Three players in WTA doubles semi celebrate birthday

(Left to right) Kateryna Bondarenko of Ukraine, Yi-Fan Xu of China and Tatjana
Maria of Germany celebrated their birthday on Saturday. Xu and Saisai Zheng
defeated Bondarenko and Maria in the doubles semifinals of the Bank of the
West Classic at Stanford. Photo by David Gonzales/Bank of the West Classic

   This must be a record.
   Three players in one of the doubles semifinals in the Bank of the West Classic celebrated birthdays on Saturday. And none are twins.
   The Chinese team of Yi-Fan Xu and Saisai Zheng defeated Kateryna Bondarenko of Ukraine and Tatjana Maria of Germany 6-2, 6-4 at the Taube Family Tennis Complex on the campus of Stanford University.
   Bondarenko turned 29, Maria 28 and Xu 27. Alas, Zheng turned 21 on Feb. 5.
   If Roger Federer of Switzerland and Marinko Matosevic of Australia played mixed doubles with any of the birthday girls, it would be a sweep. Federer turned 34 and Matosevic 30 on Saturday.
   Xu and Zheng will face second-seeded Anabel Medina Garrigues and Arantxa Parra Santonja of Spain today for the doubles title.
   Medina Garrigues and Parra Santonja outclassed third-seeded Gabriela Dabrowski of Canada and Alicja Rosolska of Poland 6-3, 6-2.
   Medina Garrigues, 33, last week was named the Co-Female MVP of World TeamTennis as a member of the Sacramento-based California Dream. Sacramento is a two-hour drive northeast of Stanford.