Tracy's Staggs tops No. 3 seed in Easter Bowl

   Logan Staggs of Tracy knocked off third-seeded Elliott Sprecher of Cadott, Wis., 6-4, 3-6, 6-2 Wednesday in the third round of the boys 16s at the prestigious Easter Bowl in Rancho Mirage.
   Staggs will meet Ernesto Escobedo of West Covina today in a round-of-16 matchup of unseeded players.
   Also advancing in the boys 16s were Kial Kaiser of Saratoga and Cameron Klinger of San Jose.
   The last two Northern Californians were eliminated from the girls 16s. No. 17 Emma Critser of Mountain View lost to Luisa Fernandez of Pittsford, N.Y., 6-0, 7-5 in the second round, and Kristina Hovsepyan of Danville lost to Kaitlyn McCarthy, also No. 17, of Cary, N.C., 6-2, 6-4 in the third round. Hovsepyan stunned No. 2 Olivia Sneed of Prairie Village, Kan., in the first round. 
   In the boys 18s, third-seeded Mackenzie McDonald of Piedmont and No. 8 Trey Strobel, a Stanford-bound resident of Bradenton, Fla., won second-round matches. Strobel ousted Seth Stolar of Encino 6-4, 6-3, and McDonald outlasted Nikko Madregallejo of Monrovia 6-0, 4-6, 6-4.
   Caroline Doyle, a San Franciscan who trains at the USTA facility in Boca Raton, Fla., reached the girls 18 quarterfinals with a 6-0, 6-1 victory over Maegan Manasse of Redondo Beach. Doyle, who won the girls 16s last year, has lost only 10 games in three matches.
   All remaining Northern Californians lost in the boys 14s. No. 9 Victor Pham of Saratoga fell in the round of 16, and No. 17s Sreyas Kolachalam of Campbell and Andrew Gu of El Cerrito exited in the third round.
   No. 17 Catherine Bellis of Atherton reached the girls 14 quarterfinals, but No. 17 Michaela Gordon of Los Altos Hills lost to No. 2 Raquel Pedraza of Claremont 6-3, 6-1.
   In the boys 12s at the USTA National Spring Championships in Delray Beach, Fla., No. 10 Paul Barretto of Tiburon and No. 17 Keenan Mayo of Roseville lost in the quarterfinals.
   ATP World Tour in Houston -- Second-seeded Mark Knowles of the Sacramento Capitals in World TeamTennis and Xavier Malisse of Belgium nipped Martin Emmrich of Germany and Andreas Siljestrom of Sweden 5-7, 6-2, 10-6 tiebreaker in the first round at the U.S. Men's Clay Court Championship.
   Knowles, a 40-year-old Bahamian and two-time Houston doubles champion with Daniel Nestor, paired with Malisse to win the SAP Open in San Jose in February. 
   Americans James Blake and Sam Querrey edged Joao Souza of Brazil and Horacio Zeballos of Argentina 2-6, 7-6 (10), 10-8 in Houston. Blake, the singles runner-up in the Sacramento Challenger last October, won the Houston doubles title in 2004 with Mardy Fish.
   Women's Challenger in Pelham, Ala. -- Eighth-seeded Coco Vandeweghe of the Capitals defeated Elena Bovina of Russia 6-2, 6-3 in the first round of the $25,000 Pelham Racquet Club Challenger.
   Men's Futures in Oklahoma City -- Pedro Zerbini, a former Cal star from Brazil, beat fellow qualifier Mate Cutura of Croatia 7-6 (5), 6-4 in the opening round of the $15,000 Oklahoma City Open.
   Zerbini also reached the doubles semifinals, teaming with Dean O'Brien of South Africa to rout fourth-seeded Jaan-Frederik Brunken and Stefan Seifert of Germany 6-0, 6-1.