Stanford's Zhao reaches NCAA semis on wild day

   Suddenly, Stanford's Carol Zhao is favored to win the NCAA women's singles title.
   On a day when top-seeded Robin Anderson of UCLA and defending champion Danielle Collins of Virginia lost, the second-seeded Zhao reached the semifinals with another straight-set victory.
   Unlike in her first three matches, Zhao was tested. The 5-foot-5 (1.65-meter) sophomore from Canada topped unseeded Chanelle Van Nguyen of UCLA 6-4, 7-5 on Saturday in Waco, Texas, after dropping only two games in each of her previous contests.
   Zhao, ranked No. 289 in the world, will meet No. 9-16 seed Josie Kuhlman of Florida. Kuhlman beat unseeded Sinead Lohan of Miami 6-3, 6-4.
   In the top half of the draw, No. 9-16 Stephanie Wagner of Miami ousted Anderson 3-6, 6-4, 6-2, and seventh-seeded Jamie Loeb of North Carolina eliminated No. 9-16 Collins, the defending champ, 6-3, 1-6, 6-4.
   Stanford and Cal each have one team in the doubles semifinals, even though second-seeded Taylor Davidson and Zhao lost to No. 5-8 Brooke Austin and Kourtney Keegan of Florida 6-0, 1-6, 6-4.
   Austin and Keegan will face Cal's Klara Fabikova and Zsofi Susanyi, a No. 5-8 team that dismissed unseeded Ashleigh Antal and Astra Sharma of NCAA champion Vanderbilt 6-2, 6-2.
   In the other semifinal, unseeded Caroline Doyle and Ellen Tsay of Stanford will play No. 1 seeds and defending champions Maya Jansen and Erin Routliffe of Alabama.  Like Zhao, Routliffe is from Ontario, Canada.
   Doyle, a sophomore from San Francisco, and Tsay, a senior from Pleasanton, upset fourth-seeded Beatrice Gumulya and Jessy Rompies of Clemson 4-6, 6-4, 6-4.
   Meanwhile, two men from NCAA champion Virginia reached the singles semifinals. Eighth-seeded Ryan Shane will play No. 9-16 Quentin Monaghan of Notre Dame, and unseeded Thai-Son Kwiatkowski will take on seventh-seeded Noah Rubin of Wake Forest.
   Rubin, last year's Wimbledon junior boys singles champion, and Loeb, a Wimbledon junior girls quarterfinalist in 2013, are products of the Manhattan-based John McEnroe Tennis Academy.
   As in women's singles, the top seeds and defending champions lost in separate men's doubles quarterfinals.
   No. 1 Austin Smith and Ben Wagland of Georgia fell to unseeded Hugo Dojas and Felipe Soares of Texas Tech 6-2, 6-3. Fourth-seeded Mikelis Libietis and Hunter Reese, the 2014 winners from Tennessee, succumbed to No. 5-8 Diego Galeano and Julian Lenz of host Baylor 6-7 (5), 6-3, 6-4.
   Three teams in the men's doubles semifinals are from Texas schools, although none of the six players are American.
   Galeano (Paraguay) and Lenz (Germany) will face unseeded Lloyd Glasspool (England) and Soren Hess-Olesen (Denmark) of Texas, and unseeded Dojas and Soares (both Brazil) will meet unseeded Harry Jadun and John Patrick Mullane of Michigan State.
   Oddly enough, Jadun and Mullane are from Michigan.