Altamirano ousts top seed; his Cavaliers ranked No. 1

Collin Altamirano played in an exhibition in
Antelope, near Sacramento, in early October.
Photo by Paul Bauman

   Qualifier Collin Altamirano of Sacramento stunned No. 1 seed Tommy Paul of Boca Raton, Fla., 4-6, 6-0, 6-3 on Wednesday in the first round of the $25,000 Los Angeles Futures at USC.
   Paul, the 2015 French Open boys champion, is ranked No. 282 at 19 years old. He turned pro out of high school.
   Altamirano, a Virginia junior, has helped the Cavaliers win the past two NCAA team titles. He is scheduled to play qualifier Karue Sell of Brazil today, but rain is forecast.
   Sell, a former UCLA standout, dispatched yet another qualifier, Timur Khabibulin of Kazakhstan, 6-3, 6-2.
   If Altamirano beats Sell, he will play a Virginia teammate, either freshman Carl Soderlund of Sweden or senior Thai-Son Kwiatkowski of Charlotte, N.C., in the quarterfinals. Soderlund is seeded eighth.
   No. 5 seed Mackenzie McDonald, who grew up in Piedmont in the San Francisco Bay Area, defeated wild card Thibault Forget (pronounced For-ZHAY), a USC junior from France, 6-3, 6-2.
   Forget's father, Guy (pronounced Ghee), reached No. 4 in the world in singles in 1991 and No. 3 in doubles in 1986. He played on two Davis Cup championship teams for France and captained (coached) the team from 1999 to 2012.
   College rankings -- The Virginia men top the first rankings of the spring season. Cal is tied for fifth, and Stanford is 18th.
   Stanford's Tom Fawcett ranks eighth in singles. Cal's Florian Lakat and Andre Goransson are 12th and 15th, respectively. Cal's Filip Bergevi and Lakat are second in doubles.
   The defending champion Stanford women rank fourth, and Cal is eighth. The Bears' Karla Popovic is 17th in singles.