Top Berkeley entrants reach $115K Columbus semis

Zheng Saisai, shown en route to the San Jose title on the WTA Tour in 2019,
has lost the first set in all three of her victories this week. Photo by Paul Bauman  

   Zheng Saisai and Wang Xinyu, who head the field in next week's $60,000 Berkeley (Calif.) Challenger, won today in the quarterfinals of the $115,000 Tennis Ohio Championships in Columbus.

   The fourth-seeded Zheng (pronounced Jung), 27, beat fifth-seeded Lauren Davis of Boca Raton, Fla., 1-6, 6-2, 6-2. Zheng, who won her only WTA singles title in the 2019 Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic in San Jose, Calif., has lost the first set in all three of her victories this week.

   The eighth-seeded Wang, who will turn 20 on Sunday, eliminated third-seeded Madison Brengle of Dover, Del., 6-3, 6-3. Brengle won the last (2019) Berkeley Challenger and the 2018 Stockton (Calif.) Challenger.

   Zheng is scheduled to face second-seeded Nuria Parrizas Diaz, a 30-year-old Spaniard who beat seventh-seeded Beatriz Haddad Maia of Brazil 7-6 (3), 3-6, 6-2. Haddad Maia, a 25-year-old left-hander, also is entered in Berkeley.

   Wang is set to play unseeded American Coco Vandeweghe, a former top-15 player rebounding from an ankle injury. Vandeweghe, the runner-up in the WTA Bank of the West Classic at Stanford in 2012 and 2017, ousted top-seeded Ann Li of Orlando, Fla., 6-4, 6-4.

   ATP Tour — No. 1 seeds Henri Kontinen of Finland and Ben McLachlan (University of California, Berkeley, 2011-14) topped French wild cards Gregoire Barrere and Lucas Pouille 1-6, 7-5 [10-7] in the quarterfinals of the Moselle Open in Metz, France.

   In 2017, Kontinen became the first Finnish player to be ranked No. 1 in doubles. He is now No. 46.