Wimbledon doubles champ to play in Sac today

   SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Frederik Nielsen, a reigning Wimbledon men's doubles champion, will face Tennys Sandgren today in the first round of singles in the $100,000 RelyAid Natomas Challenger at the Natomas Racquet Club.
  Nielsen, 29, of Denmark and Jonathan Marray of Great Britain in July became the first wild cards in Wimbledon history to win the men's doubles title. Sandgren, a 21-year-old American, turned pro last year after reaching the NCAA singles semifinals at Stanford as a sophomore at Tennessee. He is named after his great-grandfather, not tennis. "Tennys" is a Swedish name.
   Nielsen, who is not playing doubles in Sacramento, and Sandgren will meet for the first time in the third match on the stadium court. The first one begins at 10 a.m. After the Nielsen-Sandgren encounter, fourth-seeded Wayne Odesnik will take on fellow American Alex Kuznetsov.
   Both Odesnik, a 26-year-old left-hander, and Kuznetsov, 25, moved from their native countries to the United States at 3 and have had success in the Sacramento Challenger.
   Odesnik, a native of South Africa, won the 2007 title at the Sutter Lawn Tennis Club but was suspended for one year in 2010 for importing human growth hormone into Australia. Kuznetsov reached the Sacramento semifinals in 2006 and last year. Odesnik leads the head-to-head series 5-1.
   In the third match on Court 2, Australians Samuel Groth and Chris Guccione will meet American wild cards Phillip Simmonds and Jack Sock in the first round of doubles.
   Groth was credited with the world's fastest serve (163.4 mph/263 kph) in a South Korea Challenger in May, breaking the record of 156 mph (251 kph) by 2011 Sacramento singles champion Ivo Karlovic in the Davis Cup last year.
   Guccione won the Sacramento doubles title last year with Carsten Ball over Sock, the 2011 U.S. Open mixed doubles champion with Melanie Oudin, and Nicholas Monroe.  
   Coaching corner -- Mackenzie McDonald, a 17-year-old wild card who lost Sunday in the second round of Sacramento qualifying, is coached by South Africa native Wayne Ferreira, who peaked at No. 6 in the world in 1995.
   McDonald, from Piedmont in the San Francisco Bay Area, reached the Australian Open boys singles semifinals in January and won the boys 18 singles title at the prestigious Easter Bowl in Rancho Mirage, Calif., in April. Brad Gilbert, who climbed to No. 4 in the world in 1990 and later became a renowned tennis coach and commentator, also grew up in Piedmont.
   Fritz Wolmarans, a 26-year-old South African who will play today for a berth in the Sacramento main draw, is coached by Brian MacPhie, the World TeamTennis Male MVP in 1996, 1997 and 1998 for the Sacramento Capitals.
   College decisions -- McDonald will play at a prominent university next fall but is waiting for the school to announce his decision this week. Sacramento's Lovedeep Singh, who lost to 2009 NCAA singles champion Devin Britton (Mississippi) in the second round of qualifying at Natomas, verbally committed to Fresno State.
   Technology time -- Video streaming and live scoring of the Sacramento Challenger are available at www.usta.com.
   Speaking of fast serves, speeds are shown on digital displays on the stadium court at the Natomas Racquet Club for the second straight year, courtesy of Sacramento-based Eagle Eye Sports.
   Eagle Eye owner Ryan Ancheta said the fastest serves he witnessed in last year's tournament were 134 mph by Guccione (6-foot-7) and 133 by Karlovic (6-foot-10) and Ball (6-foot-6).                         
   The radar gun also measures groundstrokes over 60 mph, Ancheta said. The fastest he saw in 2011 were 103-mph forehands by Sock and Sam Querrey.

RELYAID NATOMAS CHALLENGER - SACRAMENTO, CA, USA
$ 100,000.00
RESULTS - SUNDAY, SEPT. 30, 2012
Qualifying Singles - Second Round
P Simmonds (USA) d A Bossel (SUI) 62 67(5) 61
T Daniel (JPN) d S Ianni (ITA) 76(4) 75

G Jones (AUS) d [WC] M McDonald (USA) 63 46 64
F Wolmarans (RSA) d A Hubble (AUS) 76(3) 63
R Thacher (USA) d A Pavic (CRO) 64 63
D Britton (USA) d [WC] L Singh (USA) 61 63
L Gregorc (SLO) d N Meister (USA) 62 64
A Daescu (ROU) d J Jung (USA) 62 36 22 Retired

Qualifying Doubles - Semifinals 
[1] J Dadamo (USA) / B Klahn (USA) d Z Hindle (USA) / S Kolar (USA) 63 62
[2] L Gregorc (SLO) / A Pavic (CRO) d M McDonald (USA) / R Thacher (USA) 36 62 10-4
ORDER OF PLAY - MONDAY, OCTOBER 01, 2012
STADIUM start 10:00 am
Qualifying - T Daniel (JPN) vs A Daescu (ROU)
Not Before 11:30 am
M Zverev (GER) vs S Bubka (UKR)
T Sandgren (USA) vs [WC] F Nielsen (DEN)
A Kuznetsov (USA) vs [4] W Odesnik (USA)
[WC] T Sandgren (USA) / R Williams (USA) vs [WC] D Kosakowski (USA) / N Meister (USA)
COURT 1 start 10:00 am
Qualifying - G Jones (AUS) vs D Britton (USA)
Not Before 11:30 am
I Van der Merwe (RSA) vs [7] T Smyczek (USA)
[6] P Polansky (CAN) vs A El Mihdawy (USA)
D Britton (USA) / A Krajicek (USA) vs [2] R De Voest (RSA) / R Farah (COL)
COURT 2 start 10:00 am
Qualifying - P Simmonds (USA) vs R Thacher (USA)
Qualifying - F Wolmarans (RSA) vs L Gregorc (SLO)
Not Before 1:00 pm
S Groth (AUS) / C Guccione (AUS) vs [WC] P Simmonds (USA) / J Sock (USA)
Qualifying - [1] J Dadamo (USA) / B Klahn (USA) vs [2] L Gregorc (SLO) / A Pavic (CRO)