Bryans, Gibbs reach quarterfinals in Open doubles

Bob Bryan, serving, and Mike Bryan, shown during
their first-round victory on Wednesday, seek their
sixth U.S. Open title. Photo by Paul Bauman

   Two teams with Northern California ties have reached the quarterfinals in doubles in the U.S. Open.

   Third-seeded Bob and Mike Bryan topped David Marrero and Fernando Verdasco of Spain 2-6, 6-3, 7-5 on Sunday in the third round of men's doubles in Flushing Meadows, N.Y.

   Also, wild cards Nicole Gibbs and Dennis Novikov upset fifth-seeded Hao-Ching Chan of Taiwan and Max Mirnyi of Belarus 7-5, 7-6 (2) in the second round of mixed doubles.

   The Bryan twins, 38, and Gibbs, 23, starred at Stanford. Novikov lives in Milpitas in the San Francisco Bay Area.

   The Bryans, seeking their sixth U.S. Open title, will face either eighth-seeded Feliciano Lopez and Marc Lopez (no relation) of Spain or Thomaz Bellucci and Marcelo Demoliner of Brazil on Tuesday. 

   The Bryans have won a record 16 Grand Slam men's doubles titles but none since the 2014 U.S. Open.

   Marc Lopez and Rafael Nadal won the Olympic gold medal in men's doubles last month in Rio de Janeiro. The Bryans, who won gold in the 2012 Olympics in London, skipped this year's Games because of concerns about the Zika virus.

   Gibbs and Novikov will play either Laura Siegemund of Germany and Mate Pavic of Croatia or Abigail Spears of Colorado Springs, Colo., and Santiago Gonzalez of Mexico on Tuesday. Gibbs lost to Siegemund 6-3, 7-5 in the second round of singles.

   Gibbs also remains alive in women's doubles. She and Nao Hibino of Japan will take on seventh-seeded Sania Mirza of India and Barbora Strycova of the Czech Republic today for a quarterfinal berth.

   Hibino won the singles title in the inaugural $50,000 Stockton Challenger last year. Strycova and Lucie Safarova took the bronze medal in the recent Olympics. 

   In the first round of U.S. Open boys singles, Sacramento-area product Sam Riffice defeated Piotr Matuszewski of Poland 6-7 (4), 6-2, 6-0. Riffice, from Roseville, will play 13th-seeded Nicola Kuhn of Spain on Tuesday.