVP (2009-11) at Sacramento State -- No. 731 in singles (+30), No. 1,256 in doubles (-5).

Women

   Vania King, Capitals (2010-11) -- No. 9 in doubles (no change), No. 83 in singles (-1).
   Raquel Kops-Jones, 2003 NCAA doubles champion from Cal -- No. 37 in doubles (+5), unranked in singles.
   Yasmin Schnack, Elk Grove resident, Sacramento Capitals of World TeamTennis (2011) -- No. 210 in doubles (+12), No. 386 in singles (+7).
   Maria Sanchez, Modesto resident -- No. 376 in doubles (+3), No. 697 in singles (+13).