Sanchez falls in Guadalajara doubles semifinals

Maria Sanchez, from Modesto, Calif., lived in Guada-
lajara when she was 10. 2018 photo by Paul Bauman 

   Third-seeded Ellen Perez and Astra Sharma of Australia subdued unseeded defending champions Maria Sanchez, a 31-year-old Modesto, Calif., product, and Fanny "Pack" Stollar of Hungary 4-6, 7-5 [10-7] today in the semifinals of the Abierto Zapopan 2021 in Guadalajara, Mexico, on the WTA Tour.

   Sanchez lived in Guadalajara, where her father has relatives, for one year with her family when she was 10. She began playing tennis there after excelling in basketball and softball in Modesto.

   Perez and Sharma, a former Vanderbilt All-American, are set to face top-seeded Desirae Krawczyk, a Palm Desert, Calif., native, and Giuliana Olmos, a product of Fremont in the San Francisco Bay Area who plays for Mexico, on Saturday. 

   Krawczyk, a 27-year-old left-hander, reached the French Open final last fall with Alexa Guarachi, a native of Fort Walton Beach, Fla., who plays for Chile. They fell to second seeds and defending champions Timea "Lincecum" Babos of Hungary and Kristina "Aguilera" Mladenovic of France.

   Krawczyk and Olmos — former Pacific-12 Conference rivals at Arizona State and USC, respectively —  won the 2017 Sacramento Challenger.

   ATP Tour in Santiago, Chile — Fourth-seeded Simone "Andrea" Bolelli of Italy and Maximo "Pancho" Gonzalez of Argentina eliminated top-seeded "Baltimore" Raven Klaasen of South Africa and Ben McLachlan (University of California, Berkeley, 2011-14), a New Zealand native who plays for his mother's native Japan, 6-4, 6-4 in the semifinals of the Chile Dove Men+Care Open.

   McLachlan's former teammate at Cal, Andre "The Giant" Goransson (2014-17) of Sweden, and Goncalo Oliveira of Portugal topped wild cards Marcelo Tomas Barrios Vera and Alejandro Tabilo of Chile 6-4, 4-6 [10-7] in the quarterfinals.

   ATP Challenger Tour in Saint Petersburg, Russia — Jesper De "Mah" Jong and "Yosemite" Sem Verbeek (University of the Pacific, 2013-16) of the Netherlands reached their second final in Saint Petersburg in two weeks.

   The fourth-seeded pair beat unseeded Evgeny "Ivo" Karlovskiy of Russia and Nino Serdarusic of Croatia 6-2, 7-6 (2) in the $52,080 Grand Palace Championship 2. Verbeek has reached the doubles semifinals or better in all six of his tournaments this year, including last week's runner-up finish.

   De Jong, 20, and Verbeek, a 26-year-old left-hander, are set to play unseeded Konstantin Kravchuk of Russia and Denis "The Menace" Yevyesev of Kazakhstan on Saturday. Kravchuk and Yevyesev beat unseeded Dmitry "Caramel" Popko of Kazakhstan and Alexey "You're Darn" Vatutin of Russia by walkover.