When the new ATP rankings are released on Monday, the second-ranked American player will be a member of the men's main draw at next month's Pilot Pen Tennis tournament.

No, two-time champion James Blake has not decided to enter (although if he doesn't start winning a match or two, that could change). Mardy Fish, the first player to commit to play in New Haven, will jump over Blake regardless of what happens in the Los Angeles event this week.

Heading into the week, Blake led his good friend and current neighbor by 130 points in the standings. But with the results of last year's Cincinnati event set to expire at the end of the week, Blake will lose 150 points by advancing to the Round of 16 while Fish had just 10 points to defend since he lost his first-round match in Cincinnati.

Fish is the No. 2 seed in LA so he could move up further but he should end up no worse than No. 20, the first time he's been in the top 20 since mid March. On the other end of the spectrum, Blake will fall out of the top 20 for the first time since Feb. 27, 2006. The last time Fish was ranked ahead of Blake came on Aug. 15, 2005 when Fish was No. 65, five spots ahead of Blake.

With Blake set to lose 350 points on Aug. 17 courtesy of his run to the 2008 Olympic semifinals, there is a chance that the former Fairfield resident could end the year as the No. 4 ranked American behind Andy Roddick, Fish and Sam Querrey (although Querrey has some work to do to catch Blake).

Fish and Querrey are both entered - and seeded - in Los Angeles while Blake won't play his first post-Wimbledon match until next week's event in Washington, D.C.

Teams from Woodbridge, Stratford and Meriden are among those who advanced to the finals of the Pilot Pen Family Classic. The championship matches will be held on Aug. 27 at the Connecticut Tennis Center.

The finalists were determined at a tournament held at the Connecticut Tennis Center on Sunday. The event drew more than 4,500 competitors at about 90 regional events in eight different states. The winners will be honored in an on-court ceremony at the 2009 Pilot Pen Tennis tournament


Mother/Child 12 & Under: Linda Hatcher/Nicholas Hatcher (Danbury) vs. Chinyu Sarkar/ Sumit Sarkar (New York)
Mother/Child 14 & Under: Jennifer Hornsby/James Keiler (Meriden) vs. Louise Soifer/Danny Soifer (Stamford)
Mother/Child 18 & Under: Lori Vivian/Max Vivian (Wethersfield) vs. Curran Burfeind/Connor Burfeind (Falmouth, ME).
Husband/Wife: Alex Havriliak/Virginia Harnisch (Woodmere, NY) vs. Robert Bielen/Anna Bielen-Zarska (Ridgewood, NY)
Father/Child 12 & Under: Simon Gorwara/Sean Gorwara (Poughkeepsie, NY) vs. Brad Norton/Blake Norton (Stratford)
Father/Child 14 & Under: Mitch Pomerance/Brandon Pomerance (Stamford) vs. Takao Inouye/Sean Inouye (Danbury)
Father/Child 18 & Under: Jeffrey Ginzberg/Andrew Ginzberg (Woodbridge) vs. Gary Vivian/Max Vivian (Wethersfield)
Parent/Child Open: Todd Custer/Joshua Custer (Manchester) vs. Susan Henne/Eric Henne (Bristol)

American teen Melanie Oudin, who is entered in the qualifying draw of the Pilot Pen, played her way into the main draw of this week's event in Stanford.

Oudin, who fell from 71 to 78 in the WTA rankings, rebounded after losing a first-set tiebreaker to Yung-Jan Chan to move into the main draw with a 6-7, 6-1, 6-0 win. Oudin defeated Tatiana Poutchek and Shenay Perry before Monday's win in the final round of qualifying.

Oudin fell behind Jill Craybas in the race for the No. 3 ranked American when the new rankings were released today but since Craybas lost in the first round of qualifying, Oudin could regain her spot as the top ranked American not named Serena or Venus Williams.

Oudin drew the slot which set up a first-round match against wild card Hilary Barte, a rising junior at Stanford who reached the 2009 NCAA Division I doubles final. A potential second-round meeting against Marion Bartoli could be awaiting Oudin while Jelena Jankovic, who Oudin upset en route to reaching the Round of 16 at Wimbledon.

With Nikolay Davydenko beating Paul-Henri Mathieu in the Hamburg, Germany final, the Pilot Pen men's field now has two top 10 players.

Davydenko was already entered and ranked 11th at the time that the direct entries were announced. He actually dropped a spot last week to 12th but Davydenko's 15th career ATP title brings with it an additional 500 points.

While math is always my strong point and the ranking system is a little more confusing this year because only a certain among of smaller tournament (like the Pilot Pen) can count toward the ranking points and last year's Olympics altered the order of the summer events. But if I am following everything correctly, Davydenko will move from No. 12 to 9, Fernando Verdasco will fall a place to No. 10 followed by Fernando Gonzalez and Robin Soderling.

Here is how I reached that conclusion.

Davydenko loses 150 points from last year's U.S. Open Series event in Canada (which will come off the rankings on Monday) but gains 500 for winning the Hamburg title moving him from 2,935 to 3,285.

Verdasco began the week with 3,270 points and the 70 points he earned in Canada last year will come off the database putting him at 3,200.

Gonzalez loses 70 points from his result in Canada in 2008 and should have 3,115 while Soderling drops the 150 points he gained in Canada to check in with 2,920.

Considering that Davydenko only loses 50 points from the 2008 Olympics (which will fall from the rankings on Aug. 15) and the only points he has to defend the rest of the summer are the 10 points from Cincinnati, he figures to be in the top 10 for a while.

Pilot Pen commit Sam Querrey could also continue his rise up the rankings today if he beats fellow American Robby Ginepri in the Indianapolis final. If Querrey wins, he could end up jumping seven spots to No. 30 and could end up at No. 32 even with a loss. Ginepri, who is on the New Haven alternate list and would seem to be a lock for a wild card into the Pilot Pen main draw if he is so inclined, would jump 19 spots to No. 76 with a loss today while he would break into the top 60 if he wins the title. The Querrey/Ginepri final will be televised live at 3 p.m. on ESPN2 with the winner taking the early lead in the U.S. Open Series standings.

Never before had Pilot Pen Tennis tournament director Anne Worcester been so concerned about the pregnancy of a former WTA player and one who had never played in New Haven.

But considering that Mirka Vavrinec is the wife of Roger Federer, the top-ranked men's player in the world and winner of a record 15 men's Grand Slam singles titles, Worcester would have been fine if the pregnancy went the full term. That would have meant a delivery date in early to mid August and the potential of Federer missing the Montreal and Cincinnati events to be with his wife. With no matches since his run to the Wimbledon title, Worcester was preparing the sales pitches for her good friend Tony Godsick, who happens to be Federer's long-time agent. She would have flown to Switzerland herself to personally extend Federer the chance to return to the tour in New Haven had things played out the way Worcester hoped they would.

That can all be chalked up to the "what might have been" category since Vavrinec gave birth to twin girls on Thursday.

Word is Federer may skip the Montreal event but should be good to go for the Cincinnati tournament which is held the week before the Pilot Pen and two weeks before the U.S. Open.

Nathalie Dechy, who peaked at No. 11 in the WTA rankings, has announced her retirement. Dechy, who is currently ranked 88th, played in New Haven five times and lost to her former doubles partner Elena Bovina in the 2004 Pilot Pen women's final which in my opinion was the most entertaining championship match since the New Haven began hosting a WTA event in 1998.

The 30-year-old Dechy is pregnant and will focus her attention on starting a family. Dechy's only WTA singles title came at the 2003 Gold Coast (Australia event). Among her seven WTA doubles titles are the U.S. Open crowns in 2006 (with Vera Zvonareva) and 2007 (with Dinara Safina). She also won the mixed doubles title at the 2007 French Open playing with Andy Ram.

MOVING UP THE CHARTS
Among the big movers up the ATP rankings this week are Pilot Pen commits Jeremy Chardy and Juan Monaco.

Chardy went from No. 43 to 32 after winning his first career title at Stuttgart while Monaca soared 13 spots to No. 48 after reached the Bastad (Sweden) final.

On the women's side, New Haven bound Sybille Bammer jumped nine spots to No. 22 after winning the title in Prague last week. Francesca Schiavone, who lost to Bammer in the Prague final, moved up five spots to No. 25.

Three men's players who will be playing in next month's Pilot Pen Tennis tournament will play for titles on Sunday.

Jeremy Chardy, a talented 22-year-old Frenchman, will be playing in his second career ATP final and looking for his first title when he faces fellow Pilot Pen commit Victor Hansecu at the Mercedes Cup in Stuttgart, Germany.

Hanescu, whose only previous ATP title came at Gstaad, Switzerland in 2008, is in both the singles and doubles final.

Juan Monaco upset Tommy Robredo in the semifinals at Bastad, Sweden on Saturday and will play Robin Soderling in the final. All three of Monaco's career ATP titles came in 2007.

Pilot Pen commits are also prevelant in the two WTA events this week.

Three of the four semifinalists (Sybille Bammer, Francesca Schiavone and Iveta Benesova) at the Prague (Czech Republic) Open are planning to come to New Haven.

At the event in Palermo, Italy, all four semifinalists are on the list of entries into New Haven although only Flavia Pennetta is in the main draw. Sara Errani, who earned a spot in tomorrow's final with a win over Anna-Lena Groenefeld, joins Groenefeld and Tathania Garbin as players on the Pilot Pen alternate list.

STEPHENS WINS AGAIN
Sloane Stephens, the talented 16-year-old American who made news by beating Venus Williams in a World Team Tennis match earlier this month, won her WTT singles match against Vania King on Friday although Stephens; New York Buzz team lost to the Springfield Lasers.

Stephens has requested a qualifying wild card into the Pilot Pen and assuming she received a main draw wild card into the U.S. Open, expect to see her at the Connecticut Tennis Center next month. If Stephens doesn't get into the main draw of the Open, she won't be able to play in New Haven since the U.S. Open qualifying tournament is held at the same time as the Pilot Pen.

Former top 10 men's player Richard Gasquet was cleared to return to the ATP tour after a panel put together by the International Tennis Federation to hear Gasquet's appeal ruled that he inadvertently took cocaine while kissing a woman in a nightclub.

Gasquet, currently ranked 32nd, is eligible to return to the tour immediately. There have been no reports of where Gasquet plans on playing between now and the U.S. Open but Pilot Pen officials plan on getting in contact with Gasquet's representatives.

Speaking of the Pilot Pen, rising American teens Christina McHale and Sloane Stephens, who made some news recently by beating Venus Williams in a World Team Tennis singles match, have expressed interest in receiving qualifying wild cards into the Pilot Pen. McHale played in the Pilot Pen qualifier last year after winning the women's open division of the Yale Summer Championships to earn the wild-card spot which goes to the winner. She went on and not only won the Australian Open juniors girls' doubles title but won a play-in tournament to earn a spot in the main draw of the Australian Open singles tournament.

PAIGE REACHES FINALS
Hopkins rising sophomore Nolan Paige recently reached the finals of the Boys' 16 doubles National Opens in Allenwood, N.J. Paige of Fairfield teamed with Aaron Revzin of Needham, Mass. to take out the No. 1 and 3 seeded teams before losing to the unseeded team of Michael Reilly of Raleigh, N.C. and Max Schnur of Richmond, Va. in the finals. Paige also reached the quarterfinals in singles before losing to Andrew Adams of South Richmond Hill, N.Y.

A couple days back, Pilot Pen Tennis tournament director Anne Worcester said she'd be surprised if any top 10 players were added to women's No. 9 Caroline Wozniacki when she got the direct entry lists.

Well, surprise, surprise, surprise.

Gilles Simon, the No. 7 ranked player on the ATP tour, and No. 11 Nikolay Davydenko were added to the men's field. No. 14 Angieszka Radwanska, who ended the 2008 season as the ninth-ranked women's player, led the list of new additions to the women's field.

When all the names were in, the women's field had nine top 20 players - the most since the tournament became a combined event in 2005 and had a cut-off ranking of No. 42, at least 10 spots higher than expected.

No. 16 Tommy Robredo and No. 22 Mardy Fish were joined by Simon, Davydenko, No. 23 David Ferrer and No. 25 Igor Andreev to give the men's field a little more depth that tournament organizers originally thought. Sam Querrey, ranked 34th, gives the men's field an up and coming American.

The alternate lists were rather interesting as well. Leading the women's "next-in" list is Ai Sugiyama while other names of note were Sara Errani, Anna-Lena Groenefeld, Melanie Oudin, Jelena Dokic, Jill Craybas and Sania Mirza. The alternate list confirmed that Oudin will not need a wild card to get into the Pilot Pen qualifying draw. Christina McHale, one half of the Australian Open girls' juniors doubles championship team who made her Grand Slam main draw debut at the 2009 Australian Open, has requested a wild card into qualifying.

Leading the list of men's players who did not have a high enough ranking to get into the main draw are Americans Robby Ginepri, John Isner, Donald Young, Robert Kendrick, Vince Spadea and Jesse Levine as well as Germany's Rainer Schuettler and Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia. Among the names on the alternate list who interest tournament officials as potential wild cards are Ginepri and Marcus Baghdatis of Cyprus.

Former world No. 1 Rafael Nadal is planning to return to the ATP tour for the Aug. 10-16 event in Montreal.

If that proves to be the case, Nadal will likely play in the Montreal and Cincinnati events and skip the Pilot Pen before heading to the U.S. Open. Pilot Pen tournament organizers figure to keep close watch on Nadal's progress because if he has any setbacks and doesn't return for the Montreal event, there is a chance he could request a last-minute wild card into the New Haven event.

Nadal has not played since losing to Robin Soderling at the French Open because of a knee injury.

Up and coming American teen Melanie Oudin might be as surprised as anybody that she is now the third-ranked American in the WTA rankings.

Oudin was in New Haven to help with a clinic at Edgewood Park after a press conference which announced the city of New Haven received a grant to refurbish the courts at Edgewood and East Shore. Before her appearance, I had a chance to sit down with the bubbly 17-year-old who opened a few eyes when she took out former world No. 1 Jelena Jankovic en route to a run to the fourth round at Wimbledon.

Oudin had to win three qualifying matches just to get into the main draw at Wimbledon and become the youngest American to reach the fourth round at Wimbledon since Jennifer Capriati in 1993.

"It was crazy," Oudin said. "It definitely wasn’t anything I expected. Going into the first round of qualifying at Wimbledon and you main goal is to qualify. If you can get through the qualifying, it is a huge thing at the grand slams. After that, it was a whole different tournament starting Wimbledon. I loved every minute of it. After I got to the fourth round, I went from kind of being not a nobody but being used to people not knowing me to everybody wanting to know me and wanting to talk to me and see what I had to say, see what kind of person I was. It was an unreal experience."

Oudin's ranking soared to a career-high No. 70, putting her behind only Serena and Venus Williams among American women.

"I think it is crazy. I looked up to Serena and Venus forever, they were the first people I watched on TV playing Wimbledon," Oudin said. "I told my mom I wanted to play at Wimbledon one day like (the Williams sisters) did. Being ranked right behind them is unbelievable. I can’t even believe it. This is hard to comprehend that in the rankings, I am the third-best American right now."

The tournament announced that Oudin will receive a wild card into qualifying at next month's Pilot Pen. Oudin has already used up her allotment of main-draw wild cards so she will spend the summer attempting to qualify for the U.S. Open Series events including the Pilot Pen. However, with a ranking of No. 71, she will not need a wild card into the Pilot Pen qualifying.

With just 80 points to defend between now and the U.S. Open, Oudin figures to keep soaring up the rankings assuming she can navigate her way through qualifying draws at events in Los Angeles, Stanford, Cincinnati and New Haven as well as Toronto if she choses to play there. Of course, after a hectic schedule leading up to the French Open contributed to her loss in the opening round of qualifying, don't be surprised if Oudin limits her summer schedule a bit. If she advances deep into the main draws, she won't have a choice since she won't be able to play a main-draw match in one event while expected to enter qualifying in another.

The deadline for direct acceptance into the men's and women's singles draws at the Pilot Pen was about 1 1/2 hours ago. The player fields are expected to be announced on Wednesday. Currently, Caroline Wozniacki (who is No. 9 in the WTA rankings) is the only top 10 player confirmed to be entered. Tournament director Anne Worcester said she doesn't expect any additional top 10 players to be on the lists she receives tomorrow but with four wild cards on both the men's and women's side, she expects to add some star power to the field late in the game which tends to be the rule more than the exception.

There are a few chances in the women's event. First, the days of having the Tier IV event in Forest Hills weaken the qualifying field ended when Forest Hills was not included on the 2009 calendar. Next, the women's field went from 28 to 32 players as the WTA did away with bye in the smaller events. Finally, two of the four women's wild cards are reserved for top 10 players. Unlike in past years when the WTA used drawing power as a guideline for ranking players, the top 10 players are now determined by the final 2008 rankings. Among the names to watch among the top 10 are Elena Dementieva, who played in New Haven every year from 2000-07 but told Worcester she would not be entering early; Maria Sharapova, who is still working her way back into form after a serious shoulder injury and Agnieszka Radwanska.

New Jersey teen Christina McHale, who won the women's open title at the 2007 and 2008 Yale Summer Championships and played in the 2008 Pilot Pen qualifying draw, is among the players Worcester is targeting for one of three remaining women's qualifying wild cards. McHale won a play-in tournament to earn a spot in the main draw of the Australian Open singles event and won the junior girls' doubles title at the Australian Open.

The concept of awarding wild cards into the Pilot Pen men's and women's singles qualifying draws through a play-in tournament has come full cycle.

A few years back Pilot Pen Tennis tournament director Anne Worcester noticed the buzz created by fellow New Canaan resident Carolyn McVeigh. McVeigh was a teenager domminating the USTA New England tennis scene and Worcester decided to give her a shot in the women's qualifying tournament. Seeing all the interest from the assorted Connecticut media which typically view the qualifying events at the tournament with a collective yawn got Worcester thinking. It was actually her former employee Dan Frank who came up with the idea of having the winners of a tournament earn wild cards into the Pilot Pen qualifying fields.

New Jersey teenager Christina McHale, who has emerged as one of the world's top-ranked juniors in the last year or so, won the last two women's events (although she was unable to play in the Pilot Pen in 2007). On the men's side, Connecticut native and former Division III men's singles champion Will Boe-Wiegaard and Kabelo Maleka, a Mystic resident who was formerly a member of South Africa's Davis Cup team, earn the spot in the qualifying bracket the last two years.

On Sunday, a pair of Connecticut teens who have been dominant forces in the USTA New England junior circles for the last few years were the ones who punched tickets into next month's Pilot Pen. Marc Powers of Stamford won the men's open title while Farmington's Rachel Kahan was the women's winner.

Powers, a three-time singles champion of the USTA New England Sectionals, beat Maleka 6-3, 6-4 to win the men's open singles title at the Yale Summer Championships at the Connecticut Tennis Center. Powers had the chance to get familiar which what will be his new tennis home away from home as he will be a freshman at Yale in the fall.

"I had all the support, the (Yale) team and coaches came out to support me," Powers said. "I couldn’t be happier, it couldn’t have worked out better.

"There were a bunch of other schools (which recruited him). I looked all over the place, (Yale coach) Alex Dorato has been so consistent (in the recruiting process) and my coach John DeFilippo (at Stamford Indoor Tennis) had always dreamed of me going here."

Powers, who turned 19 on Friday, emerged from a field of 61 players including stars on the Quinnipiac and Sacred Heart University teams. Former Amity High star Ben Zuckerberg and Maleka, who was a member of South Africa's Davis Cup player pool earlier this decade where the other leading contenders.

Kahan, who will turn 17 a week from today, won a thrilling 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 final against 17-year-old Brooke Bolender of Delray Beach, Fla.

Bolender, the top seed, has played in 17 pro events and had a chance to serve for the match in the third set. Despite a brilliant display of defensive tennis against the hard-hitting Kahan, Bolender came up just short.

Bolender moved from her native Ohio to train at the Evert Tennis Academy which is headed up by the brother of tennis Hall of Famer Chris Evert. Kahan, who is home schooled and does not play high school tennis, actually was invited to train for a week recently at the Evert Tennis Academy but is back home in Farmington.

"It means a lot," Kahan said. "I have been working hard, everybody here is great and to win is unbelievable."

Kahan has played in a couple of smaller pro events this summer. Kahan played at the Wichita (Kansas) event in June, beating Tristen Dewar in the first round before losing to Sabrina Capannolo. She reached doubles semifinals of Hilton Head event in June.

Like Powers, she is made her presence felt on the junior circuit. At the Junior Sectionals, the most prestigious event played at the Connecticut Tennis Center other than the Pilot Pen, Kahan won the singles and doubles titles in the girls' 14-and-under event in 2005, was the girls' 16-and-under singles champion in 2006 and in 2008 the 15-year-old Kahan won the 18-and-under singles title.

I'm curious to see if McHale's schedule will allow her to take part in qualifying at the Pilot Pen. She spent June playing in satellite events in Europe reaching the semifinals and quarterfinals in consecutive tournaments. She won a play-in tournament to earn a spot in the Australian Open main draw. She fought off leg cramps in her first round match before falling 9-7 in the third to Jessica Moore. She played in the junior bracket of the last four Grand Slams highlighted by her winning the junior doubles title at the Australian Open. At Wimbledon she lost in the first round of singles but reached the quarterfinals in doubles, reached the second round in doubles at the French Open and advanced to the third round in juniors singles and second round in the junior doubles bracket at the 2008 U.S. Open.

Another name to look for is Melanie Oudin, fresh off her improbable run to the fourth round of singles at Wimbledon. Oudin will be in New Haven tomorrow as part of a press conference at the Edgewood Park courts. Oudin's ranking doesn't figure to be high enough to earn a spot in the Pilot Pen main draw but she is expected to compete in qualifying next month in New Haven.

Three teenagers join former men's champion Kabelo Maleka in today's finals of the men's and women's open singles bracket Sunday at the Yale Summer Championships with spots in the qualifying draws of next month's Pilot Pen Tennis tournament on the line.

The women's final will be held at 9:30 a.m. at the upper court at the Connecticut Tennis Center between 17-year-old Floridian Brooke Bolender, who has played in 17 ITF events, and Farmington's Rachel Kahan who is rated as one of the top 20 recruits nationally in the high school class of 2010.

The men's final will be held at 10:30 a.m. with Maleka, a former member of the South African Davis Cup team, facing Stamford's Marc Powers, who will be playing on these same courts for the next four seasons as a member of Yale's men's tennis squad.

Former Amity High star Ben Zuckerberg fell in the quarterfinals on Saturday to Kirill Kasyanov. Quinnipiac's No. 1 singles player John Hughes fell to Powers in the semifinals on Saturday.

The winners of the men's and women's open titles will receive wild cards into the Pilot Pen qualifying tournament.

Former Amity High star Ben Zuckerberg, Yale incoming freshman Marc Powers, Quinnipiac's No. 1 player John Hughes and Wallingford's Aaron Kusza are among the eight quarterfinalists in the men's open singles event at the Yale Summer Championships.

Kabelo Maleka of Mystic, a former member of the South African Davis Cup team, defeated Trumbull's Scott Denenberg 6-3, 6-2. Maleka, the winner of the event in 2007, is the top seed and will face Kusza, a former Villanova standout, in the quarterfinals today at 9 a.m.

Zuckerberg advanced to the quarterfinals by beating John Thornton 6-3, 7-5. He will face Kirill Kasyanov, the No. 1 singles player for Sacred Heart University's NCAA tournament team in the quarters. The Maleka/Kusza and Zuckerberg/Kasyanov winners will meet at noon in the semifinals at the Connecticut Tennis Center.

In the other half of the bracket, former Cheshire Academy star Christian Coley meets Naugatuck's Chris Cappello in one quarterfinal while Matthew Himmelsbach plays Hughes. The winners will play Saturday at noon.

In the women's open singles, top-seeded Brooke Bolender will face Sarah Leonard, who plays for Dartmouth, in one quarterfinal. Bolender is the sixth-rated player in the high school Class of 2010 according to the www.tennisrecruiting.net site. The winner will play the winner of the quarter between Vanessa Petrini, the 2008 and 2009 CIAC State Open singles champion, and Dominique Harmath, who finished 2008 ranked 12th among Canada's 18-and-under players in a semifinals at noon.

Stacia Fonseca, who peaked at No. 501 in the WTA rankings in 2006, will play Farmington's Rachel Kahan (the top-rated New England player and No. 16 ranked player on the www.tennisrecruiting.net Class of 2010 database) while Blair Siedeman (ranked 13th in the Class of 2010) faces Angela Sekely, one of two Ontario natives in the women's quarterfinals.

Home-court advantage didn't not help Stevi Petrelli and Silia Defilippis as the Yale teammates were both eliminated in the third round on Friday.

As with the men's open bracket, the quarterfinals will start at 9 a.m. Saturday with the semifinals set for noon.

The women's open singles final is Sunday at 9:30 a.m. with the men's open singles final starting at 10:30 a.m. The winners will receive wild cards into the qualifying of the 2009 Pilot Pen Tennis tournament.

Former Amity teammates Ben Zuckerberg and Chadd Sullo advanced to the Round of 16 in the men's open division of the Yale Summer Championships.

Zuckerberg, the No. 4 seed, received a first-round bye before beating Wayne Harrell 6-2, 6-4 on Thursday to set up a third-round showdown with John Thornton. The unseeded Sullo posted straight-set wins over No. 12 Matt Wilson and Adrian Amerio.

The seeds pretty much held true to form as 13 of the 16 seeds including No. 1 and former champion Kabelo Maleka, No. 2 Vincent Baudat and third-seeded Marc Powers reached the third round. It could be 14 of 16 if ninth-seeded John Hughes won his second-round match.

With just 27 players entered in the women's open singles event, only one round needed to be played on Thursday. The only seed to fall was No. 7 Monica Yajima, who had to pull out of the event. The opening round play was so straight forward that of the nine matches played, none required a third set.

The winners of the men's and women's open singles titles will earn wild card spots in the Pilot Pen qualifying tournament. The event runs through Sunday at the Connecticut Tennis Center's upper courts.

SELES HEADED TO HALL
Monica Seles, who reached the semifinals in the 1999 Pilot Pen and advanced to the 2000 championship match in New Haven, will be inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame on Saturday.

She will be the 15th player who played in the Volvo International or Pilot Pen in New Haven to be inducted into the Hall of Fame. This will be the 12th consecutive year that a player who grace the courts at the Connecticut Tennis Center is being inducted into the Hall of Fame.

Here's the complete list:
Player Years in New Haven Year of induction
Boris Becker 1994 (champion), 1995 2003
Michael Chang 1990-92, 1995 2008
Jimmy Connors 1991 1998
Jim Courier 1996, 1997 2005
Stefan Edberg 1991-93 (1992 men's champ) 2004
Steffi Graf 1998 (champion) 2004
Ivan Lendl 1990-94 2001
John McEnroe 1991-92 1999
Martina Navratilova 2000, 2002, 2004 (doubles only) 2000
Jana Novotna 1998-99 2005
Patrick Rafter 1994-98 2006
Pete Sampras 1998 2007
Arantxa Sanchez Vicario 1998, 2001-02 2007
Mats Wilander 1990, 1993, 1995-96 2002


CHANGING TIMES
There's a spot-on piece in the Register by columnist Dave Solomon about the subtle shift from Pilot Pen organizers building their marketing strategies around established stars to pushing up and coming phenoms like defending women's singles champion Caroline Wozniacki. That above list shows that the tournament hasn't lacked in star power in the first 19 years of the event but likely Amelie Mauresmo will be the only former world No. 1 player to compete in the 2009 Pilot Pen unless players like Lleyton Hewitt, Marat Safin or Jelena Jankovic opt to come to New Haven. Of course, Pilot Pen Tennis tournament director will be watching Rafael Nadal's progress very closely. If he has any setbacks with his ailing knee which keeps him out of the events in Cincinnati and/or Canada, you better believe Worcester would probably make the trip to the Nadal home in Mallorca, Spain to personally extend a wild card to the charismatic Spainard.

The Pilot Pen Tennis tournament is still 6 1/2 weeks away but these are still hectic times for tournament organizers.

First up, the singles draws for the men's open and women's open events at the Yale Summer Championships have been released with the winners earning spots in the Pilot Pen singles qualifying draws.

On the women's side, Florida teen Brooke Bolender is the top seed. She has played in 17 ITF events and won three qualifying matches in an ITF clay court event in Indian Harbour Beach, Florida before losing to Mashona Washington in the first round of the main draw in mid May. Since only 27 players have entered the event, Bolender is one of five players to receive a first-round bye. She could face former CIAC State Open champion Tina Tehrani of New Canaan in the second round Friday at 4 p.m.

Christina McHale, a two-time defending champion who recently compete in the singles and doubles junior events at Wimbledon, is not defending her title.

On the men's side, former champion Kabelo Maleka is the top seed among the 61 entrants. Yale incoming freshman Marc Powers is seeded third and former Amity High star Ben Zuckerberg is seeded fourth. Last year's men's winner - Will Boe-Wiegaard is not entered.

Play begins on Thursday at the upper courts at the Connecticut Tennis Center with the finals set for Sunday.

On Monday July 13, rising American star Melanie Oudin, who upset former world No. 1 Jelena Jankovic en route to a run to the fourth round at Wimbledon, will be in New Haven for what is being described as "a major announcement about a community
tennis project between Pilot Pen Tennis, USTA New England and the City
of New Haven."

If recent history counts for anything, Oudin will also be guaranteed a spot in the Pilot Pen singles draw as Taylor Dent was during his appearance in New Haven earlier this year. While Oudin's current ranking of No. 70 doesn't figure to be high enough to land her direct entry into the main draw, Pilot Pen tournament director Anne Worcester doesn't figure to have any reservations towards awarding one of her three women's singles main-draw wild cards to the third-ranked American (behind the Williams sisters), the third youngest player currently ranked in the top 100 and the youngest American to reach the fourth round at Wimbledon since Jennifer Capriati in 1993. It should be noted that while Capriati was moving forward in the Wimbledon draw, Oudin was still a couple of months short of her second birthday.

On Tuesday and Wednesday (July 14 and 15) the men's and women's player fields for the Aug. 21-29 will be announced. Assuming Dent and Oudin each have a wild card spot guaranteed, there will be only three men's spots and two on the women's side available via wild cards. It's a safe bet that Worcester is currently burning up the phone lines and flooding e-mail in boxes with reminders to the agents of players that missing the fast-approaching entry deadline could mean missing the tournament. On the women's side, those who fail to enter on time are given a second chance by shooting to the top of the "next-in" list based on their rankings but on the men's side, any player who fails to enter on time can only get into the main draw by being given a wild card by the tournament.

Finally, play in the Pilot Pen Family Classic will be held from July 18-19 at Scalzi Park in Stamford as part of the second annual Connecticut Public Parks Tennis
Championships.

The Family Classic has Mother-and-Child and Father-and-Child events at the 18-and-under, 14-and-under and 12-and-under divisions. Children ranked Top 30 in the USTA New England junior rankings must play up one age division. There are also Open
divisions in Husband-and-Wife and Parent-Child (for children age 19 and
over). Winners in each division advance to the Pilot Pen Tennis Family Classic regional championships in New Haven July 25-26.

The deadline to register for the Family Classic is July 14.

A printable entry form is available at www.stamfordtennis.org
or by e-mailing the GSTA at
stamfordtennis@aol.com and should be mailed to the GSTA at 27 Revonah
Avenue, Stamford, CT 06905.

Players have until tomorrow at 5 p.m. to register for the Yale Summer Championships. The winners of the men's open and women's open singles events will receive wild cards into the Pilot Pen qualifying draws.

Currently, there are 40 men's players and 22 on the women's side for the open singles brackets.

Kabelo Maleka, a former winner of the men's event and a member of South Africa's Davis Cup team in 2001 and 2002, leads the list of men's players already registered. Among other noteworthy players on the men's side are:
Vincent Baudat who played in Futures and Challenger events from 2003-06, winning 10 singles and 36 doubles matches. Peaked at No. 389 in doubles on June 20, 2005 and No. 804 in singles on Oct. 18, 2004 in the ATP rankings.
Vicenzo Ciccone, a New York teenager who is in the player pool for Jamaica's Davis Cup squad.
Christian Coley, a former Cheshire Academy star who earned All-Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference honors at Marist.
Karill Kasyanov and Adam Gart who played No. 1 and 3 singles to lead Sacred Heart University into the NCAA tournament.
John Hughes, the No. 1 singles player at Quinnipiac.
Mark Kahan, the winner of the last two CIAC Class LL titles.
Marc Powers, an incoming freshman at Yale and a top-ranked player in various USTA New England age divisions the last seven years.
Ben Zuckerberg, a three-time Register Area Boys' Tennis MVP during his high school career at Amity.

On the women's side, here are some of the players to watch:
Brooke Bolender, a 17-year-old from Florida, she has played in 17 satellite events, most recently winning three qualifying matches to get into main draw at ITF event in Indian Harbour Beach.
Dominique Harmath, reached finals in 2008 and semifinals in 2009 at All-Canadian ITF Junior Championships, finished 2008 ranked 12th among Canada's 18-and-under players
Sarah Leonard, top-ranked player in USTA New England circules who reached reached Round of 16 in last year's event.
Stevi Petrelli, the No. 5 player at Yale.
Vanessa Petrini, won last two State Open titles
Kim Przeszlowski, Southington teen is one of top players in USTA New England circles.
Tina Tehrani, the 2007 CIAC State Open champion.

The draw will be posted on Tuesday with the tournament running from July 9-12.

PAUL FALLS IN NEWPORT
Former Fairfield Prep star Todd Paul lost to Nathan Thompson in the first round of qualifying at the Hall of Fame Championships in Newport, R.I. on Saturday. Paul won the first set 6-1 before losing the second set 7-6 (7-5 in the tiebreaker). Thompson won the third set 6-3.

While former Fairfield resident James Blake came up short again in his bid to play in the second week of Wimbledon in singles, he is still going strong in doubles.

Blake, who lost in the first round of singles to Andreas Seppi, teamed with good friend and his Tampa, Fla. neighbor Mardy Fish to reach the semifinals in doubles.

In Blake's first doubles appearance in Wimbledon since 2002, he teamed with Fish to upset the No. 3 seeded team of Leander Paes/Lukas Dlouhy in straight sets in the first round. Blake and Fish, one of three men's players who have committed early to next month's Pilot Pen Tennis tournament, dropped one set in fourth matches. They will face the No. 2 seeds Daniel Nestor and Nenad Zimonjic in the semifinals.

As a point of reference, Fish has six career doubles titles (including the 2004 Houston and San Jose championships with Blake) while Blake has won five doubles titles. Nestor and Zimonjic have won 12 titles including last year's Wimbledon since teaming up in 2007. Nestor, who has 60 career doubles titles, won the 2000 Olympics with Sebastien Lareau and the 2002 Australian Open, 2004 U.S. Open and 2007 French Open with Mark Knowles. Zimonjic's 28 career doubles titles includes the 2007 Pilot Pen while playing with Mahesh Bhupathi.

LORD SISTERS WIN TITLES
The Lord sisters out of Bloomfield accounted for half of the girls' singles' titles at the recently completed New England Junior Sectionals at the Connecticut Tennis Center.

Dayna Lord, the fifth seed, won the girls' 16-and-under title with a 6-2, 7-5 win over No. 2 seed Ashley Noyes who was part of the doubles team which eliminated Lord in the semifinals of doubles.

Melissa Lord, seeded third, won the 14-and-under singles championship beating Kimmy Guerin of Weston 6-1, 6-1 in the only all-Connecticut singles final. Lord also reached the finals in doubles.

The Paige brothers of Fairfield also attempted to pull off the championship doubles. Sayer Paige emerged with the title in the boys' 12-and-under singles event. Paige did not lose a set until the finals when he outlasted Catalin Mateas of Braintree, Mass. 2-6, 6-3, 6-2.

His older brother Nolan, a rising sophomore at Hopkins, wasn't as fortunate as he lost to Alexander Steinroeder 6-1, 6-2 in the boys' 16 singles final.

The area competitors who had the best showings were Jessica Siedman of Woodbridge and Milford's Bradley Orban.

Siedman, who just completed an impressive freshman season at Amity, went 2-2 in the girls' 14 singles draw. She reached the second round in the main draw and consolation quarterfinals in the girls' 14-and-under event.

Orban lost in the first round of the boys' 14 main draw but won four matches to reach the consolation semifinals.

A HELPING HAND
The USTA recently announced it would be take over the running of three tournament websites including the Pilot Pen's in an attempt to "help increase the Olympus US Open Series overall brand presence and awareness."

The Pilot Pen web page will remain the same at www.pilotpentennis.com but more info is also available at www.OlympusUSOpenSeries.com.

BIG HITTERS COMING
For the tennis enthusiasts who don't mind driving a little bit, there are some noteworthy events to highlight in New England and the tri-state area in the coming weeks.

Pilot Pen commits Fish and Taylor Dent are playing in the 2009 Hall of Fame Championships while run from July 6-12 in Newport, R.I. On July 11, Monica Seles leads the newest class which will be inducted into the hall of the fame.

The New York Sportimes of World Team Tennis will have matches featuring Anna Kournikova (July 7), Serena Williams (July 10), John McEnroe (July 13), the Bryan bothers (July 17) and the biggest showcase of them all on when McEnroe faces off in a doubles match against Martina Navratilova on July 15. The Sportimes no longer play its home matches in Mamanoreck but have a new facility in Randall's Island.