McDonald falls short vs. Isner; Stephens stumbles again

John Isner fired 15 aces in his three-set win
over Mackenzie McDonald, a San Francisco
Bay Area native, in the second round of the
Miami Open. 2016 photo by Paul Bauman

   No. 18 seed John Isner, a Greensboro, N.C., native now living in Dallas, outlasted qualifier Mackenzie McDonald, a San Francisco Bay Area native now based in Orlando, Fla., 2-6, 6-3, 7-5 tonight in the second round of the Miami Open.

   Isner, who had 15 aces and only one double fault, won the title in 2018 and lost to Roger Federer in the 2019 final. The tournament was not played last year because of the pandemic.

   Isner, at 35 years old and 6-foot-10 (2.08 meters), is 10 years older and one foot (30.5 centimeters) taller than McDonald. 

   McDonald became the only American man to reach the fourth round of last month's Australian Open. Isner skipped the tournament to stay home with his wife and two young children.

   In the first round of men's doubles, wild cards Sam Querrey, a 33-year-old San Francisco native, and Steve Johnson of Redondo Beach, Calif., in the Los Angeles region lost to second-seeded Nikola Mektic and Mate Pavic of Croatia 7-6 (2), 6-4. 

   In the second round of women's singles, 28th-seeded Amanda Anisimova, 19, dominated fellow Floridian Sloane "Ranger" Stephens, the 2018 champion who grew up in Fresno, Calif., 6-3, 6-3. 

   Anisimova won her first professional title in the 2017 Sacramento (Calif.) Challenger at 15 and reached the semifinals of the 2019 French Open at 17. 

   Stephens, the 2017 U.S. Open champion and 2018 French Open runner-up, fell to 1-5 this year. She has tumbled from a career-high No. 3 in 2018 to No. 49.

   College women — Julia Rosenqvist beat Sarah-Maude Fortin 7-5, 6-3 on Court 2 to give No. 25 California (11-3, 4-1 Pacific-12 Conference) a 4-3 victory over No. 49 Washington (9-5, 1-4) in Berkeley, Calif.

   No. 35 Stanford (8-0, 4-0) routed No. 47 Washington State (10-6, 2-2) 6-1 at Stanford. 

   College men — No. 5 Texas Christian defeated host Stanford 4-1 to improve to 11-5. The Cardinal fell to 2-3.

   Juniors — Top-seeded Alexandra Yepifanova, a Stanford signee from Lake Worth, Fla., and wild card Ethan Quinn of Fresno reached 18-and-under singles finals in the ITF Grade 1 International Open of Southern California in San Diego.

   Yepifanova routed qualifier Elisabeth Jones of Grosse Pointe Farms, Mich., 6-2, 6-1 to set up a match against 10th-seeded Reese Brantmeier of Whitewater, Wis.

   Quinn, who beat unseeded Braden Shick of Greensboro, N.C., 6-4, 6-1, will face eighth-seeded Samir Banerjee of Basking Ridge, N.J.

   In the boy doubles final, Nathan Cox of Lake Charles, La., and Sebastian Gorzny of Fountain Valley, Calif., outplayed Nicholas Godsick of Chagrin Falls, Ohio, and Quinn 6-4, 6-3. Both teams were unseeded.

   Godsick's mother, Mary Joe Fernandez, climbed to the top five in singles and doubles as a professional. Fernandez now works as a tennis commentator for ESPN. Godsick's father, Tony Godsick, is Roger Federer's agent.