Top three seeds ousted in Redding Challenger

Fifth-seeded Adriana Perez, a Venezuelan shown
on Thursday, beat top-seeded Olivia Rogowska
of Australia in the Redding quarterfinals.
Photo by Paul Bauman

   The top three seeds lost on Friday in the quarterfinals of the $25,000 The Ascension Project Women's Challenger at Sun Oaks Tennis & Fitness in Redding, Calif.
   Fifth-seeded Adriana Perez of Venezuela knocked off top-seeded Olivia Rogowska of Australia 7-6 (4), 5-7, 6-0.
   Second-seeded Ksenia Pervak of Russia retired with a back injury while trailing unseeded Julia Boserup, the 2011 champion from Newport Beach, 6-4, 2-2.
   And seventh-seeded Allie Kick, 18, of Plantation, Fla., ousted third-seeded Chanel Simmonds of South Africa 6-4, 6-4.
  The only quarterfinal that held form was unseeded Robin Anderson of Matawan, N.J., beating Christina Makarova, a 17-year-old qualifier from San Diego, 6-1, 7-5.
   Rogowska eached the second round of last year's Australian Open in her hometown of Melbourne. She's ranked No. 138 in the world.
   Pervak climbed to a career-high No. 37 in 2011 after advancing to the fourth round at Wimbledon and winning the title in Tashkent on the WTA tour, the major leagues of women's tennis. Hampered by injuries this year, the 22-year-old left-hander has fallen to No. 142.
   In today's first semifinal at 11 a.m., Boserup will face Anderson for the first time.

Unseeded Julia Boserup, shown on Thursday,
advanced when No. 2 seed Ksenia Pervak retired
with a back injury. Boserup, the 2011 Redding
champion, led 6-4, 2-2 at the time. Photo by
Paul Bauman 

   Boserup, a hard hitter at 5-foot-11 (1.80 meters), missed the first six months of the year with a bulging disc. She did not have surgery.
   Anderson, only 5-foot-3 (1.61 meters), reached the round of 16 in singles and the final in doubles at the NCAA Championships in May as a UCLA sophomore.
   After the Boserup-Anderson match, Perez will take on Kiick. They have met once, with Kiick winning 7-6 (10), 6-2 on a hardcourt in the first round of the $25,000 Rock Hill (S.C.) Challenger last October. The Redding Challenger also is played on hardcourts.
   Kiick's father, Jim, was the starting halfback on the 1972 Miami Dolphins, the only team in NFL history to go undefeated. Jim Kiick and his '72 teammates were honored last month at the White House.
   Macall Harkins, who moved from the Los Angeles area to Redding in March, lost in the doubles semifinals. Unseeded Jacqueline Cako and Kiick topped fourth-seeded Harkins and Sanaz Marand 6-4, 7-6 (4) in an all-American matchup.
   Cako and Kiick will meet unseeded Anderson and Lauren Embree of Marco Island, Fla., in Sunday's final. Cako and Marand won last year's title.
   The Ascension Project is a non-profit organization dedicated to the development of local youth, collegiate and professional athletes through a team approach.
   Here are links to the singles and doubles draws:
   http://assets.usta.com/assets/1/15/singles_draw283.PDF
   http://assets.usta.com/assets/1/15/doubles_draw284.PDF