U.S. veterans Venus, Mattek-Sands to meet in San Jose

Venus Williams made her professional debut 25 years
ago indoors in Oakland. File photo by Paul Bauman

   U.S. veterans Venus Williams and Bethanie Mattek-Sands – wild cards formerly ranked No. 1 in singles and doubles, respectively – are scheduled to meet for the first time since 2012 on Tuesday at 7 p.m. in the first round of the Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic at San Jose State.
   Williams, 39, made her professional debut 25 years ago indoors in nearby Oakland, won the Bank of the West Classic at Stanford in 2000 and 2002, and reached the final there six other times. She is 4-0 against Mattek-Sands, 34. This will be their first meeting in a non-Grand Slam tournament.
   Another former world No. 1 in singles, Victoria Azarenka, will play a qualifier to be determined during Tuesday's day session, which will begin at 10 a.m.
   The singles draw for the second annual tournament was conducted on Friday night. The top four seeds – No. 1 Elina Svitolina of Ukraine, No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus, No. 3 Elise Mertens of Belgium and No. 4 Amanda Anisimova, 17, of Aventura, Fla. – received first-round byes.
   Sabalenka, 21, is coached by Dmitry Tursunov, a 36-year-old Moscow native who moved alone to the San Francisco Bay Area at 12 to train.
   Defending champion Mihaela Buzarnescu, a 31-year-old Romanian left-hander ranked No. 58, will meet wild card Daria Kasatkina, a 22-year-old Russian who has tumbled from a career-high No. 10 last October to No. 40, on a day to be announced. The winner will play Svitolina.
   CoCo Vandeweghe, a two-time runner-up in the Bank of the West Classic, will meet Marie Bouzkova, a 21-year-old Czech, on Monday at 7 p.m. It will be the first tournament match for Vandeweghe, who has been sidelined with an ankle injury, since last September. The survivor will face Sabalenka.
   Here are the San Jose singles main draw, singles qualifying draw and today's schedule.
   Brengle quits match – Top-seeded Madison Brengle, who won last week's $60,000 Berkeley Tennis Club Challenge, retired from her second-round match against defending champion Maegan Manasse (Cal, 2014-17) on Thursday in the Braidy Industries $60,000 Women's Tennis Classic in Ashland, Ky.
   Brengle, 29, of Bradenton, Fla., quit while trailing 1-5 against Manasse, the NCAA doubles runner-up with Denise Starr in 2016. The reason was not available.
   Manasse lost to seventh-seeded Ellen Perez of Australia 6-2, 6-3 in Friday's quarterfinals. Perez and Sabrina Santamaria of Los Angeles reached the Berkeley doubles final last year, losing to Americans Nicole Gibbs (Stanford, 2011-13) and Asia Muhammad.
   Wild cards Vladica Babic, a former Oklahoma State star from Montenegro, and Julia Rosenqvist, a Cal junior from Sweden, ousted top-seeded Hayley Carter of Hilton Head, S.C., and Manasse 7-6 (5), 6-4 in the doubles semifinals.
   Babic and Rosenqvist will play U.S. veterans Sanaz Marand and Caitlin Whoriskey in today's final. Marand and Whoriskey beat unseeded Maria Sanchez, a 29-year-old Modesto product, and Katie Swan of Great Britain 6-2, 6-2.
   Francesca Di Lorenzo, from Columbus, Ohio, and Swan lost to Brengle and Sachia Vickery, from Miramar, Fla., in the Berkeley doubles final.