Capitals' Fish questionable for French Open

Mardy Fish, left, and Andy Roddick, former high school
teammates in tennis and basketball, played doubles
together at Indian Wells in March. Photo by Paul Bauman

   Mardy Fish of the Sacramento Capitals in World TeamTennis continues to deal with fatigue and is questionable for the French Open.
   Fish, the highest-ranked American at No. 9 in the world, woke up in the middle of the night feeling ill in late March and withdrew from the Davis Cup quarterfinals the following week in Monte Carlo. He returned to the circuit in Houston two weeks ago, losing his opening match to fall to 7-6 this year.
   "I'm doing OK," Fish, who's scheduled to play home matches for the Capitals on July 12 and 13, told the Associated Press. "We're doing lots of tests to try to figure out what's going on and what went wrong. It's sort of unclear as to how or why it happened, but we're trying to figure it out. It's not something I'm super comfortable talking about. It certainly was a scare.''
   Fish hopes to play clay-court tournaments in Madrid and Rome during the weeks of May 6 and 13 to prepare for the French Open, which begins May 27.
   "I'm not 100 percent sure whether I'll be back for that,'' Fish said, "but that's the goal.''
   Fish, 30, attained a career-high ranking of No. 7 last year and played in the season-ending tour championships for the first time, extending his season. A marathon Davis Cup victory on clay in Switzerland in February, in addition to tournament schedule, also might have taken a toll.
   ATP World Tour in Barcelona, Spain --Top-seeded Bob and Mike Bryan, the 1998 NCAA doubles champions from Stanford, nipped Spaniards David Marrero and Fernando Verdasco 5-7, 6-2, 10-7 tiebreak to reach the quarterfinals of the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell.
    The Bryan twins, coming off their second title of the season in Monte Carlo last week, seek their third Barcelona crown. They won in 2003 and 2008.
   Men's Challenger in Savannah, Ga. -- Top-seeded Carsten Ball of Australia and Bobby Reynolds of Acworth, Ga., edged Dmitry Tursunov, a Moscow native living in Folsom, and Teymuraz Gabashvili of Russia 6-4, 5-7, 10-7 tiebreak in the first round of the $50,000 Savannah Challenger.
   Tursunov, who also lost in the first round of singles as the top seed, returned after being sidelined for more than three months with a left wrist injury. Ball won the doubles crown in the Sacramento Challenger last October with Chris Guccione of Australia.
   Women's Challenger in Charlottesville, Va. -- CoCo Vandeweghe of the Capitals and wild card Maria Sanchez of Modesto won their first-round singles matches in straight sets in the $50,000 Boyd Tinsley Women's Clay Court Classic.
   USTA Nationals in Gold River -- Jan Tiilikainen of Reno and Romana Tedjakusuma of Tracy are seeded first in men's and women's singles, respectively, in the USTA National Men, Women & Mixed 30's Indoor Championships, Friday through Monday at the Spare Time Indoor Tennis Center in the Sacramento area.
   Other top seeds are Michael Cunningham of Lexington, Ky., and Thomas Lackey of Sebring, Fla., in men's doubles, Marisue Jacutin-Mariona of Los Altos and Tedjakusuma in women's doubles, and Isabella Kling of Orangevale and Martin Rothfels of Gold River in mixed doubles.
    College results -- The No. 5 Stanford women earned a share of the Pacific-12 Conference title with a 4-0 victory over No. 31 Washington State in a makeup match in Ojai. The Cardinal's Mallory Burdette and Stacey Tan won 6-0, 6-0 at No. 2 and No. 3 singles, respectively.
   Stanford (18-1, 9-1) tied USC (20-3, 9-1) for first place but received the Pac-12's automatic berth in the NCAA Tournament  because of the Cardinal's 4-2 victory over the Trojans two weeks ago. Stanford has captured at least a share of the conference title every year since 1987 except 2009.
   Washington State fell to 18-6 and 6-4.
   The Pac-12 Women's Championships begin Thursday in Ojai. The men's championships started Wednesday in the Southern California town, with fifth-seeded Washington drubbing No. 8 Arizona 4-0 and No. 7 Utah trouncing No. 6 Oregon 4-0.
   In Thursday's men's quarterfinals, No. 3 Stanford faces Utah, and No. 4 Cal meets Washington. No. 1 UCLA and No. 2 USC drew byes until Friday's semifinals.