NorCal product Riffice routs Vacherot in NCAA quarters

   No. 6 seed Sam Riffice, a Florida junior who grew up in the Sacramento area, overwhelmed No. 4 seed Val Vacherot of Texas A&M 6-3, 6-0 today in the quarterfinals of the NCAA Championships in Orlando, Fla.

   Riffice, an Orlando resident, helped the Gators win their first NCAA team title on Saturday. Since badly losing the first set for the second consecutive match in the second round, he has dropped only seven games in six sets.

   Riffice is scheduled to face No. 1 seed Liam Draxl of Kentucky on Thursday. Draxl, a sophomore from Canada, defeated No. 8 seed Gabriel Decamps of host Central Florida 7-6 (6), 6-1.

   French Open — Wild card Carol Zhao (Stanford, 2014-16) of Canada eliminated No. 23 seed Viktoria Kuzmova of Slovakia 7-5, 6-2 in the second round of qualifying in Paris.

   Jaqueline Cristian of Romania topped No. 13 seed Mayar Sherif (Fresno State, 2015-16) of Egypt 7-5, 5-7, 7-6 (1) in 3 hours, 3 minutes. 

   In the men's draw, No. 9 seed Mackenzie McDonald, a 26-year-old product of Piedmont in the San Francisco Bay Area, beat Renzo Olivo of Argentina 6-3, 6-4.

   McDonald advanced to the second round of the main draw at Roland Garros last fall as a direct entrant, losing to second seed and eventual champion Rafael Nadal 6-1, 6-0, 6-3, and was the only U.S. man to reach the round of 16 in the Australian Open in February.

   Jenson Brooksby, 20, of Carmichael, Calif., in the Sacramento area, outlasted Marc-Andrea Huesler of Switzerland, 6-7 (5), 6-4, 6-4 in 2:32 for his 12th consecutive victory. 

   Last month, Brooksby became the first man in five years to win back-to-back Challengers on hardcourts and clay. He improved to 25-4 this year after turning pro in December. 

   Huesler, a 6-foot-5 (1.96-meter) left-hander, reached the semifinals at Kitzbuhel on clay as a qualifier last September.

   Zhao, McDonald and Brooksby are set to play for main-draw berths on Friday. The draw is slated for Thursday at 9 a.m. PDT, and play begins Sunday. 

   ATP Tour — In the doubles quarterfinals of the Belgrade (Serbia) Open, Andre Goransson (University of California, Berkeley, 2014-17) of Sweden and Rafael Matos of Brazil outclassed Americans Austin Krajicek and Tennys Sandgren 6-1, 6-3.

   In the opening round of doubles in the Emilia-Romagna Open in Parma, Italy, Oliver Marach of Austria and Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi of Pakistan beat No. 2 seeds Raven Klaasen of South Africa and Ben McLachlan (Cal, 2011-14) of Japan 6-3, 6-4.