Knowles plunges to No. 58 in doubles; new rankings

   Mark Knowles, who completed his 10th season with the Sacramento Capitals of World TeamTennis in July, fell to his lowest point in the doubles world rankings in 13 years Monday.
   After losing in the first round of the BNP Paribas Masters in Paris with Xavier Malisse of Belgium last week, the 40-year-old doubles specialist from the Bahamas dropped 15 spots to No. 58.
   The rankings are based on a revolving 52-week system, so Knowles' first-round loss replaces his runner-up finish in Paris last year with Andy Ram of Israel on the computer.
   Knowles ended this year with six first-round losses in his last seven tournaments. The last time he was ranked so low was on June 1, 1998, when he was No. 79.
   Knowles was ranked in top 10 from 2002 to 2010, except for seven weeks at No. 11. He was No. 1 or tied for No. 1 for 55 weeks from 2002 to 2005.
   Meanwhile, two Northern Californians attained career highs in doubles after teaming to reach the final of the $75,000 Goldwater Women's Tennis in Phoenix last week.
   Yasmin Schnack, a 23-year-old resident of Elk Grove in the Sacramento area, cracked the top 200 for the first time as she jumped 35 places to No. 179. Maria Sanchez, 21, of Modesto soared 75 places to No. 264.
   Schnack and Sanchez starred for four years each at UCLA and USC, respectively.
   Ex-Cal star advances -- Unseeded Conor Niland, a former Cal All-American from Ireland, pounded Ivan Navarro of Spain 6-1, 6-0 in the first round of the $57,600 ATP Salzburg (Austria) Indoors.
  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.
  John Paul Fruttero, Cal All-American in 2001 and 2002 -- Career-high No. 122 in doubles (+1), 1,231 in singles (-2).
  Kiryl Harbatsiuk, three-time Big Sky Conference MVP (2009-11) at Sacramento State -- No. 755 in singles (+5), No. 1,246 in doubles (+1).
   Mark Knowles, Sacramento Capitals of World TeamTennis (2001-07, 2009-11) -- No. 58 in doubles (-15), unranked in singles.
   Scott Lipsky, 2002 NCAA doubles runner-up from Stanford -- No. 29 in doubles (-1), unranked in singles.
   David Martin, 2002 NCAA doubles runner-up from Stanford -- No. 102 in doubles (-1), No. 749 in singles (-98).
    Conor Niland, 2006 Pacific-10 Conference Player of the Year and two-time All-American at Cal -- No. 209 in singles (-14), unranked in doubles.
   Sam Querrey, San Francisco native -- No. 93 in singles (+4), No. 38 in doubles (-2).
   Dmitry Tursunov, Folsom resident -- No. 40 in singles (no change), No. 240 in doubles
(-2).
   Dusan Vemic, Capitals (2010-11) -- No. 498 in doubles (-1), No. 1,511 in singles (+3).
   Jimmy Wang, Folsom resident -- No. 287 in singles (+1), No. 517 in doubles (+35).

Women

   Vania King, Capitals (2010-11) -- No. 6 in doubles (no change), No. 76 in singles (no change).
   Raquel Kops-Jones, 2003 NCAA doubles champion from Cal -- No. 37 in doubles (no change), No. 714 in singles (+2).
   Maria Sanchez, Modesto resident -- No. 264 in doubles (career high, +75), No. 688 in singles (-1).

   Yasmin Schnack, Elk Grove resident, Sacramento Capitals of World TeamTennis (2011) -- No. 179 in doubles (+35), No. 393 in singles (+7).