Ex-Pacific star Verbeek reaches first ATP doubles final

Sem Verbeek, playing with Jose Chamba Gomez, serves
during the 2016 Stockton (Calif.) Challenger. Verbeek
starred at the University of the Pacific in Stockton.
Photo by Paul Bauman

   Hunter Reese of Knoxville, Tenn., and Sem Verbeek (University of the Pacific, 2013-16) of the Netherlands reached their first ATP Tour doubles final tonight, defeating San Francisco Bay Area natives Mackenzie McDonald and Sam Querrey 6-4, 7-6 (3) on a hardcourt in Los Cabos, Mexico.

   Entering the week, Reese and Verbeek, a 6-foot-4 (1.93-meter) left-hander, owned a combined four tour-level match wins, according to atptour.com. Unseeded, they edged top seeds Luke Bambridge and Ken Skupski of Great Britain in the first round on Tuesday.

   Querrey won the last of his 11 ATP singles titles in Los Cabos in 2017.

   Reese, 28, and Verbeek, 27, will face unseeded Hans Hach Verdugo of Mexico and John Isner of Dallas on Saturday.

   Olympics — Rebecca Peterson of Sweden eliminated Mayar Sherif (Fresno State, 2015-16) of Egypt 7-5, 7-6 (1) in the first round on hardcourts in Tokyo.

   In the opening round of men's doubles, Americans Rajeev Ram, a volunteer assistant coach at the University of California, Berkeley, and Frances Tiafoe edged No. 6 seeds Karen Khachanov and Andrey Rublev of Russia 6-7 (3), 7-6 (5) [12-10]. In 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Ram won the silver medal in mixed doubles with Venus Williams.

   Ben McLachlan (Cal, 2011-14) and Kei Nishikori of Japan downed Joao Sousa and Pedro Sousa of Japan 6-1, 6-4.

   ATP Challenger Tour — In the doubles semifinals of the $52,080 Atlantic Tire Championships on hardcourts in Cary, N.C., top seeds Christian Harrison of Bradenton, Fla., and Dennis Novikov of San Jose, Calif., beat unseeded Lukas Lacko of Slovakia and Ramkumar Ramanathan of India 7-5, 6-3.

   The teams had played only one match total this week. Harrison and Novikov drew a first-round bye, and Lacko and Ramanathan received two walkovers.

   Novikov won the Cary singles title in 2015 and the doubles crown last year with Teymuraz Gabashvili of Russia.

   Harrison and Novikov, both 27, are set to meet unseeded Petros Chrysochos of Cyprus and Michail Pervolarakis of Greece on Saturday at 11 a.m. PDT (live stream).  

   USTA Pro Circuit — Wild card Cannon Kingsley, an Ohio State All-American from Northport, N.Y., beat qualifier William Griffith, a former Cal standout from Fresno, Calif., 6-3, 6-2 in the quarterfinals of the $15,000 Edwardsville (Ill.) Futures on hardcourts.