Serena withdraws from Brisbane with injury

   Fourth-seeded Serena Williams, who won the Bank of the West Classic at Stanford last July, withdrew Wednesday from the $655,000 Brisbane (Australia) International with a sprained left ankle.
   The 13-time Grand Slam singles champion, who sat out from July 2010 until June 2011 because of a serious foot injury and blood clots in her lungs, rolled the ankle during her 6-2, 6-4 victory over Bojana Jovanovski of Serbia in the second round.
   Williams hopes to play in the Australian Open, which begins Jan. 16. She has won the tournament five times (2003, 2005, 2007, 2009 and 2010).
   In doubles at Brisbane, former Cal All-American Raquel Kops-Jones of Fresno and Abigail Spears of San Diego edged Nina Bratchikova of Russia and Kristina Mladenovic of France 6-4, 6-7 (4), 10-7 in the quarterfinals.
   ATP World Tour -- Ivo Karlovic, a 6-foot-10 Croat who won the Sacramento and Tiburon Challengers last October, lost to seventh-seeded Mikhail Youzhny of Russia 6-2, 6-7 (3), 6-3 in the second round of the $1.024 million Qatar ExxonMobil Open in Doha.
   Dmitry Tursunov, a Russian living in Folsom, and Nenad Zimonjic of Serbia defeated Spaniards Marc Lopez and Albert Ramos 6-3, 6-3 in the doubles quarterfinals. Ramos had beaten Tursunov in the first round of singles.
   In Chennai, India, fourth-seeded Milos Raonic of Canada opened his year with a 6-1, 6-4 victory over Victor Hanescu of Romania in the second round of the $398,250 Aircel Chennai Open. Raonic, 6-5, won the 2011 SAP Open in San Jose and was named the ATP World Tour's Newcomer of the Year.
   In the $434,250 Brisbane International, Colombia's Santiago Giraldo, the 2009 Sacramento Challenger champion, fell to second-seeded Gilles Simon of France 7-6 (2), 6-4 in the quarterfinals.        
   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. 117 in doubles (no change), unranked in singles.
   Kiryl Harbatsiuk, three-time Big Sky Conference MVP (2009-11) at Sacramento State -- No. 765 in singles (-2), No. 1,246 in doubles (-1).
   Mark Knowles, Sacramento Capitals of World TeamTennis (2001-07, 2009-11) -- No. 58 in doubles (no change), unranked in singles.
   Scott Lipsky, 2002 NCAA doubles runner-up from Stanford -- No. 29 in doubles (no change), unranked in singles.
   David Martin, 2002 NCAA doubles runner-up from Stanford -- No. 105 in doubles (no change), No. 757 in singles (-2).
    Conor Niland, 2006 Pacific-10 Conference Player of the Year and two-time All-American at Cal -- No. 286 in singles (no change), unranked in doubles.
   Sam Querrey, San Francisco native -- No. 93 in singles (no change), No. 38 in doubles (no change).
   Dmitry Tursunov, Folsom resident -- No. 40 in singles (no change), No. 237 in doubles (no change).
   Dusan Vemic, Capitals (2010-11) -- No. 500 in doubles (-1), No. 1,511 in singles (-1).
   Jimmy Wang, Folsom resident -- No. 274 in singles (no change), No. 522 in doubles (no change).

 Women

  Vania King, Capitals (2010-11) -- No. 6 in doubles (no change), No. 75 in singles (-1).
  Raquel Kops-Jones, 2003 NCAA doubles champion from Cal -- No. 37 in doubles (no change), No. 724 in singles (-3).
   Maria Sanchez, Modesto resident -- No. 268 in doubles (no change), No. 697 in singles (-1).

   Yasmin Schnack, Elk Grove resident, Sacramento Capitals of World TeamTennis (2011) -- No. 182 in doubles (-1), No. 415 in singles (-3).