Tursunov wins Munich doubles; Klinger takes junior title

Dmitry Tursunov, shown at Indian Wells
in March, won the doubles title in Munich
with Jarkko Nieminen. Photo by Paul Bauman

   Dmitry Tursunov has spent the past three months rebounding in singles.
   Now he's starting to do the same in doubles.
   Tursunov, a 30-year-old Russian based in the Sacramento area, and Jarkko Nieminen of Finland defeated Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus and Eric Butorac of Rochester, Minn., 6-1, 6-4 on Sunday to win the BMW Open on clay in Munich. Both teams were unseeded.
   "I think today both of us were so nervous and so tight," Tursunov said on atpworldtour.com. "We're just glad it's finally over. It wasn't the prettiest match for both teams, but we had some good points.
   "It helped us (this week) that the courts were a little bit slow with the weather and conditions, so we were able to hit a lot of groundstrokes. It's tough for the doubles guys; they're so used to high-paced shots. We were able to take our time and pick our spots."
   Tursunov and Nieminen upended top seeds Alexander Peya of Austria and Bruno Soares of Brazil in the Munich quarterfinals and No. 3 seeds Julian Knowle of Austria and Filip Polasek of Slovakia in the semifinals.
   With the sixth ATP World Tour doubles title of his career but first since late 2010, Tursunov skyrocketed 124 places in the rankings to No. 146. He reached a career-high No. 36 in 2008.
   In singles, Tursunov has improved from No. 122 to No. 57 this year. He has been as high as No. 20, in 2006, during his injury-plagued career.
   A right-hander with a two-handed backhand, Tursunov missed three months early last year with a left wrist injury and never got untracked in 2012. He also missed this past January to rest nagging back, left wrist and right shoulder injuries.
   Tursunov has won seven ATP singles titles. The Munich crown was his first on clay in singles or doubles. All of his doubles titles have come with different partners.     
   Ironically, Nieminen handed Tursunov probably the most heartbreaking loss of his career, prevailing 7-5, 6-4, 6-7 (2), 6-7 (6), 9-7 in the round of 16 at Wimbledon in 2006. It's the closest Tursunov has come to reaching the singles quarterfinals of a Grand Slam tournament.
   In doubles, Tursunov has advanced to the quarterfinals twice and semifinals once in the French Open with countryman Igor Kunitsyn from 2007 to 2009.
   Tursunov and Butorac both have played for the Sacramento Capitals in World TeamTennis. Tursunov was named the WTT Rookie of the Year in 2004 for Sacramento, and Butorac competed for the Capitals in 2008. They were teammates for one match in 2008.

Cameron Klinger, 15, of San Jose won
the boys 18 singles title at the Rio del
Oro Junior Championships in Sacra-
mento. Photo by Paul Bauman

   Juniors -- Cameron Klinger of San Jose defeated Nikita Matveyko of Kirkland, Wash., 7-5, 6-2 to win the boys 18 singles title at the Rio del Oro Junior Championships in Sacramento. Both players were unseeded.
   Matveyko served for the first set at 5-4.
   "I played a couple good games to win the set," said Klinger, whose height (6-foot-2) and power belie his age (15). "I think that hurt him mentally (in the second set)."
   Klinger, who swept the USTA national boys 14 singles and doubles titles in 2011, was playing in his first tournament in two months.
   "I was burned out," he explained. "I spent three or four months (playing) in Florida. I feel a lot better now."
   Klinger recently began working with Fresno-based Brad Stein, the former coach of International Tennis Hall of Famer Jim Courier.
   In the girls 18 final, unseeded Emma Critser of Mountain View in the San Francisco Bay Area beat fifth-seeded Karina Vyrlan of Sacramento 6-2, 6-4. Critser is a high school junior; Vyrlan, a 14-year-old freshman, has been home-schooled since fourth grade.
   Fifth-seeded Jessi Muljat (pronounced Mul-yat), 12, of Gold River in the Sacramento area topped unseeded Maria Kozyreva of Granite Bay 6-4, 6-4 to win the girls 16 singles title.
   Following are results of the other Rio del Oro finals:
   Boys 16 singles -- Lane Leschly (8), Atherton, def. Trenton Neild (9), La Selva Beach, 6-1, 6-2.
   Boys 14 singles -- Keenan Mayo (2), Roseville, def. Austen Huang (1), Elk Grove, 6-4, 4-6, 6-0.
   Boys 12 singles -- Stefan Leustian (6), Mather, def. Aidan Mayo (3), Roseville, 7-5, 6-2.
   Girls 14 singles -- Jillian Taggart, Fair Oaks, def. Ashley Yeah (5), Los Gatos, 6-1, 6-0.
   Girls 12 singles -- Muskan Mahajan (4), San Ramon, def. Jennamarie Gordon (1), Los Altos Hills, 6-4, 6-1.
   Boys 18 doubles -- Wyatt Kershaw, Clovis, and Deric Wanland (1), Sacramento, def. Arshak Ghazaryan, Granite Bay, and Nikita Matveyko, Kirkland, Wash., 8-5.
   Boys 16 doubles -- Joseph Conlin, Alameda, and Jayson Fung, San Francisco, def. Peter Shin, Dublin, and Satyajit Simhadri (1), Saratoga, 8-2.
   Boys 14 doubles -- Austen Huang, Elk Grove, and Keenan Mayo (1), Roseville, def. Randy Cory, Salinas, and Andrew Ton (2), Milpitas, 9-8.
   Boys 12 doubles -- Mason Fung, San Francisco and Ryder Jackson (1), Nicasio, def. Ryan Ali, Mill Valley, and Ilan Leventhal (4), San Mateo, 8-3.
   Girls 18 doubles -- Bridget Guenard, Elk Grove, and Stephanie Lin (1), Pinole, def. Paige Cline, Kentfield, and Isabella Heidenreich, Napa, 8-6.
   Girls 16 doubles -- Darya Possokhova and Katya Tabachnik (1), San Francisco, def. Rebecca Li, Pleasanton, and Seriana Saltzen (2), Cameron Park, 8-6.
   Girls 14 doubles --Jenna Schlatter, Saint Helena, and Jillian Taggart, Fair Oaks, def. Niluka Madurawe, Sunnyvale, and Jacquie Tan, Elk Grove, 8-5.
   Girls 12 doubles -- Julia Owens, Los Altos, and Monica Stratakos (1), Saratoga, def. Alexandra Accinelli, Sacramento, and Jasjot Sandhu, Rancho Cordova, 8-2.