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Register tennis writer Jim Fuller has the latest news on the Pilot Pen tourney and the tennis scene.

Friday, July 10, 2009

Zuckerberg, Powers, Hughes into quarterfinals

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.

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