Sacramento lost the other four sets in a 23-16 home loss to the lowly Springfield (Mo.) Lasers in a World TeamTennis match at Sunrise Mall. The Capitals fell to 3-1 at home, although they needed a shutout by Mark Knowles and Sam Querrey in the last set to beat New York 18-17 last Monday. Springfield has won three straight matches, including two against Sacramento, after losing its first six.
The Capitals (5-5) still lead the four-team Western Conference by 1 1/2 matches over Orange County and Springfield (both 3-6) and two matches over Kansas City (3-7). The top two teams in each conference after the 14-match regular season will advance to the WTT playoffs, Sept. 14-16 in Charleston, S.C.
In their next two matches, the Capitals will play Orange County on Tuesday night at Sunrise Mall and Wednesday in Irvine. Vania King, ranked fifth in the world in doubles and 56th in singles, will join Sacramento for both matches in her third season with the team after earning WTT Female MVP honors with Springfield in 2009. Orange County will counter with Lindsay Davenport, who's a 36-year-old mother of three, a former world No. 1 in singles and doubles, and an ex-Capital.
Vandeweghe, who recently marched to the final of the Bank of the West Classic at Stanford as a lucky loser, played her first match for Sacramento since she was a 17-year-old rookie three years ago. She competed for Boston the last two seasons, but the Capitals drafted her in March as a supplemental player for their last five regular-season matches and potentially the playoffs.
Against Springfield, the 6-foot-1 niece of former NBA star Kiki Vandeweghe lost 5-3 in mixed doubles, won 5-3 in women's singles and fell 5-2 in women's doubles.
Sacramento, with Asia Muhammad and local resident Yasmin Schnack, had lost four consecutive sets in women's singles by a combined score of 20-5. The Capitals have dropped their last three sets in women's doubles and eight of 10 overall.
Querrey fell to Amir Weintraub 5-4 (5-4 tiebreaker) in a matchup of the No. 1 and 2 singles players in the league, respectively. The 6-foot-6 Querrey, a top-20 player before undergoing elbow surgery in June 2011, dropped to 5-1 in singles sets as he ended his six-match stint with Sacramento. The Capitals have a strong replacement, though, in Kevin Anderson, a 6-foot-8 South African ranked 33rd in the world.
Also helping Springfield were Maria Sanchez of Modesto and Devin Britton. They won the singles titles of the Gold River Women's Challenger and Sacramento Futures, respectively, in consecutive weeks in June.
See below for full results of Sunday's match.
WTA tour in Carlsbad, Calif. -- Second-seeded Raquel Kops-Jones of Fresno and Abigail Spears of San Diego defeated second-seeded King and Nadia Petrova 6-2, 6-4 to win the doubles title in the Mercury Insurance Open.
Kops-Jones, a 2003 NCAA doubles champion from Cal, and Spears were coming off a thrilling 7-5, 4-6, 14-12 tiebreak victory over top-seeded Liezel Huber and Lisa Raymond. Kops-Jones and Spears saved a match point at 8-9 in the match tiebreak.
Kops-Jones and Spears won their biggest WTA title together and third overall. Kops-Jones has five WTA doubles crowns and Spears seven.
King, who grew up in Long Beach, lost in a doubles final for the second consecutive week. The top-seeded pair of King and Jarmila Gajdosova fell to unseeded Marina Erakovic and Heather Watson in the Bank of the West.
ATP World Tour in Los Angeles -- Taiwanese veteran Jimmy Wang, who trains in the Sacramento area, and former NCAA singles champion Bradley Klahn, who completed his eligibility at Stanford in May, upset seeds to move into the second round of qualifying in the Farmers Classic.
Wang edged No. 3 Marco Chiudinelli of Switzerland 3-6, 7-5, 7-6 (2), and Klahn knocked off No. 7 Tim Smyczek 6-0, 2-6, 6-3.
ITF Women's Circuit -- Qualifier Mallory Burdette of Stanford routed top-seeded Ying-Ying Duan of China 6-1, 6-2 to win the $10,000 Women's Hospital 2012 Tennis Classic in Evansville, Ind.
The hard-hitting Burdette, 5-foot-10, lost no more than three games in a set in eight singles matches in the tournament and beat the No. 1, 3 and 5 seeds en route to her first title in a professional tournament.
As a junior at Stanford in the spring, Burdette reached the NCAA singles final (losing to teammate Nicole Gibbs after leading 6-2, 4-1) and won her second straight NCAA doubles crown.
In Lexington, Ky., fourth-seeded Krista Hardebeck, an incoming Stanford freshman, and Tracy resident Romana Tedjakusuma, who will turn 36 on Tuesday, advanced to the second round of qualifying in a $50,000 tournament.
WORLD TEAMTENNIS
Springfield 23, Capitals 16
In Citrus Heights, Calif.
Mixed doubles -- Timea Babos-Devin Britton (Lasers) def. Coco Vandeweghe-Mark Knowles (Capitals) 5-3.Women's singles -- CoCo Vandeweghe (Capitals) def. Timea Babos (Lasers) 5-3.
Men's singles -- Amir Weintraub (Lasers) def. Sam Querrey (Capitals) 5-4.
Women's doubles -- Timea Babos-Maria Sanchez (Lasers) def. Asia Muhammad-Coco Vandeweghe (Capitals) 5-2.
Men's doubles -- Devin Britton-Amir Weintraub (Lasers) def. Mark Knowles-Sam Querrey (Capitals) 5-2.
CALENDAR
Tuesday -- World TeamTennis, Orange County (with Lindsay Davenport) at Capitals (with Kevin Anderson, Vania King and CoCo Vandeweghe), Sunrise Marketplace Outdoor Pavilion, Sunrise Mall in Citrus Heights, 7:35 p.m., http://www.saccaps.com/.Wednesday -- Capitals (with Anderson, King and Vandeweghe) at Orange County, 7 p.m.
Friday -- Philadelphia (with Mark Philippoussis) at Capitals (with Anderson and Vandeweghe), Sunrise Marketplace Outdoor Pavilion, Sunrise Mall in Citrus Heights, 7:35 p.m., http://www.saccaps.com/.
Saturday -- Boston at Capitals (with Anderson and Vandeweghe), Sunrise Marketplace Outdoor Pavilion, Sunrise Mall in Citrus Heights, 7:35 p.m., http://www.saccaps.com/.
Saturday-Aug. 5 -- OLYMPIC TENNIS TOURNAMENT, Wimbledon, www.london2012.com.
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