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.