Mallory Burdette knocked off another top-100 player Monday.
The former Stanford star cruised past 11th-seeded Jana Cepelova of Slovakia 6-3, 6-3 in the first round of qualifying for the prestigious BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells. Cepelova is ranked No. 98 and Burdette, in her first full year as a professional, No. 125.
Since last summer, Burdette also has beaten Irina-Camelia Begu (ranked No. 57 at the time) of Romania, Lucie Hradecka (No. 69) of the Czech Republic, Anne Keothavong (No. 75) of Great Britain and Ksenia Pervak (No. 98) of Kazakhstan.
Burdette, an NCAA singles finalist and two-time doubles champion, decided to forgo her senior season at Stanford after reaching the third round of the U.S. Open last September. She will face Hungary's Melinda Czink, seeded 13th and ranked No. 97, today for a berth in the main draw of the BNP Paribas Open.
Seventh-seeded CoCo Vandeweghe of the Sacramento Capitals in World TeamTennis lost to Nastassja Burnett of Italy 6-2, 6-1 in the first round of qualifying. Vandeweghe is ranked No. 99.
UC Davis men win -- Led by Toki Sherbakov, the UC Davis men defeated Boston College 5-2 in San Diego. Sherbakov outlasted Philip Nelson 3-6, 6-4, 6-1 at No. 1 singles. The Aggies improved to 6-6, and the Eagles fell to 4-4.
Veteran journalist Paul Bauman, based in Sacramento, covers Northern California professional, collegiate and junior tennis. Contact him at norcaltennisczar@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter @norcaltenczar.
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