Tennis

Quarterfinal action began with a pair of upsets Friday afternoon at the Farmers Classic at UCLA's L.A. Tennis Center. Ricardas Berankis of Lithuania defeated France's fourth-seeded Nicolas Mahut, 6-4, 6-4, to reach his first ATP tour semifinal. He is the first qualifier to reach the semifinals at the Farmers Classic since Carsten Ball in 2009. Ball advanced to the championship before losing to Sam Querrey. Rajeev Ram advanced with a 7-6, 6-3 victory over third-seeded Leonardo Mayer of Argentina.

By the time she was 10, Samantha Mae Coyiuto was a published author in the Philippines. By the time she was 16, she had four children's books published. Now she's 18 and goes by just Mae and is a student at Pomona-Pitzer, where she plays for the women's tennis team, ranked No. 10 in NCAA Division III. Playing mostly No. 2 in singles as a freshman this year, Coyiuto is 21-5, best on the team. No one else on the team has more than 13 singles wins. She rarely plays doubles but is 4-1 when she does.

Keegan Bradley had no thoughts about a course record, or the possibility of a 59, after consecutive bogeys in the middle of his opening round in the Byron Nelson Championship at Irving, Texas. Until his 136-yard wedge shot on his final hole Thursday. "It was going right at it. [A 59] crossed my mind for a second, and it would be unbelievable if I buried this," Bradley said. "But I had three feet to shoot 60. I was actually very nervous, uncomfortable over it and thank God I made it. " Bradley shot 10-under-par 60, completed by that short birdie at the 428-yard ninth hole, to break the TPC Four Seasons course record and match the best round ever at the Nelson.

Cross Al Jazeera off the list of potential suitors for the Tennis Channel. The Qatar-based media giant was mentioned by the New York Post in a story last week as wanting to buy the Tennis Channel. However, a senior executive with knowledge of Al Jazeera's U.S. media strategy is adamant that there is no such interest in the Tennis Channel. The executive declined to speak on the record because the company did not want to officially comment on idle speculation regarding a financial transaction.

Your choices in San Francisco hotels are overwhelming. The prices can be too. So during our staff visit to the City by the Bay, we looked for reasonably priced hotels that had charm, location or both. We came back with 14 ideas on places to bed down. It's not a complete list, but it is eclectic, like the city itself. Mystic Hotel. This property, which opened in April, stands on a tunnel-adjacent block of Stockton Street that you'll never see on a picture postcard, yet it has style, as do the Burritt Tavern bar and restaurant downstairs.

Actor Nick Nolte has put a Malibu compound up for sale that has seen a galaxy of stars come through its arched entryway. Besides Nolte, other notables to have owned the house include comedian Tommy Chong, Don Felder of the Eagles and music producer David Foster. Priced at $8.25 million and set in the Bonsall Canyon area, the two-acre retreat is covered with sycamore and pine trees. The main house, built in 1963, features 19-foot vaulted ceilings, skylights, six stone-and-carved-wood fireplaces, marble floors and mahogany French doors.

The price of the party palace that rapper Drake bought in Hidden Hills last month has yet to make its way into the public record. Listed at $16.9 million in 2009, it was most recently set at $8.65 million. Outside of its new owner, perhaps the striking feature of the nearly 3-acre property is the grotto-style swimming pool with back-lighted waterfalls and an 80-foot slide. Other outdoor amenities include a tennis court, stalls for five horses, a riding arena, a mechanic bull and a viewing pavilion.

The biggest grand slam of Rod Laver's life had nothing to do with major tennis tournaments. He met Mary Shelby Peterson at the Jack Kramer Tennis Club. Then, in 1966, at a church in San Rafael, he changed that to Mary Shelby Laver. Game, set, match. They left the marriage ceremony by walking under an arch of tennis rackets formed by, among others, tennis greats Lew Hoad, Ken Rosewall, Mal Anderson and Barry MacKay. When Mary died Nov. 12 at their home in Carlsbad, they had had 46 years of marriage and Laver had a hole in his heart the size of a tennis ball.

Tennis did its best to serve up a classic dish Thursday night in the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells. But a dash of this and a pinch of that were missing. We expect plenty of spice every time Roger Federer plays Rafael Nadal. It is a legacy built on their previous 28 matches, most of them thrillers, over nearly a decade. But minus the usual paprika, Nadal still managed to slap out a 6-4, 6-2 victory. It was somewhat convincing. Also somewhat unsettling. When these two play, we expect some 7's in the score line.

EUGENE, Ore. -- Rarely does Sanya Richards-Ross picture herself climbing atop the medal stand after winning the 400-meter gold medal at the Olympics. Instead, she visualizes the final steps she must take to get there, driven by memories of having victory slip from her grasp at Beijing in 2008 when she faded to third down the stretch while weakened by an ailment she believes was misdiagnosed. "Every time I think about going back to the Olympics, I think about finishing stronger and getting to the finish line first and that's been my motivation the past four years," she said.

Potential suitors for the Tennis Channel might want to wait and see what the referees have to say about the cable network's serve before making any deals.  Speculation is again heating up that the Tennis Channel, owned by several private equity firms including Apollo Partners and Bain Capital, may be on the block. Last week, the New York Post reported that Al Jazeera Media Networks is interested in the network. People close to the Tennis Channel and Al Jazeera downplayed that story.

Compton High School has two tennis courts, a coach and now, all the gear it can use, including rackets, balls and even shoes. What's lacking is a team. But that's beginning to change. The school started signing up prospective tennis players last week as a donation of equipment and regulation nets was being unloaded. Curious students approached the tennis court to ask what the commotion was about and left as team members with racket bags filled with gear. "Guess we play tennis now," Tatiarria Hayes, 16, joked with her best friend, Robin Butler, 15, both holding black and green bags.

The biggest grand slam of Rod Laver's life had nothing to do with major tennis tournaments. He met Mary Shelby Peterson at the Jack Kramer Tennis Club. Then, in 1966, at a church in San Rafael, he changed that to Mary Shelby Laver. Game, set, match. They left the marriage ceremony by walking under an arch of tennis rackets formed by, among others, tennis greats Lew Hoad, Ken Rosewall, Mal Anderson and Barry MacKay. When Mary died Nov. 12 at their home in Carlsbad, they had had 46 years of marriage and Laver had a hole in his heart the size of a tennis ball.

On a hot summer-like Sunday afternoon, in a stadium that rises out of the Southern California desert like a huge misplaced castle, Spanish tennis star Rafael Nadal slid onto his back and into the bright lights of his sport once again. It was match point of the men's final in the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells. The clock showed that he had been out there 21/2 hours. A crowd of 16,741 squeezed into this 16,100-seat spectator mansion had waited for this moment. Winning this tournament is always a huge deal, but they all knew that, for Nadal, this would be even bigger.

It is no small task to steal the thunder from the current comeback kid of tennis, Rafael Nadal. But that's exactly what a 6-foot-6 rocket launcher from Argentina did Saturday in the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells. Argentina has had a great week. A new pope and now this. Juan Martin del Potro won one of those matches that goes beyond compelling to spellbinding. When he beat Novak Djokovic in the late afternoon men's semifinal, he did so in one of those tennis faceoffs that becomes edge-of-your-seat on every point.

Caroline Wozniacki made it back to the BNP Paribas Open women's final at Indian Wells on Friday night, fighting her way through a 2-hour 28-minute marathon that was mostly distinguishable by moonballs and service breaks. Eighth-seeded Wozniacki of Denmark beat fourth-seeded Angelique Kerber of Germany, 2-6, 6-4, 7-5. In the deciding set, there were seven service breaks, and Wozniacki held on despite giving up leads of 4-1 and 5-3. There were 14 service breaks in the match. Wozniacki, a former No. 1 player who took the BNP Paribas Open title in 2011, will play the winner of the late match between Russian players Maria Kirilenko and Maria Sharapova.

Britain will try to rejoin the Davis Cup World Group tournament for the first time since 1987 when it plays host to top-seeded Austria in a qualifying series Sept. 20-22. Sweden, which was in the Davis Cup finals from 1983-89, but lost in the first round this year to Yugoslavia, will play at the Philippines in another qualifier.

On a long day of tennis in the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells, fifth-seeded former Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic was among the casualties in matches that finished during daylight hours. She lost in a three-set battle, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3, to Maria Kirilenko of Russia. Kirilenko, seeded 15th and getting closer to a top-10 ranking, defeated No. 3 Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland in her previous match and said afterward, "I can compete, and as you can see, I can beat them.

On the day after its longest day, the BNP Paribas Open tennis tournament at Indian Wells had the longest lull in the action Thursday. Two women's stars, No. 1 Victoria Azarenka, and No. 7 Samantha Stosur, pulled out of separate quarterfinals and the day session at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden was over in the main stadium by late afternoon. That included a fill-in doubles match. Wednesday's day session ran so late on the Stadium Court that it pushed the eventual finish of the night matches to 1:50 a.m. Azarenka defaulted because of a right ankle injury that she said she had been nursing for a while and hoped to be able to keep healthy enough to defend her title here.