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Burdette, Tursunov advance to their main tennis draws  

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Former Stanford All-America Mallory Burdette and one-time Menlo School star Dmitry Tursunov both advanced in their respective tournaments at the BNP Paribas Open on Wednesday in Indian Wells.

Burdette, who made it into the main draw in the WTA portion of the tourney, continued her rise on the tour by beating veteran countrywoman Jill Craybas in the first round of the BNP Paribas Open.

The 22-year-old Georgia native prevailed in just under an hour, converting all six of her break points for a 6-3, 6-1 triumph.

Burdette was an NCAA singles finalist at Stanford last year and made her WTA breakthrough at the US Open, where she reached the third round as a wild card (and a loss to Maria Sharapova). Burdette next will face No. 23 seed Tamira Paszek on Thursday.

Burdette made it through two qualifying matches to reach the main draw. She opened with a 6-3, 6-3 win over Jana Cepelova of Slovakia and followed that with a 6-2, 6-1 triumph over tour veteran Melinda Czink of Hungary in just 64 minutes.

Tursunov, who helped Menlo win the 1998 Central Coast Section Division II team title and added the section individual crown in his one season at school, qualified for the main draw in the ATP portion of this event by defeating Thiago Alves of Brazil, 5-7, 6-2, 6-3, on Wednesday.

Tursunov opened qualifying with a 6-1, 6-4 victory over Mohammad Abid of Tunisia on Tuesday.

Each tour event has a draw of 128, with $4,330,6225 available in prize money for both men and women. The women's tournament features No. 1 Victoria Azarenka and No. 2 Maria Sharapova while the men's tourney has No. 1 Novak Djokovic and No. 2 Roger Federer.

Women's soccer
Stanford grad Rachel Buehler ('07) earned her 100th cap for the U.S. women's national team on Wednesday and scored a goal to make her milestone match even more special.

Buehler headed in the go-ahead goal in the 48th minute to spark the U.S. to a 3-0 victory over Iceland in the teams' opening match at the Algarve Cup in Albufeira, Portugal, on the same field in which she received her first cap -- in a 4-0 victory over China on March 5, 2008.

A `cap' signifies an appearance for one full national team against another. The term recalls the days when players were given actual caps each time they represented their country.

Buehler, who wore the captain's armband as is tradition for player earning their 100th cap, scored her fourth international goal. Iceland held the U.S. scoreless throughout the first half, but Buehler changed the tenor of the match when, on a corner kick, she ran onto Lauren Cheney's service and deflected it into the left corner.

"Today was an incredible game for me," she said to ussoccer.com. "It's sort of coming full circle here in the Algarve for me as I got my first cap here and my 100th cap here.

"Wearing this jersey is always such an honor and I value every moment of that, but to wear the captain's armband makes it even more special. And then to get a goal on top of it! Usually we hit the corner kicks back post, but it came right to my head and I was ready and it was probably the best goal I've had. Well, maybe the Korea goal (in the 2011 Women's World Cup), but it was an awesome goal so I'm pretty excited about it!"

Buehler becomes the second former Stanford player to reach 100 caps, following longtime U.S. captain Julie Foudy '93, who played for the U.S. from 1987-2004, earned 271 caps, and won two Olympic gold medals and two World Cups.

At Stanford, Buehler was a two-time second-team NSCAA All-American and the 2007 ESPN Scholar-Athlete of the year. The three-year team captain out of Del Mar, Calif., was a two-time All-Pac-10 first-team choice under current Cardinal coach Paul Ratcliffe. Stanford reached the NCAA tournament in each of her four seasons (2003, 2005-07), twice advancing as far as the third round.

The rugged defender is a fearless ball-winner who has done her best work for the U.S. in the center of the defense. Buehler played for U.S. teams that won gold medals at the 2008 and 2012 Olympics.

The future medical student was named the U.S. co-captain by then-coach Pia Sundhage in 2010 - becoming the 12th captain in U.S. national team history - and is known for being a model professional with a tremendous work ethic.

Buehler is among four former Stanford stars on the 23-player U.S. roster. Outside back Kelley O'Hara '10 started and played 90 minutes on Wednesday, Christen Press '11 was a 64th-minute substitute at left midfield, and goalkeeper Nicole Barnhart '04 was in reserve.

The U.S. continue action at the Algarve Cup on Friday against China and Monday against Sweden. If it wins four-team Group B, the U.S. will play the Group A winner in the final on March 13.

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