Roundup: Fed Cup, Volynets, Zamarripas, ITA tourney

Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic withdrew from
this weekend's Fed Cup final against the United States
with calf and wrist injuries. 2015 photo by Mal Taam

   World No. 8 Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic will miss this weekend's Fed Cup final with calf and wrist injuries, and No. 7 Petra Kvitova sat out of practice today with a fever.
   Kvitova, a two-time Wimbledon champion, is expected to play against the United States on Saturday and Sunday on an indoor hardcourt in Prague. But even if she doesn't, the Czechs will be strong favorites at home with No. 31 Katerina Siniakova and No. 33 Barbora Strycova in singles and the No. 1 doubles team of Siniakova and Barbora Krejcikova.
   Pliskova reached the final of the 2015 Bank of the West Classic at Stanford, losing to Angelique Kerber, and Siniakova was the doubles runner-up at Stanford in 2014 at age 18 with Paula Kania of Poland. The tournament moved to San Jose under a new sponsor this year.
   The defending champion United States will be missing four of its top five singles players against the Czechs: No. 6 Sloane Stephens, No. 16 Serena Williams, No. 17 Madison Keys and No. 40 Venus Williams.
   Three of the four Americans on the team will make their Fed Cup debuts: No. 36 Danielle Collins, No. 52 Sofia Kenin and doubles No. 15 Nicole Melichar, a Czech native. Joining them will be Alison Riske, a member of last year's team that beat host Belarus in the final. She is ranked 63rd in singles.
   Collins reached the semifinals of the inaugural Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic in San Jose in August. Kenin, who will turn 20 next Wednesday, has won a Northern California Challenger in each of the past three years, including the $60,000 Berkeley Tennis Club Challenge in July. Riske advanced to the 2016 semifinals and 2015 quarterfinals at Stanford.
   The United States leads all nations with 18 Fed Cup titles. The Czech Republic is next with 10, including five in the last seven years.
   Tennis Channel will televise the best-of-five-match series beginning at 5 a.m. PST on Saturday.
    USTA Pro Circuit -- Katie Volynets, a 16-year-old qualifier from Walnut Creek in the San Francisco Bay Area, demolished sixth-seeded Anna Danilina, a 23-year-old Moscow native who plays for Kazakhstan, 6-1, 6-0 to reach the quarterfinals of the $25,000 Harold A. Miller Women's Tennis Tournament in Lawrence, Kan.
   Volynets is scheduled to play Catherine Harrison, a 24-year-old lucky loser from Germantown, Tenn., on Thursday. Harrison, a former UCLA All-American, defeated Italy's Bianca Turati, a Texas junior ranked No. 1 in NCAA Division I, 6-3, 6-3.
   In the doubles quarterfinals, wild cards Allura and Maribella Zamarripa, 16-year-old twins from Saint Helena in the Napa area, surprised second-seeded Chieh-Yu Hsu of Chinese Taipei and Romy Koelzer of Germany 3-6, 6-1 [10-4].
   College -- All eight Stanford and Cal singles players, six women and two men, lost in the first round of the Oracle ITA National Fall Championships in Surprise, Ariz.
   Falling were eighth-seeded Melissa Lord, 14th-seeded Michaela Gordon, Emily Arbuthnott and Caroline Lampl of the NCAA defending champion Stanford, Olivia Hauger and Julia Rosenqvist of Cal, and William Genesen and Sameer Kumar of the Cardinal.
   Also bowing out in the opening round was South Carolina's Paige Cline, from Kentfield in the San Francisco Bay Area.
   Three teams from Stanford or Cal won in the first round of doubles. Advancing were third-seeded Kimberly Yee and Lampl of Stanford, Anna Bright and Jasie Dunk of Cal, and Yuta Kikuchi and Jacob Brumm of the Bears.
   However, top-seeded Arbuthnott and Gordon lost to Elysia Bolton and Jada Hart of UCLA 6-4, 6-2.