Brady, 19, routs Embree for Redding title

Jennifer Brady, right, dismantled Lauren Embree
6-2, 6-1 to win the $25,000 Redding Challenger.
Photo by Stephen Campbell

   It has been quite a year for Jennifer Brady.
   After helping UCLA win the NCAA title in May as a freshman, the 19-year-old resident of Boca Raton, Fla., won her first singles crown in a professional tournament on Sunday.
   Brady overpowered Lauren Embree, a 23-year-old Florida native living in the Los Angeles suburb of Santa Monica, 6-2, 6-1 in The Ascension Project $25,000 Women's Challenger in Redding, Calif. Both players were unseeded.
   Brady did not lose a set in her five matches at Sun Oaks Tennis & Fitness. She knocked off top-seeded Mayo Hibi of Japan in the quarterfinals and third-seeded Zuzana Zlochlova of Slovakia in the semifinals.
   Embree ousted second-seeded Tara Moore of Great Britain in the second round, seventh-seeded Klaartje Liebens of Belgium in the quarterfinals and former Wimbledon semifinalist Alexandra Stevenson in the semis.
  Embree, who helped the University of Florida win NCAA titles in 2011 and 2012, was seeking her third singles title but first in a tournament offering more than $10,000. She underwent surgery for torn cartilage in her right hip in January and returned to the circuit in late June. 
   Brady and Embree won the Redding doubles title on Saturday. It was Embree's second straight Redding doubles crown with a UCLA player. She teamed with Robin Anderson last year, but Anderson did not return.
   Davis Cup -- San Francisco native Sam Querrey and former Stanford All-Americans Bob and Mike Bryan helped the United States rout Slovakia 5-0 in the Davis Cup World Group playoffs in Chicago.
   Querrey and John Isner each won twice in singles, and the Bryan brothers easily won the clinching match on Saturday to keep the United States in the elite World Group next year.
   The Bryans were coming off their fifth title in the U.S. Open, record 16th in a Grand Slam tournament and 100th overall.