Strange but true: King still in singles, out of doubles

   Vania King finds herself in a strange position in the PTT Pattaya Open.
   King, a member of the Sacramento Capitals in World TeamTennis for the past two seasons, remains alive in singles after being eliminated in doubles. It's usually the other way around.
   Seeded eighth in singles, the 23-year-old Long Beach product dismissed Alla Kudryavtseva of Russia 6-1, 6-3 Thursday in the second round of the $220,000 tournament in Pattaya City, Thailand. On Wednesday, King and Kai-Chen Chang of Taiwan defaulted their first-round doubles match because of Chang's undisclosed illness.
   The 5-foot-5 King is ranked sixth in the world in doubles and 59th in singles. She has reached three Grand Slam women's doubles finals, winning two, but has never advanced past the third round of singles in a Slam.
   King will face third seed and defending champion Daniela Hantuchova, a 5-11 veteran from Slovakia, in today's quarterfinals. King is 0-6 against Hantuchova, but four of the matches have gone to three sets.
   SAP Open -- Lleyton Hewitt (toe) joined fellow Australian Bernard Tomic (leg) and American James Blake (knee) as players who have withdrawn from next week's SAP Open in San Jose.
   However, Hewitt and Tomic are scheduled to play in the Davis Cup against China in Geelong, Australia, near Melbourne, this weekend. Hewitt, a former world No. 1 who will turn 32 on Feb. 24, won the SAP Open 10 years ago.
   Meanwhile, the SAP Open awarded its final wild card to American Steve Johnson, the reigning NCAA singles champion who has led USC to three consecutive NCAA team titles. The other two wild cards went to Americans Robby Ginepri, 29, and Jack Sock, 19.
   Tickets to the SAP Open, Monday through Feb. 19 at HP Pavilion, are available by calling (408) ACE-2121 or visiting http://www.ticketmaster.com/. For more information, go to http://www.sapopentennis.com/.
   World TeamTennis -- The Capitals' intrastate rival, the Breakers, will move a few miles inland from Newport Beach to the Bren Events Center at UC Irvine.
   "Our rebranding as the Orange County Breakers and the move to the Bren Center in centrally located Irvine better align the team with the entire Orange County community," Breakers general manager Kerry Schneider explained in a news release.
   The franchise, based in Newport Beach since 2003, will play its 10th season in WTT when the 2012 regular season opens July 9 and runs through July 29. The top two teams from each conference advance to WTT Finals Weekend, Sept. 14-16 in Charleston, S.C.
   The league's marquee draft is scheduled for Feb. 14 and roster player draft for March 13.
   Other results -- Unseeded Robert Kendrick, a Fresno native, and Mark Knowles, a longtime Capital from the Bahamas, edged top-seeded Carsten Ball of Australia and Adil Shamasdin of Canada 4-6, 7-5, 11-9 tiebreak in the doubles quarterfinals of the $100,000 yp Challenger of Dallas.
   Alexandra Mueller of Abington, Pa., and Yasmin Schnack of Elk Grove in the Sacramento area lost to Gabriela Dabrowski of Canada and Jessica Pegula of Boca Raton, Fla., 6-4, 6-0 in the first round of doubles at the $100,000 Dow Corning Tennis Classic in Midland, Mich.
   Maria Sanchez of Modesto and Amra Sadikovic of Switzerland gained the doubles semifinals of the $25,000 Childhelp Desert Classic in Rancho Mirage, near Palm Springs, with a 6-2, 6-3 victory over Americans Anamika Bhargava and Sylvia Krywacz.
   As a singles qualifier, Sanchez lost in the first round to Stanford-bound Krista Hardebeck of Santa Ana in the Los Angeles area 4-6, 6-4, 6-2. Hardebeck then fell to Valeria Solovieva of Russia 6-4, 6-4.