Bryans reach Sydney doubles semifinals

   Former Stanford All-Americans Bob and Mike Bryan, playing in their first tournament of the year, continued their quest Wednesday for a second Sydney doubles title.
   The top seeds, who won the 2009 tournament, defeated unseeded Leander Paes of India and Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic 7-6 (5), 7-6 (7) in the quarterfinals of the $434,250 Apia International.
   Paes and Stepanek had beaten Fabio Fognini of Italy and Dmitry Tursunov, a Russian living in the Sacramento area, 7-6 (3), 6-3 in the first round. 
   The Bryans have won 11 Grand Slam doubles titles, tying the Open Era record of International Tennis Hall of Famers Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde, and Paes has won six. Stepanek won the 2009 SAP Open doubles crown in San Jose with Tommy Haas of Germany.
   The Bryans will face the unseeded British pair of Colin Fleming and Ross Hutchins in the semifinals.
   In women's doubles at Sydney, unseeded Raquel Kops-Jones, an ex-Cal All-American from Fresno, and Abigail Spears of San Diego lost to top-seeded Kveta Peschke of the Czech Republic and Katarina Srebotnik of Slovenia 6-7 (2), 6-3, 10-5 tiebreak in the semifinals.
   Peschke and Srebotnik won Wimbledon last July and were named the WTA Doubles Team of the Year.
   In Auckland, New Zealand, Treat Conrad Huey, a Washington, D.C., native who plays for the Philippines, and Scott Lipsky, a former Stanford All-American living in the Los Angeles area, lost to New Zealand wild cards Daniel King-Turner and Michael Venus 4-6, 7-5, 10-8 tiebreak in the first round of the $398,250 Heineken Open.
   Venus won the Futures singles title in Loomis, a Sacramento suburb, in 2010.
   Australian Open -- Reaching the second round of men's qualifying for the Australian Open in Melbourne were Jimmy Wang, a former top-100 player from Taiwan based in the Sacramento area, and 11th-seeded Rik de Voest, a South African who won the inaugural Sacramento Challenger in 2005.
   Falling in the first round were Australian John Millman, the 2010 Sacramento Challenger champion; 21st-seeded Rajeev Ram, an American who reached the final of the 2006 Sacramento Challenger; American Michael Yani, who won the 2008 Yuba City Challenger as a qualifier; and Lithuanian Laurynas Grigelis, last year's Aptos Challenger titlist.
   Advancing to the second round of women's qualifying were Portugal's Michelle Larcher de Brito, who five years ago at 14 helped the Sacramento Capitals win the World TeamTennis title; Americans Julia Boserup and Jamie Hampton, who won the 2011 and 2010 Redding Challenger titles, respectively; and Olga Puchkova, the runner-up in Redding last year and a part-time Capital in 2008.
   Former Capitals Coco Vandeweghe (2009) and Tammy Hendler (2008) fell in the opening round of qualifying.
   The men's and women's main draws for the Australian Open, which begins Sunday (California time), will be conducted later today.