Aptos champ Evans almost pulls off major upset

Daniel Evans practices earlier this week.
Photo by Paul Bauman

   Daniel Evans, who won the $100,000 Nordic Naturals Challenger in Aptos, Calif., three weeks ago, came within one point of a huge upset in the U.S. Open on Saturday.
   The 26-year-old Briton lost to No. 3 seed Stan Wawrinka 4-6, 6-3, 6-7 (6), 7-6 (8), 6-2 in Louis Armstrong Stadium in the third round at Flushing Meadows, N.Y. Evans, 5-foot-9 (1.75 meters), held a match point at 6-5 in the fourth-set tiebreaker.
   Wawrinka, who has won two Grand Slam singles titles, will play unseeded Illya Marchenko of Ukraine in the fourth round. Marchenko led No. 14 seed Nick Kyrgios of Australia 4-6, 6-4, 6-1 when Kyrgios retired with a hip injury.
   Meanwhile, former Stanford star Nicole Gibbs won tight matches in the second round of women's doubles and first round of mixed doubles.
   Gibbs, 23, and Nao Hibino, 21, of Japan edged Michaella Krajicek of the Netherlands and Heather Watson of Great Britain 2-6, 6-3, 7-5. Hibino won the singles title in the inaugural $50,000 Stockton Challenger last year.
   Gibbs and Dennis Novikov of Milpitas in the San Francisco Bay Area beat Arantxa Parra Santonja and Marc Lopez of Spain 6-4, 3-6 [10-6]. In men's doubles, Lopez reached the final of the 2014 U.S. Open with Marcel Granollers and won his first Grand Slam title in this year's French Open with Feliciano Lopez (no relation). Granollers and Feliciano Lopez also are Spanish.
   Also in women's doubles, Modesto product Maria Sanchez and Mirjana Lucic-Baroni of Croatia fell to fourth-seeded Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka of the Czech Republic 6-4, 4-6, 7-5. Hlavackova and Hradecka won the 2013 U.S. Open and 2011 French Open.
   In the second round of mixed doubles, Alla Kudryavtseva of Russia and ex-Stanford All-American Scott Lipsky of Irvine in the Los Angeles area lost to Yung-Jan Chan of Taiwan and 40-year-old Nenad Zimonjic of Serbia 6-1, 6-2.