Pilots' Blog

Simon says "withdrawal"

2009-08-21T09:21:00.003-04:00

Ninth-ranked Gilles Simon, who would have been the No. 2 seed in the men's draw, has pulled out. Haven't heard the official reason but you don't need to be a genius to figure it out. He reached the third round in Canada and is into the quarterfinals in Cincinnati.

We'll see if there are any other of these "I have played enough tennis so I am pulling out" withdrawals. The candidates to keep an eye on are Sam Querrey on the men's side (although he was eliminated from Cincinnati) and Samantha Stosur and Agnieszka Radwanska on the women's side. Stosur is still alive in singles and doubles in Toronto while Radwanska will play Maria Sharapova in singles tonight.

Chile's Paul Capdeville moves into the main draw with Simon's departure. Robert Kendrick and Teimuraz Gabashvili got into the main draw when the two special exemption slots were not filled.

Time to head out to the tennis center. Want to catch some of Farmington's Rachel Kahan's match and then see Christina McHale play on the Grandstand Court before the women's and men's main draws are conducted.

Blake steals the spotlight

2009-08-20T20:41:00.004-04:00

James Blake isn't even playing in the 2009 Pilot Pen but he is still the center of attention.

On a day when No. 10 men's player Fernando Verdasco and No. 12 women's player Nadia Petrova accepted wild cards while rising American stars John Isner and Melanie Oudin respectively withdrew a wild card request and pulled out of the qualifying draw and former top 10er Richard Gasquet was confirmed to be entering the men's qualifying field, the Connecticut media (myself included) focused most of the attention on Blake.

The former Fairfield resident and two-time men's singles champion in New Haven is not entering the tournament, citing too many off the court scheduling conflicts. Personally, I think from a tennis standpoint, he is making a big mistake. Blake has lost his last five matches and will go into the U.S. Open with one match under his belt during the North American summer hard-court season.

Blake said the fractured right pinky toe was suffered when he was walking around in the dark in his hotel room in Croatia the week after Wimbledon. He jokingly chalked it up to bad karma since his brother Thomas suffered a similar injury and James busted Thomas' chops unmercifully. Blake hit with good friends Mardy Fish and Todd Paul for about two hours on Thursday on Stadium Court.

Blake was a bit more serious when talk came to why he is skipping the New Haven event for the second straight year.

"There’s a lot of things that went into it," Blake said. "I love playing in Connecticut. I love the fans and they seem to appreciate my style of tennis, I am having fun out here and give them a chance to have a lot of fun in the stands. I do have a lot of commitments coming up, I have my clothing line coming out.

"I definitely could see myself coming back here. The fans are the best but this year it was just too tough especially with how the scheduling has been for the ATP with the 500 (in Washington) and two 1000s (in Cincinnati and Canada) right before the (Pilot Pen), that makes it really difficult. I think there are going to be some tweaks to the ATP schedule and when that happens, this is the first spot I would look at to have a change in the calendar to make it possible for me to play here."

Blake said his injured toe feels good. As for his game, he will enter the Open on a five-match losing streak so his confidence is hardly soaring.

"It is a new challenge, my ranking won’t be where I think it should be, my match (preparation) won’t be where it should be but I will go in with a new scenario," Blake said. "I have been in the Open in a lot of situations, coming from here as a first-round loser, coming here as a title holder and different results and this year it will be a new one."

Pilot Pen Tennis tournament director Anne Worcester is obviously disappointed not to have Blake in the field but she was feeling better on Thursday after listening in on Blake's interview with the media immediately following his practice session.

"I am so glad he came here today. I love James Blake, I think he is such a fantastic person. I was very disappointed that he didn’t chose to take a last-minute wild card but I am glad he came here to practice. He was honest with me. While I would much rather he was playing in the main draw but I told him ‘I am glad to have you here under any circumstances.’ I am disappointed but he clearly feels comfortable here and I don’t want that to change. I do understand how complicated it is to organize all those events with sponsors, television, people and he has a very tightly packed week next week. I understand that you can’t back out of corporate commitments."

The tournament finalized its wild cards. On the men's side they will go to Taylor Dent, Verdasco, Rajeev Ram and Marcos Baghdatis. For the women, they were given to Svetlana Kuznetsova, Petrova and Meghann Shaughnessy.

Qualifying wild cards went to NCAA singles champions Devin Britton and Mallory Cecil, Yale Summer Championship open division winners Marc Powers and Rachel Kahan as well as Chase Buchanan, Jessie Levine, Gail Brodsky, and Christina McHale.

Tomorrow the draws will be pulled beginning at 12:30 p.m. and are open to the public. The women's draw figures to be done first with Gisela Dulko the WTA player representative. Dent will be the ATP player to help with the men's draw.

The women's qualifying draw will begin tomorrow and here is the schedule:
GRANDSTAND start 10:00 am
Qualifying - [WC] R Kahan (USA) vs M Niculescu (ROU)
Qualifying - Y Wickmayer (BEL) vs [WC] C Mchale (USA)
Qualifying - [WC] M Cecil (USA) vs J Craybas (USA)
Qualifying - U Radwanska (POL) vs M Kirilenko (RUS)

COURT 1 start 10:00 am
Qualifying - V Diatchenko (RUS) vs A Petkovic (GER)
Qualifying - R Vinci (ITA) vs [WC] G Brodsky (USA)
Qualifying - S Errani (ITA) vs V Lepchenko (USA)

Not Before 3:00 PM
Qualifying - S Peer (ISR) vs T Garbin (ITA)

COURT 2 start 10:00 am
Qualifying - A Brianti (ITA) vs I Olaru (ROU)
Qualifying - A Parra Santonja (ESP) vs V Kutuzova (UKR)
Qualifying - O Govortsova (BLR) vs C Pin (FRA)

Not Before 3:00 PM
Qualifying - M Rybarikova (SVK) vs K Bondarenko (UKR)

COURT 3 start 10:00 am
Qualifying - K Kucova (SVK) vs A Dulgheru (ROU)
Qualifying - E Gallovits (ROU) vs P Hercog (SLO)
Qualifying - T Pironkova (BUL) vs L Hradecka (CZE)

Not Before 3:00 PM
Qualifying - K Flipkens (BEL) vs N Llagostera Vives (ESP) - TBA

Now all the tournament can do is hope there aren't any withdrawals between now and the start of the main draw. When you have players like Samantha Stosur and Sam Querrey who have been advancing deep in nearly event summer tournament, it does cause Worcester a bit of a concern.

The men's qualifying draw won't begin until Saturday. There's no question what the big story will be. France's Richard Gasquet, a former top 10 player, has had a trying last six months. He was drug tested at the tour stop in Miami and small amounts of cocaine were found in his system. He was suspended for two years but appealed saying the cocaine got in his system when he kissed a woman at a Miami club. A panel of three lawyers believed him, largely because the amount of cocaine was so small, and overturned the appeal. The International Tennis Federation, which first banned Gasquet, countered Gasquet's success appeal with an appeal of their own. Since the United States Tennis Association works closely with the ITF, they have no plans to award a wild card to Gasquet so he has to go through qualifying.

I know ome people want to come down on the tournament but this is out of their hands. Every wild card request has to be approved by the USTA and most are. This is a case where the tournament was not able to give Gasquet a wild card. There are also USTA rules on tournament officials commenting about why players don't receive wild cards. Knowing this, I reached out to the USTA via e-mail this morning. I received eight e-mails from the USTA but none of them happened to be a response to my request for a comment on Gasquet's wild card request.

Verdasco, Petrova in; Isner out

2009-08-20T14:41:00.003-04:00

The wild card picture is starting to come into focus.

No. 10 Fernando Verdasco received a men's wild card, marking the fifth straight year he will play in New Haven while No. 12 Nadia Petrova was given a women's wild card.

In other news, John Isner, who suffered heat exhaustion forcing him to retire in his singles match in Cincinnati, withdrew his wild card request giving the tournament two men's wild cards.

James Blake met with the media after a two-hour hitting session and said he is not playing in New Haven. There will be more on his decision in friday's Register.

Also, No. 1 Dinara Safina and No. 7 Vera Zvonareva will not be requesting wild cards meaning the tournament will lose one of its top 10 wild cards so there are no more women's wild cards available.

Marcos Baghdatis will likely get one of the wild cards with the other going to an American to be determined by the USTA.

The tournament has confirmed that Richard Gasquet intends to play qualifying, his first match since being suspended for testing positive for cocaine in March. The International Tennis Federation is appealing the decision and the USTA, which works in conjunction with the ITF, had no intentions of agreeing to give Gasquet a main-draw wild card.

Julien Benneteau, who moved up to No. 1 on the alternate list, pulled out.

There have been no withdrawals so far on the women's side.

Ivanovic passing on New Haven

2009-08-20T11:00:00.003-04:00

Former world No. 1 Ana Ivanovic will not be requesting a wild card despite losing Wednesday in Toronto. The tournament is still waiting to hear one way or the other from Dinara Safina and Vera Zvonareva. If the two Russians both decline, the Pilot Pen will lose its fourth wild card because it has to go to a player who ended the 2008 season ranked in the top 10. Safina lost early in Toronto while Zvonareva doesn't play until 7:30 p.m. so she would have to request a wild card before taking the court against Maria Sharapova.

No. 12 Nadia Petrova appears to be in line to receive the third wild card. No. 6 Svetlana Kuznetsova and former top 15 player Meghann Shaughnessy were given wild cards on Wednesday.

On the men's side, Albert Montanes withdrew and he will be replaced in the main draw by Andrey Golubev. Julian Benneteau will also move into the main draw. Benneteau is now first on the alternate list and will move in with another withdrawal (Kristof Vliegen is the most likely candidate to withdraw since he posted on his official site that he would not be able to play in New Haven). Even without a withdrawal, Benneteau would get into the main draw through the two special exemption spots. A special exemption can be given to a player who reached the semifinals in one tournament while being entered in the main draw of the next event. Since it is impossible for a player to play in both tournaments at the same time, the ATP will award them a spot as a special exemption. Benneteau and Chris Guccione are the only ones who fall under the criteria to receive a special exemption so no matter what happens, Benneteau would be in the New Haven draw.

American Robert Kendrick, who made news this summer first with his gallant effort before falling in four sets to Andy Murray at Wimbledon and then for his role in a confrontation with Leander Paes in a World Team Tennis match, is moving up to alternate list. He is currently the fourth alternate but if Benneteau moves into the main draw because of another withdrawal and Guccione doesn't advance to the semifinals at Cincinnati, the special exemption spots would go to Maximo Gonzalez (who owns wins over Mardy Fish and Carlos Moya this year) and Teimuraz Gabashvili. Kendrick would move up to the No. 1 alternate spot.

Almost time for some tennis

2009-08-19T22:13:00.004-04:00

Finally got a chance to kick back at home after a long day of not only putting together a story for Thursday's paper on the day's player movement updates but finishing the retrospective of the previous 19 tournaments held at the Connecticut Tennis Center. That will be prominently featured in Friday's edition of the Register as the tournament holds its 20th ATP or WTA or in the current case both ATP and WTA event.

The biggest surprise of the day is that James Blake did not enter and it is looking like he won't be entering. Sorry, I just don't get it. He needs some matches, a bit of confidence or something because what he's been doing recently just isn't working. I realize he just came back from a foot injury and perhaps it is more serious than we are being led to believe and he believes playing in New Haven would seriously jeapordize his chance to compete at the U.S. Open. If that is not the case, Blake is being downright foolish. He has a chance to fine tune his game which is a complete and utter mess at the current time while playing in front of friends and family at a tournament he credits for jumpstarting his career. If the foot is OK then something just isn't adding up here.

Surprise No. 2 was the tournament giving its second women's wild card to Meghann Shaughnessy, ranked 915th, over No. 12 Nadia Petrova. I know Shaughnessy is an American and the Pilot Pen is a USTA event and has been a regular competitor at the tournament (this will be her ninth appearance in the singles main draw). I realize she has had to deal with a knee injury which sidelined her for long stretches but she hasn't won a WTA level match since 2007. Meanwhile Petrova was in the top 10 earlier this summer and would add even more depth to the field. Petrova is still in line to get a wild card tomorrow but if she doesn't, will it hurt the tournament's chances to get Petrova to commit to the event in the future?

I fully expected Svetlana Kuznetsova to enter the tournament after her loss to Samantha Stosur in Toronto and she did. She will likely be the No. 1 seed in the tournament just as she was in 2007 when she won the title in New Haven.

When I spoke to Pilot Pen Tennis tournament director Anne Worcester in the late afternoon, she threw a lot of names of players she is pursuing.

The ones she threw out there on the women's side - No. 1 Dinara Safina, No. 7 Vera Zvonareva, No. 11 Ana Ivanovic and No. 22 Daniela Hantuchova are certainly interesting. Safina seems like little more than a hope and a prayer by Worcester even with her loss today but Worcester will never be accused to leaving things to chance, that's for sure. If top players don't come to the tournament, it is certainly not because Worcester has forgotten about them. Ivanovic's chances for entering just went up significantly after losing to Lucie Safarova Wednesday night. I haven't seen the order of play for tomorrow yet but with a 4 p.m. women's wild-card deadline, Zvonareva will need to have an early match and lose to even consider asking for a wild card. It is promising that both have reached out to the tournament to express an interest. If Hantuchova requests one, Worcester is in a tough spot. Because neither Petrova nor Hantuchova finished 2008 in the top 10, the Pilot Pen would have to pick between them. Of course they could enter, go to the top of the "next in" list and hope for a withdrawal. Ivanovic and Zvonareva did end up in the year-end top 10 in 2008 and since two of the wild cards are for top 10 players, Worcester can give one of them a spot and still have one wild card remaining for Petrova or whoever else throws their name into the fray. If no top 10 player enters, Ai Sugiyama would most likely move into the main draw.

Venus Williams just is not going to happen. Despite her early loss in Toronto, she is content to rest up for the Open and get her preparation on the practice courts.

On the men's side, she mentioned Lleyton Hewitt (not happening now that he won today), Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (if he wasn't still alive in the Cincinnati doubles draw I would saw he was an option) and Fernando Verdasco. I could see the Verdasco thing happening, in fact I will be surprised if it doesn't get done. Verdasco has played this summer but has not had an outlandish number of matches. He has also taken a shine to playing in New Haven, playing each year since the ATP returned to the Elm City in 2005. He was a semifinalist last year and twice before reached the quarterfinals.

Robby Ginepri and Marin Cilic are definitely not options, both confirming they are not interested in wild cards. Cilic was more of a surprise than Ginepri since Cilic has been struggling a bit and he did win the title here last year.

That is only half the deal, however. With every player suffering early losses becoming a potential wild card request, those advancing deep into this week's tournaments are potential withdrawal candidates. When you look at players like Samantha Stosur and Sam Querrey (who just finished off Andy Roddick in Cincinnati) who have played a ton of tennis this summer, I'm sure the tournament organizers won't rest easily until they actually see them on site.

The women's wild card deadline is 4 p.m. on Thursday with the men having until noon on Friday so expect another hectic day tomorrow. It's looking like both singles draws will be pulled in the early afternoon on Friday.

Going out on a limb and predicting that the women's wild cards go to Ivanovic and Petrova and the men's wild cards to Verdasco and Marcos Baghdatis (although one of the young Americans), here's what the top 10 seeds could look like
MEN WOMEN
8 Nikolay Davydenko 6 Svetlana Kuznetsova
9 Gilles Simon 8 Caroline Wozniacki
10 Fernando Verdasco* 10 Flavia Pennetta
16 Tommy Robredo 11 Ana Ivanovic*
19 David Ferrer 12 Nadia Petrova*
22 Mardy Fish 13 Agnieszka Radwanska
26 Sam Querrey 14 Marion Bartoli
27 Igor Andreev 15 Dominika Cibulkova
28 Victor Hanescu 16 Amelie Mauresmo
33 Nicolas Almagro 17 Samantha Stosur
(*-not yet officially in the field)

Would the tournament love to have a Williams sister or two? James Blake and Andy Roddick? Absolutely. But considering the tournament following two mandatory events and is followed by the U.S. Open, that's a high quality field. We'll see if ticket buyers agree.

Dent gets Open wild card

2009-08-19T16:36:00.002-04:00

Taylor Dent, who received a wild card into the Pilot Pen, was one of six Americans to receive wild cards into the main draw of the U.S. Open.

Dent, who was ranked in the top 20 before injuries nearly ended his career, is looking to regain his form first at the Connecticut Tennis Center and then at the Open.

Other Americans receiving wild cards are reigning NCAA champion Devon Britton, Jesse Levine, Brendan Evans, Rajeev Ram and Chase Buchanan (winner of the USTA 18-and-under title). Australia's Chris Guccione and a player to be named by the French Tennis Association also received wild cards. What this means is all the players are free to compete in the Pilot Pen if they are so inclined.

Dent has already been given a wild card and barring any last-minute surprises by tomorrow's wild-card deadline, one of the other Americans listed above could also earn a spot in the New Haven main draw.

The women's U.S. Open wild cards will be announced tomorrow.

Kuznetsova joins the field

2009-08-19T13:18:00.003-04:00

Reigning French Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova, currently ranked No. 6 on the WTA tour, will be coming to New Haven.

Kuznetsova, who reached the semifinals in 2006 and won the title in 2007 in her two previous appearances at the Pilot Pen, was just 3-4 since winning the French Open leading to her requesting a wild card.

Kuznetsova will give the tournament three top 10 women's players in No. 6 Kuznetsova, No. 8 Carolina Wozniacki and No. 10 Flavia Pennetta.

Veteran American Meghann Shaughnessy, currently ranked 915th in singles and unranked in doubles as she has been forced out of action because of a knee injury, will receive wild cards into both the singles and doubles draw.

The tournament now has two wild cards left for both the men and women.

No. 12 Nadia Petrova is a strong candidate to receive one of the women's wild cards while the tournament is awaiting word from No. 22 Daniela Hantuchova.

On the men's side, No. 34 Dudi Sela and No. 41 Juan Monaco withdrew from the main draw.

Following up on a previous entry, it looks as if Venus Williams and James Blake, the only players to win the Pilot Pen more than once, will opt for rest over playing in New Haven.

Williams quotes following her loss on Tuesday in Toronto made it clear that she is not planning to play again before the U.S. Open. Blake, a former Fairfield resident, also appears to be leaning that way. A post on his official site said Blake will take next week off meaning that the only matches he will play between Wimbledon and the U.S. Open will be a pair of losses in a Davis Cup tie to Croatia and Tuesday's loss in Mason, Ohio to Igor Kunitsyn.

1-and-done for Kuznetsova

2009-08-18T23:12:00.003-04:00

Could the Pilot Pen women's field be adding a former New Haven champion as well as the reigning French Open winner?

Well, 2007 Pilot Pen champio Svetlana Kuznetsova was one of the prominent players who suggested to tournament director Anne Worcester that she not give out all her wild cards prematurely. The message was pretty clear, if Kuznetsova lost early in Canada, she would be willing to play in New Haven.

With Kuznetsova losing to the red-hot Samantha Stosur (who would be my pick right now to win the New Haven title based on the success she has enjoyed this summer) on Tuesday in Canada, it seems likely that Kuznetsova will return to New Haven.

Kuznetsova, currently ranked sixth, peaked at No. 2 in the rankings shortly after winning the 2007 Pilot Pen title. At the French Open, Kuznetsova beat No. 2 Serena Williams in the quarterfinals, Stosur in the semifinals and top-ranked Dinara Safina in the championship match. If Kuznetsova enters the Pilot Pen, it would be the third top 10 player in the New Haven women's field joining No. 8 Caroline Wozniacki and No. 10 Flavia Pennetta.

Blake loses in Cincy

2009-08-18T19:29:00.003-04:00

I fully expect that by this time tomorrow I will be writing about James Blake being the newest entry into the 2009 Pilot Pen Tennis tournament.

Bear in mind, this is nothing more than a hunch on my part. However, barring a setback with his injured foot which kept him out of action for the summer, it makes so much sense that Blake will request - and of course be granted - a wild card.

It was at the 2005 Pilot Pen where Blake's career took a turn for the better. Injuries and illness forced Blake off the tour and his ranking to plummet so far that he needed a wild card just to get into the Pilot Pen. He promptly won tournament, the first combined men's and women's event ever held during the North American summer hard-court season, much to the delight of his enthusiastic rooting section and tournament officials who marketed the "J-Block" phenomenon with as much fervor as humanly possible. After his stunning loss in New Haven in 2006, Blake returned and won the title again in 2007.

This season has been a struggle for Blake. Since reaching the Queens Club final the week before Wimbledon, Blake is 0-4. On Tuesday he fell to Igor Kunitsyn in the first round in Cincinnati.

Suddenly Blake seemed underprepared for the U.S. Open, something that can be remedied by entering the Pilot Pen. Blake is a smart cookie, intelligent enough to get into Harvard so I am sure he can see the logic in attempting to get his game in gear in front of friends and family at a venue where he has enjoyed success before.

As for Venus Williams, who suffered a stunning loss in Toronto on Tuesday, she seems less likely to enter a tournament she won four years in a row from 1999-2002. After her loss to qualifier Kateryna Bondarenko at the Rogers Cup, Williams said she plans to rest up for the U.S. Open after a busy summer.

It should be noted that Blake and Williams are both represented by Carlos Fleming so expect Carlos to hear from Pilot Pen Tennis tournament director Anne Worcester tomorrow if not sooner.

Things heating up

2009-08-18T17:16:00.003-04:00

The last few days before the tennis begins typically is an event onto itself with wild card requests coming in and Pilot Pen Tennis tournament director Anne Worcester bombarding agents of any top-flight players who happen to lose early in this week's ATP and WTA events with e-mails, text messages and phone calls, 2009 is no different.

This is what I know so far:

No. 13 men's player Gael Monfils has withdrawn his request for a wild card
No. 12 women's player Nadia Petrova has submitted a request for a wild card
Robby Ginepri has yet to request a men's main draw wild card.
Two-time men's finalist Mardy Fish, who has endured an injury-riddled summer, is expected into New Haven by either Wednesday or Thursday and should be good to go.

Now, switching to the "what could be" department:
The biggest news in the women's event in Toronto was Venus Williams' three-set loss to qualifier Kateryna Bondarenko. That result coupled with Williams' early exit in Cincinnati certainly raises the possibility of a clearly out of sorts Williams (60 unforced errors in Tuesday's loss) coming to New Haven for the first time since she won her fourth straight Pilot Pen title in 2002. But right now it is little more than wishful thinking. Williams is such a long shot to play here that she has barely been on Worcester's radar. Of course that changed once Tuesday's result came across her desk. Carlos Fleming, who also represents two-time New Haven men's singles champion James Blake, is Williams' agent. Worcester wasted little time in reaching out to Fleming.

Blake, a former Fairfield resident, is another interesting prospect. He played in New Haven from 2005-07, winning the titles in '05 and '07. A foot injury kept him sidelined this summer. He returned to the court on Tuesday against Igor Kunitsyn and he is currently going to a third set. If Blake gets knocked out early, a return to New Haven is a possibility.

Other noteworthy upsets which caught Worcester's eyes were the losses of No. 10 Fernando Verdasco and No. 11 Robin Soderling in Cincinnati and No. 22 Hantuchova in Toronto. She is also keeping tabs on No. 6 Svetlana Kuznetsova and No. 11 Ana Ivanovic, who have expressed some interest in playing in New Haven if they feel as if they did not get in enough tennis this week.

Look for some more concrete news to emerge on Wednesday and Thursday.

ESPN announcers/schedule

2009-08-17T13:03:00.002-04:00

ESPN will provide 14 hours of coverage of the Pilot Pen, all on ESPN2 beginning Thursday, Aug. 27 at 1 p.m. and culminating with the men's final on Aug. 29 beginning at 7 p.m.

ESPN's announcing team will consist of Chris Fowler, Cliff Drysdale, Darren Cahill, Mary Joe Fernandez and Mike Tirico.

Here's ESPN's schedule

Thur, Aug 27 12-12:30 p.m. US Open Draw Announcement ESPNEWS
1-5 p.m. ATP & WTA Pilot Pen ESPN2
7-9 p.m. ATP & WTA Pilot Pen ESPN2
Fri, Aug 28 Noon-4 p.m. ATP & WTA Pilot Pen ESPN2
7-9 p.m. ATP & WTA Pilot Pen ESPN2
Sat, Aug 29 7-9 p.m. ATP Pilot Pen – men’s final ESPN2

McHale wins nationals

2009-08-16T20:43:00.002-04:00

New Jersey teen Christina McHale, who is a two-time women's open champion at the Yale Summer Championships, dropped just one set in seven matches to win the USTA 18-and-under title and earn a women's singles main draw wild card into the U.S. Open.

McHale's run of straight-set wins ended with a 6-3, 5-7, 6-4 win over Gail Brodsky in the semifinals. McHale rolled to a 6-0, 6-1 win over Lauren Embree in the finals. What this means is that McHale won't have to play in U.S. Open qualifying (although she was a strong candidate for a U.S. Open wild card regardless of her results in the last week in Berkeley, Calif.) and could earn a wild card into Pilot Pen qualifying. McHale has expressed an interest into returning to New Haven.

McHale, currently ranked No. 386 on the WTA tour, lost to Sara Errani 6-3, 6-4 in the opening round of the 2008 Pilot Pen qualifying draw. She also fell in the opening round of qualifying to Olga Savchuk. McHale won a play-in tournament to earn a main draw wild card into the Australian Open in January and lost a thrilling first-round match to Jessica Moore 1-6, 6-3, 9-7.

She has split her time playing satellite and junior events. McHale defeated Embree to win the prestigious Easter Bowl title and reached the finals at the Orange Bowl event. She also teamed with Ajla Tomljanovic to win the Australian Open junior girls' doubles title.

Suspense soon to subside

2009-08-15T09:39:00.004-04:00

As hard as it is to believe, at this time next week day one of the 2009 Pilot Pen Tennis tournament will be in the books.

Between now and Friday, the final six wild card spots (two on the men's side and four on the women) will be announced and I'm sure tournament officials are hoping that will be the only player movement.

The draws of the women's event in Montreal and men's tournament in Cincinnati came out on Friday and there are some matchups which could impact which players request wild cards.

On the women's side, Pilot Pen Tennis tournament director has been reaching out to Ana Ivanovic, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Nadia Petrova and Daniela Hantuchova (among others) based on their summer results or lack of results in most cases.

Considering that Petrova, who will fall out of the top 10 when the rankings come out on Monday, has to play Maria Sharapova, Kuznetsova could draw red-hot Samantha Stosur in the second round while Hantuchova will have to play Serena Williams if she beats a qualifier in her first match, the odds of those three requesting wild cards seems to be pretty good. Ivanovic, however, seems to have a favorable draw. She will play a qualifier in the first round, either Kaia Kanepi or another qualifier in the second round and possibly Caroline Wozniacki in the third round if that portion of the draw plays out according to form.

On the men's side, two-time champion James Blake is at the top of the tournament's wish list. I haven't heard any updates on Blake's injured foot which forced him to pull out of the tournaments in Washington and Canada but if he is healthy, he seems to have a favorable draw. Blake, who is unseeded in Cincinnati, will face Igor Kunitsyn in the first round. Among the other players in his portion of the bracket, Blake has a winning record again all six of them including a 7-0 mark against Nikolay Davydenko and 6-0 record versus Igor Andreev so a run to the quarterfinals is not out of the question. If he does win at least three matches, it is possible Blake will deem that enough match preparation for the upcoming U.S. Open.

Another player to watch is defending Pilot Pen champion Marin Cilic. Cilic has not been making waves about playing in New Haven but he lost to No. 153 Somdev Devvarman in Washington and fell to Mikhail Youzhny in his opener in Canada. Cilic has to play former world No. 1 Juan Carlos Ferrero, who has been playing inspired tennis this summer, in the first round so a third straight first-round exit is not out of the question.

Gael Monfils, who has been making some noise about playing in New Haven, drew hard-serving Ivo Karlovic in the first round in Cincinnati while American Robby Ginepri will have to play Marat Safin in the opening round. Another intriguing first-round showdown in Cincinnati (or Mason, Ohio to be exact) features Lleyton Hewitt against Robin Soderling.

PAIGE IMPRESSIVE AT NATIONALS
After winning two matches in the main draw of the USTA 16-and-under national championships in Kalamazoo, Mich., Hopkins rising sophomore Nolan Paige was denied a spot in the quarterfinals by Robert Stineman. But the Fairfield resident and reigning Register Area Boys' Tennis MVP, rebounded by winning four matches in the "feed in" portion of the draw including victories over seeded players Spencer Simon and Mitchell Krueger. He will face Nick Chappell in the quarterfinals of the consolation bracket next meaning Paige can finish no worse than 12th out of the 256 players in the signature 16-and-under event on the USTA junior calendar.

Pennetta on verge of top 10

2009-08-13T14:48:00.005-04:00

The wins keep coming for Pilot Pen commit Flavia Pennetta, who upset Venus Williams to reach the quarterfinals of this week's event in Cincinnati. Pennetta's 13th straight match win coupled with early losses by Nadia Petrova and Ana Ivanovic has Pennetta about to jump into the top 10 for the first time.

Pennetta, who won at Palermo (Italy) and Los Angeles in her last two events, would be tied with Ivanovic for the 10th spot if she did not advance any further. It appears as if Ivanovic would hold the tiebreaker, denying Pennetta of top 10 status. But if she beats Daniela Hantuchova in the quarterfinals, she would definitely crack the top 10.

If that happens, she will join No. 8 Caroline Wozniacki to give the tournament two top 10 players. Wozniacki would jump up a spot if she reaches the finals in Cincinnati.

Paige falls in nationals

2009-08-12T13:47:00.004-04:00

Hopkins rising sophomore Nolan Paige, one of the rare Connecticut players to be seeded at the USTA National Championships in Kalamazoo, Mich., opened with a pair of wins in the boys' 16-and-under singles and three wins in the boys' 16 doubles draw with partner William Spector of Weston, Mass. However his run in the championship brackets ended both in singles and doubles on Wednesday.

Paige fell to unseeded Robert Stineman 3-6, 6-2, 6-2 in the fourth round in singles while Paige and his doubles partner William Spector of Weston, Mass. lost to the No. 13 seeded team of Ashok Narayana and Michael Riechmann, both of Houston, 7-5, 6-4 in the fourth round of doubles.

Paige, who is seeded 23rd in the singles draw, posted straight set wins over Miami's Matthew Saiontz and Ricky Baylon of Buena Park, Calif. after receiving a first-round bye.

In doubles, Paige and Spector posted three straight-set wins including a 7-6, 6-4 upset of the third-seeded squad of Bjorn Fratangelo of Pittsburgh and Jeremy Efferdin of Lake Worth, Fla.

WHO'S NO. 2?
Andy Roddick is the unquestioned king of American tennis but former Fairfield resident James Blake has company in the quest to be the second-ranked American.

Recently Mardy Fish moved by Blake, for a week, to become the No. 2 American before Blake reclaimed the second spot in the most recent rankings.

However, with the points from last year's Olympics set to come off the board on Monday, Blake's ranking will take a hit.

Blake reached the Olympic semifinals so he will lose 310 points and if the rankings came out right now, he would be ranked 24th. Fish would check in at No. 22 with Sam Querrey closing fast at No. 25. While those rankings could change depending on how things shake out the rest of the week in Montreal, the order of the Americans will not be altered since Blake and Fish pulled out of the tournament and Querrey lost in the first round. Blake has a chance to move by Fish again next week since Fish will lose the 280 points he received for reaching the finals of the 2008 Pilot Pen in the Aug. 24 rankings.

Isner given wild card

2009-08-10T11:24:00.002-04:00

John Isner has been given the second of four men's singles main-draw wild cards into the Pilot Pen.

The 6-foot-9 Isner, who saw his ranking tumble out of the top 125 after being sidelined with mononucleosis, has moved up 31 spots to No. 55 in the last three weeks after reaching the semifinals in Indianapolis and Washington and quarterfinals in Los Angeles.

Isner joins Taylor Dent as wild card entries into the men's portion of the New Haven tournament. Richard Gasquet and Marcos Baghdatis are among the other players who have requested wild cards from the tournament.

The Pilot Pen starts on Aug. 21 with qualifying play. The champions will be crowned on Aug. 29.

Pennetta/Stosur in LA final

2009-08-09T09:52:00.003-04:00

When the Los Angeles event started, the focus was squarely on world No. 1 Dinara Safina and the other four top 10 players as well as former No. 1s Maria Sharapova and Ana Ivanovic.

But the last two standing are Pilot Pen commits Flavia Pennetta (who took out No. 10 Nadia Petrova, No. 7 Vera Zvonareva and Sharapova) and Samantha Stosur (who eliminated Ivanovic). They will meet in today's final and when the rankings come out tomorrow, Pennetta will jump two spots to No. 12 and Stosur will move up from No. 19 to No. 17 regardless of today's result.

In other news which could ultimate have an impact on the Pilot Pen, former world No. 1 Kim Clijsters did not get a favorable draw in her return to the WTA tour as she will play Pilot Pen commit Marion Bartoli in the first round in Cincinnati. If Clijsters has early exits from either Cincinnati or Toronto, it wouldn't be a shock to see her request a wild card. With big name wild card requests on the women's side appearing to be few and far between, the tournament would welcome Clijsters to the field.

Paige seeded at nationals

2009-08-08T21:59:00.002-04:00

Hopkins rising sophomore and reigning Register Area Tennis Most Valuable Player Nolan Paige already has a rather impressive resume. He looks to add to it in the coming days in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

Paige, a Fairfield resident, is the No. 23 seed in the 16-and-under singles bracket of the USTA National Championships. As junior tournaments in the country go, they don't get much bigger than this. Paige will receive a first-round bye and play either Miami's Matthew Saiontz or Nicholas Naumann of The Woodlands, Tex. He will also play doubles with William Spector of Weston, Mass.

"Wild" times ahead

2009-08-07T11:24:00.003-04:00

As previously reported in the New Haven Register, former top 10 players Richard Gasquet and Marcos Baghdatis along with red-hot John Isner (fresh off his win over Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in Washington) have requested men's singles main-draw wild cards.

There are media outlets both in France and the U.S. reporting that Gasquet will return to the tour in New Haven after successfully appealing his suspension after cocaine was found in his system during a drug test. However, this could be the tennis version of putting the cart before the horse.

The Pilot Pen has four men's wild cards. One has been promised to Taylor Dent and Isner is almost certain to get one as well considering his recent surge. Isner, slowed by mononucleosis earlier in the year, reached the semifinals in Indianapolis, quarterfinals in Los Angeles and he will play Tomas Berdych in the final of the four quarterfinals tonight in D.C. James Blake's foot injury forced him to pull out of the D.C. event as well as the next tour stop in Montreal and it is looking more and more likely that he would request a wild card for some match preparation heading into the U.S. Open. That would leave one wild card left and if veteran American Robby Ginepri, who won the Indianapolis title last month, were to ask for one I don't see how the tournament, which is run by the USTA, would tell him "no thanks" and give one to Gasquet. I realize that is a lot of "what ifs" but the point is that Gasquet has not been given a wild card yet.

Blake pulls out of Montreal

2009-08-06T13:07:00.002-04:00

James Blake withdrew from next week's Rogers Cup in Montreal, the second consecutive tournament he has been unable to play because of an injured foot suffered while playing for the U.S. Davis Cup team in Croatia.

According to a post on Blake's official site, he was set to meet with the doctors again on Wednesday and is still hoping to play in Cincinnati. Until Blake gets some good news on his foot, his status for the next couple of weeks is up in the air but it seems a lot more likely that Blake would request a wild card into the Pilot Pen than it did a couple weeks ago.

The only tennis Blake has played since Wimbledon came with a pair of losses in the Davis Cup tie against Croatia. That would leave him with just the Cincinnati event as preparation for the U.S. Open.

I found it a tad bit ironic that he announced his withdrawal from Montreal in the same entry on his web site that promoted a new brand of footwear the "Thomas Reynolds" Fila line named after his late father. I hope they weren't the tennis shoes Blake was wearing when he suffered his foot injury because something tells me that would not be a huge selling point if news got out that he suffered the injury while breaking in a new brand of tennis shoe.

Women's qualifying field

2009-08-04T15:27:00.003-04:00

The strongest women's qualifying field in the history of the Pilot Pen features rising American star Melanie Oudin and former top 20 players Maria Kirilenko, Shahar Peer and Tamarine Tanasugarn.

The top seed in qualifying is No. 41 Sara Errani, who reached finals at Palermo (Italy) and Portoroz (Slovenia) last month. Errani was a lucky loser in last year’s Pilot Pen and reached second round before losing in three sets to Agnes Szavay.

The second seed is No. 45 Magdalena Rybarikova owns four top 20 wins including victories over Jie Zheng and Na Li en route to first career title at Birmingham, England.

No. 91 Kirsten Flipkens is the last player to gain direct entry into qualifying.

Among those on the alternate list are 2004 Pilot Pen women's singles champion Elena Bovina, who would need a wild card since she is currently the No. 52 alternate and Karolina Sprem, who peaked at No. 17 in the rankings back in 2004. Alexa Glatch, Vania King, Julie Ditty, Madison Brengle, Lauren Albanese, Lilia Osterloh and NCAA singles champion Mallory Cecil, who emerged out of qualifying to reach the main draw of the 2008 Pilot Pen, are among the Americans on the alternate list.

Rossetti brothers go for record

2009-08-03T12:09:00.002-04:00

For the sake of full disclosure, consider this fair warning that a shameless plug alert is coming next.

There was a nice piece in today Register by Emily Nadelmann about the Rossetti brothers' attempt to break their own record for continuous tennis strokes. Angelo and Ettore set the record of 24,696 and are shooting for 30,000 on Aug. 15 as part of the "Rally 4 Cure" from 9 a.m.-midnight at the Milford Indoor Tennis Club.

Bartoli, Davydenko, Querrey win titles

2009-08-02T19:56:00.002-04:00

Of the five ATP and WTA tournaments being contested this week, three were won by players in the Pilot Pen main draw and another was taken by a player on the alternate list.

The biggest surprise came at the Bank of West Classic in Stanford, Calif. Venus Williams, the only four-time winner in the history of the Pilot Pen Tennis tournament, dropped just five games in routine wins over Maria Sharapova and Elena Dementieva. It seemed a mere formality when Williams squared off against Marion Bartoli in the finals. However, Bartoli refused to be pushed around by the powerful Williams and had she not had a serving hiccup, she would have dispatched Williams in straight sets. After failing to close the deal in two sets, Bartoli regrouped for a 6-2, 5-7, 6-4 win.

On the men's side, Nikolay Davydenko and Sam Querrey won the titles at Umag, Croatia and Los Angeles respectively.

Davydenko continued his post-Wimbledon surge by rolling to the title on the clay courts of Umag. He defeated former world No. 1 Juan Carlos Ferrero 6-3, 6-0 in Sunday's final and should climb a spot to No. 8 when the new rankings come out tomorrow.

In Los Angeles, Sam Querrey defeated Carsten Ball, a member of Australia's Davis Cup team but a Newport Beach, Calif. native and resident, in the finals. Querrey overcome some service struggles in the second set to win 6-4, 3-6, 6-1 to earn his his title of the season. Querrey had lost in the Newport and Indianapolis finals in his previous two tournaments and will break into the top 30 for the first time when the rankings come out tomorrow.

Brazil's Thomasz Bellucci, who was the No. 45 alternate when the list of direct acceptances into the Pilot Pen men's singles draw was released, defeated Pilot Pen main draw entrant Andreas Beck of Germany 6-4, 7-6 to win the championship at Gstaad, Switzerland. It was Bellucci's first career ATP title.

There was other good news on the women's side when Melanie Oudin, set to enter the New Haven qualifying draw, played her way through qualifying to earn a spot in an U.S. Open Series event main draw for the second week in a row. Oudin needed to outlast Melanie South of Great Britain 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 in the final round of qualifying in Los Angeles on Sunday.

Blake out of Washington

2009-08-01T11:23:00.002-04:00

While foot injuries can be a bit tricky for tennis players, one has to wonder if the decision of two-time Pilot Pen men's singles champion James Blake to pull out of the upcoming tournament in Washington because of a foot injury could begin a chain of events resulting in the former Fairfield resident returning to New Haven.

On Blake's official site, there is a report that Blake hurt his foot while in Croatia for a Davis Cup tie and his participation in the Rogers Cup event in Montreal is no sure thing or as it was put on his official web site "nothing's certain for the moment."

Blake is not currently entered into the Aug. 21-29 Pilot Pen but that could change considering that the former top five player has not won a match since Andy Roddick had to retire in the first set of the Queens Club semifinals because of a foot injury on June 13.

The Pilot Pen has three available men's singles main draw wild cards and would give one to Blake without hesitation if the 2005 and 2007 champion in New Haven were to request one.

Fish moving on up

2009-07-29T14:13:00.002-04:00

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.

2009-07-27T22:16:00.002-04:00

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)

Oudin into Stanford main draw

2009-07-27T15:57:00.003-04:00

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.

Another top 10 player for Pilot Pen

2009-07-26T11:49:00.003-04:00

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.

Federer now a dad

2009-07-24T10:12:00.002-04:00

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.

Dechy to retire

2009-07-21T13:54:00.002-04:00

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.

New Haven bound trio eyeing titles

2009-07-18T15:39:00.003-04:00

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.

Gasquet returning to tour

2009-07-16T20:44:00.002-04:00

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.

Simon, Radwanska, Davydenko headed to New Haven

2009-07-15T19:10:00.002-04:00

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.

Nadal eyeing August return

2009-07-14T18:20:00.003-04:00

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.

Oudin stops by

2009-07-13T18:19:00.002-04:00

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.

Powers, Kahan take titles

2009-07-12T15:54:00.003-04:00

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.

Youth to be served

2009-07-11T18:42:00.002-04:00

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.

Zuckerberg, Powers, Hughes into quarterfinals

2009-07-10T19:17:00.003-04:00

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.

Ex-Spartans advance

2009-07-09T23:19:00.003-04:00

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.

Busy days ahead

2009-07-07T16:46:00.003-04:00

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.

Deadline approach for Yale Summer Championships

2009-07-04T13:51:00.002-04:00

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.

Blake/Fish in semifinals

2009-07-01T11:50:00.003-04:00

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.

Wozniacki and Bartoli join field

2009-06-29T13:19:00.002-04:00

Defending women's singles champion Caroline Wozniacki, currently ranked ninth, and 11th ranked Marion Bartoli are the latest players to commit to play in the 2009 Pilot Pen.

With the addition of Wozniacki and Bartoli to previously committed players Dominika Cibulkova, Amelie Mauresmo and Alize Cornet gives the tournament four top 20 players and five in the top 25.

The most recent projected rankings have Wozniacki staying at No. 9, Bartoli falling two spots to 13th, Cibulkova moving up from 13th to 12th, Mauresmo going from 17th to 16th and Cornet going from No. 24 to 23.

On the men's side, Tommy Robredo (expected to move up a spot to No. 14), Mardy Fish (who is projected to leap three spots to No. 22) and Taylor Dent have committed to play in the Aug. 21-29. The complete list of direct entrants into the men's and women's field will be announced next week.

In other news, former Fairfield resident James Blake joins Andy Roddick, Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan on the U.S. squad which will face Croatia from July 10-12 in the Davis Cup quarterfinals.

Oudin opens some eyes

2009-06-27T10:21:00.002-04:00

Trying to attempt a commitment from defending Pilot Pen women's singles champion Caroline Wozniacki was pretty high up on the to-do list of Pilot Pen Tennis tournament director Anne Worcester. But something tells me that the performance of another talented teen has caught her eye.

Melanie Oudin, a 17-year-old from Marietta, Ga., had never won three matches in the same WTA event before this week. But after defeating former world No. 1 Jelena Jankovic 6-7, 7-5, 6-2 Oudin awaits the winner of the Agnieszka Radwanska/Na Li match in the fourth round. Oudin has won three three-set matches. Not a bad effort for a kid who had never won a main draw match in three previous Grand Slam appearances and needed to win three qualifying matches just to get into the Australian Open draw.

Oudin is the first American teen to reach the fourth round of Wimbledon since Serena Williams in 2001. She has already passed Bethanie Mattek-Sands and could move by Jill Craybas to become the No. 3 ranked American woman behind Venus and Serena Williams. Oudin needed to win three qualifying matches just to get into the main draw.

Amelie Mauresmo, the last of the six players who have committed to the Pilot Pen still alive in singles at Wimbledon, is in the first set of her third-round match against Flavia Pennetta.

Christina McHale, a two-time winner of the women's open title at the Yale Summer Championships resulting into entry into the Pilot Pen qualifying draw, was knocked out in the first round of the girls' singles draw at Wimbledon. McHale, the No. 9 seed, lost to Russia's Yana Buchina 6-4, 6-3.

Impressive win for Fish

2009-06-24T16:38:00.004-04:00

While so many of his fellow Americans (other than Andy Roddick and Jesse Levine) are being sent packing from Wimbledon, Mardy Fish continues to impress.

Facing Janko Tipsarevic, who upset Roddick in last year's Wimbledon en route to his second straight appearance in the fourth round, Fish emerged with a solid four-set win to set up a third-round showdown with Novak Djokovic.

Fish, the first player to commit to play in the 2009 Pilot Pen, is in the third round at Wimbledon for just the third time in seven career appearances. He has been the victim of some brutal draws recently, falling to 10th-ranked Richard Gasquet in the first round in 2008 and losing his opener to then second-ranked Rafael Nadal in 2007. Among the other men's players punching their tickets in the third round today were fellow Pilot Pen commit Tommy Robredo and Marin Cilic, the 2008 men's singles champion in New Haven.

Taylor Dent, the only other player who has been announced as a committed player for the men's Pilot Pen field, put up a gallant effort before falling 6-4 in the fifth set to Spain's Daniel Gimeno-Traver in a first-round match which was completed today. Fellow Americans Sam Querrey and Vince Spadea suffered second-round losses today. Who would have thought that Levine would be the third American men still in the field ahead of James Blake, Robby Ginepri and Querrey? The other question is how long will U.S. Davis Cup captain Patrick McEnroe stay with Blake as his No. 2 singles players considering the struggles Blake has faced in the last two Grand Slams?

Dominika Cibulkova, one of three players committed to the women's New Haven field, rolled to a 6-2, 6-4 win over Urszula Radwanska. Cibulkova will play Russia's Elena Vesnina in the thrd round.

TOP JUNIORS HEADED TO NEW HAVEN
The New England Junior Sectionals, one of the crown jewels on the USTA summer schedule, will begin tomorrow with doubles play while the singles competition will start on Friday at the upper courts at the Connecticut Tennis Center.

The Junior Sectionals is an event featuring the brightest stars in New England(outside of Greenwich which aligns itself with the New York USTA section). The top 32 players, based on their 32 rankings, are invited to compete. Massachusetts and Connecticut typically dominate the event and this year figures to be no different as 64 singles players seeded, 35 are from Massachusetts and another 22 hail from Connecticut.

Leading the way are the Paige brothers of Fairfield. Nolan, who recently wrapped up a brilliant freshman season at Hopkins, is the top seed in the boys' 16 singles draw and seeded second in doubles along with Aaron Revzin of Needham, Mass. Sayer Paige is the top seed both in the boys' 12 singles and doubles events. It is a bit ironic that Nolan Paige drew his Hopkins teammate Brian Astrachan in the first round of singles.

Other No. 1 singles seeds hailing from Connecticut are Weston's Kimmy Guerin (girls' 14s), Southington's Kim Przeszlowski (girls' 16s) and Stamford's Vanessa Petrini (girls' 18s). At least one Connecticut player in on five of the eight top-seeded doubles teams.

The doubles draws are set to wrap up on Friday while the singles championships will be crowned on Tuesday. Hopefully Mother Nature will cooperate.

Speaking of events at the Connecticut Tennis Center, the Yale Summer Championships will be held there with the winners of the men's and women's open singles titles again receiving wild cards into the Pilot Pen qualifying draws. The deadline to register is July 5. Nine players have already registered for the men's open event while there are 10 applicants for the women's open field.

It should be noted that Christina McHale, a two-time winner of the women's open event, doesn't figure to defend her Yale Summer Championships title considering how her career has taken off since last year. She is entered in the juniors' draw at Wimbledon and had a strong run to the third round in the French Open juniors' event and also won the girls' juniors doubles title at the Australian Open along with Ajla Tomljanovic of Croatia. The 17-year-old McHale is ranked 10th in the latest International Tennis Federation world junior rankings. Something tells me she could in line with a qualifying wild card into the Pilot Pen.

The Yale Summer Championships will run from July 9-12.

Dent in the lead

2009-06-23T17:26:00.002-04:00

While it was an early exit for Alize Cornet, one of three women's players to commit to the Pilot Pen Tennis tournament, Taylor Dent is still alive although he has work to do.

Dent, who was in New Haven as the headliner in the tournament's annual free tennis lesson to New Haven middle school students, was lost the first two sets to Spain's Daniel Gimeno-Traver. Dent, playing at Wimbledon for the first time since 2005, rallied to win the third set before the match was suspended.

Cornet lost to Russia's Vera Dushevina 3-6, 6-0, 6-4. Another the other seeds to lose on the women's side is 2008 Pilot Pen finalist Anna Chakvetadze who fell in three sets to Germany's Sabine Lisicki.

Caroline Wozniacki, who beat Chakvetadze in the 2008 New Haven final, appeared to be headed for defeat as well but she rallied for a 5-7, 6-3, 6-1 win over Kimiko Date Krumm. Wozniacki's second-round matchup against Maria Kirilenko is intriguing since Wozniacki has been chosen to wear Stella McCartney tennis apparel, the only tennis player to adorn such attire. Why is this of note? Well, that distinction used to go to Kirilenko, who is wearing Stella McCartney's creations at Wimbledon.

Amelie Mauresmo, who joins Cornet and Dominika Cibulkova as the women's players who have committed early to the Aug. 21-29 Pilot Pen, advanced to the second round with a three-set win over Melinda Czink.

Former world No. 1 players Jelena Jankovic and Ana Ivanovic each needed three sets to win on Tuesday. The biggest names to fall on the women's side were former top 10 players Nicole Vaidisova and Jelena Dokic while 2007 Pilot Pen finalist Agnes Szavay also was knocked out in the first round.

Marat Safin, formerly the world's top-ranked men's player, saw his final Wimbledon end with a loss to American Jesse Levine. Fabrice Santoro, also playing in Wimbledon for the final time, took out No. 33 seed Nicolas Kiefer (who earned a seed after the withdrawal of Rafael Nadal). American Robert Kendrick made a good showing for himself before falling to Andy Murray in four entertaining sets.

Defending Pilot Pen men's champion Marin Cilic has an interesting match tomorrow against big-serving American Sam Querrey. It will be the third match on Centre Court. Dent will be up second on Court 15 to complete his match. Pilot Pen commits Mardy Fish and Tommy Robredo will kick off play on Courts 2 and 4 respectively. Fish will face Janko Tipsarevic while Robredo draws Stefan Koubek. Cibulkova will play Urszula Radwanska in the first match on Court 7.

Note to ESPN, there's a tennis tournament on

2009-06-22T11:47:00.002-04:00

This is a tale of two events. You turn to NBC and get to see the golfers actually - I know this sounds crazy - but playing golf in the final round of the U.S. Open. However, when you tune into ESPN2 for its Wimbledon coverage you get Suzy Kolber, Patrick McEnroe and Brad Gilbert chattering, then a clip of Roger Federer's post-match press conference and a couple shots of Novak Djokovic warming up. Meanwhile, French Open finalist Robin Soderling is in a battle with Gilles Muller, No. 9 seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga is also in a bit of a tussle.

Fortunately for those fellow DirecTV subscribers, the channel package showing live matches will debut tomorrow. It was supposed to start today but was bumped because the U.S. Open golf tournament stretched into today because of rain-related delays and suspensions earlier in the event.

Blake is out

2009-06-22T10:33:00.003-04:00

OK, so you can ignore my previous post about former Fairfield resident James Blake catching a break with a revised Wimbledon draw following the withdrawal of Rafael Nadal.

Instead of having to play the crafty Frenchman Fabrice Santoro in Santoro's final Wimbledon appearance, he drew Italy's Andreas Seppi who came into Wimbledon having lost five more matches than he has won and had a 4-4 career mark at Wimbledon.

However, I warned that it is dangerous projecting anything with Blake because he has a history of unexplainable defeats. Well, you can add Monday's 7-5, 6-4, 7-6 loss to Seppi to the list. It is Blake's second straight first-round exit in a Grand Slam. Here is a report on the ATP's official site about Blake's loss and state of mind at the current time. Seppi is no stranger to New Haven, playing in the event three times in the last four years and reaching the quarterfinals in 2008.

The unfortunate thing for Blake is he failed to take advantage of a generous draw. The only positive aspect for those "the glass is half full type of people" is that Blake's ranking won't take too much of a hit since he lost in the second round last year.

Feliciano Lopez, who lost to Blake in the 2005 Pilot Pen final, was also knocked out in the first round as he fell to Karol Beck 10-8 in the fifth set. Agustin Calleri, a finalist in New Haven in 2006, also suffered an early exit losing to Guillermo Garcia-Lopez in straight sets.

It wasn't all bad news for former Pilot Pen finalists as Mardy Fish, who played for the championship in oth 2007 and 2008 in New Haven, won his first match. Fish was rolling to a straight-set win before Sergio Roitman retired down two sets and trailing 4-1 in the third. Fish was the first player to commit to play in the 2009 Pilot Pen.

Dominika Cibulkova, one of three women's players who committed early to the Pilot Pen, needed three sets before advancing to the second round with a hard-fought win over Julie Coin,

Break for Blake?

2009-06-19T17:38:00.003-04:00

Considering his track record for head-scratching defeats, it can be dangerous to get too far ahead of ourselves when the subject turns to former Fairfield resident James Blake.

In his last Grand Slam event, Blake lost to a qualifier making his Grand Slam singles debut when Blake fell to Argentine Leonardo Mayer in straight sets at the French Open. But on paper, it seems as if Blake's draw got easier after he was moved into Juan Martin del Potro's spot in the draw as del Potro took over the slot originally slated for top-seeded Rafael Nadal. Nadal's withdrawal led to a domino effect which impacted Blake in a positive way - or so it seems.

Instead of having to face to bizarre, unorthodox Fabrice Santoro (in his final appearance at Wimbledon) in the first round, he will now face Italy's Andreas Seppi. Seppi is no pushover, having split matches with Blake on hard courts but he won't be the sentimental favorite that Santoro is sure to see as he heads for retirement at season's end. Blake, if he gets that far, would not have to face No. 10 Fernando Gonzalez. Gonzalez has beaten Blake seven straight times including a contentious match at the Olympics when Blake questioned Gonzalez's sportsmanship or lack thereof in a loss to Gonzalez in the semifinals. Blake contended that a shot hit Gonzalez's racket and then sailed long and expected Gonzalez to concede the point. He did not, went onto win the game to even the third set 9-9. Gonzalez broke Blake in the next game and served out the match to advance to the championship match. I'm sure it is a subject Blake could have done without revisited had the two met in London.

Getting back to the original subject, if Blake beats Seppi (who has a losing record this season) he will face either Marc Gicquel (who Blake is 2-0 against) or Adrian Mannarino. Gicquel is 10-14 this season in ATP main draws while Mannarino is 0-2. Igor Andreev (who is 0-6 against Blake) is the only seeded player Blake would have to play to reach the fourth round.

Of course this is all a case of would've, could've, should've. Blake still has to go out there and take care of business but if he does just that, his road to the fourth round certainly seems as if it is one he should be able to navigate.

BALLKIDS TRYOUTS
Tryouts for ballkids at the Pilot Pen Tennis tournament will be held Saturday, Sunday, July 25-26 from 9 a.m.-noon and from 6-8 p.m. on July 7 and 28 at the upper courts at the Connecticut Tennis Center.

The tryouts are open to kids ages 12-18 and attendance at four or more sessions is mandatory for all candidates. Tryouts will be held rain or shine.

Interested boys and girls ages 12 to 18 will need to be available to work for the entire week of the tournament which will be held from Aug. 21-29. No pre-registration is necessary, but kids should fill out the waiver on www.pilotpentennis.com, and bring it with them to the first tryout they attend.
For the tryouts, potential ballkids should wear sneakers and comfortable clothing, along with a hat. Particularly if the weather is hot and humid they should also bring water.

The tournament is also looking for volunteers to work in player services, transportation, press attendants, safety/security, ushers and court attendants. For more information email volunteers@pilotpentennis.com or call 776-7331, ext. 5842.

Wimbledon draw is out

2009-06-19T10:15:00.004-04:00

On paper, it appears as if the three men's players who have committed to the Pilot Pen Tennis tournament have serviceable draws - at least in the first couple of rounds.

Tommy Robredo, seeded 15th, will face Luka Gregorc in the first round. With a win Robredo will play either Austria's Stefan Koubek or Edouard Roger-Vasselin in the second round. If Robredo makes it to the third round, No. 18 Rainer Schuettler could be waiting.

Mardy Fish, the No. 28 seed, is in the same quarter as Robredo and drew Argentina's Sergio Roitman in the first round. The Fish/Roitman winner will play either Jan Hernych of the Czech Republic or Serbia's Janko Tipsarevic in the second round. Tipsarevic has taken out the No. 6 ranked player in each of the last two Wimbledons en route to Round of 16 appearances so he is a dangerous foe. Speaking of Serbian tennis stars, No. 4 seed Novak Djokovic (who should be plenty motivated after his early exit in the French Open) could be waiting for Fish in the third round and Robredo in the fourth round.

Dent, who had to win three qualifying matches to get into the main draw, will play Spain's Daniel Gimeno-Traver in the first round. A victory would set up a showdown with either 30th-seeded Viktor Troicki of Serbia or Brian Dabul of Argentina. The bad news for Dent is that No. 3 seed Andy Murray, one of the leading championship contenders, figures to be looming if Dent reaches the third round.

Former Fairfild resident James Blake was supposed to have a tricky opening match against the crafty veteran Fabrice Santoro of France, playing in his final Wimbledon. But one of the ramifications of Rafael Nadal's withdrawal is that Blake moves into the slot previously held by No. 5 seed Juan Martin Del Potro. Blake will now face Italy's Andreas Seppi in the first round. In the second round, the two-time Pilot Pen men's singles champion would face a Frenchman as Adrian Mannarino and Marc Gicquel meet in the first round with the winners squaring off in the second round.

Speaking of Nadal, it will be interesting to see how long he is sidelined for. Since he was able to play in two exhibitions, I would saw it should not be a prolonged absence but I am sure Pilot Pen tournament director Anne Worcester will make it clear to Nadal's reps (if she hasn't already) that they would welcome Nadal with open arms. Nadal has never played in the Pilot Pen but did cause a stir when he was on the grounds of the Connecticut Tennis Center for a practice session a couple years back.

On the women's side, No. 17 seed Amelie Mauresmo seems like she has a decent chance to reach the fourth round and a possible matchup with top-ranked Dinara Safina. Mauresmo will play Melinda Czink in the first round with the winner drawing either Katarina Srebotnik or Aiko Nakamura. The only other seed Mauresmo may run into in the third round is No. 17 Flavia Pennetta.

The only other two women's players to commit to play in the Aug. 21-29 Pilot Pen could meet in the third round. No. 14 seed Dominika Cibulkova will face Julie Coin of France in the first round with either Slovenia's Masa Zec Peskiric or Urszula Radwanska of Poland awaiting in the second round. Cornet, the 22nd seed, draws Russian Vera Dushevina in the opening round with either Russia's Elena Vesnina or Belgium's Yanina Wickmayer being the second-round opponent.

If four time Pilot Pen singles champion Venus Williams wins another Wimbledon, it won't be easy. Among those in her quarter of the bracket are former world No. 1 players Jelena Jankovic and Ana Ivanovic as well as Agnieszka Radwanska (seeded 11th) and Sam Stosur (the 18th seed). The good news is she would not meet her sister Serena until the championship match.

For those interested, here is the ESPN broadcast schedule for Wimbledon
DATE TIME (ET) COVERAGE NETWORK
Monday, June 22 7 a.m.–5 p.m. Early Round Day 1 Live ESPN2 / ESPN2 HD
Tuesday, June 23 7 a.m.–5 p.m. Early Round Day 2 Live ESPN2 / ESPN2 HD
Wednesday, June 24 7 a.m.–5 p.m. Early Round Day 3 Live ESPN2 / ESPN2 HD
Thursday, June 25 7 a.m.–5 p.m. Early Round Day 4 Live ESPN2 / ESPN2 HD
Friday, June 26 7 a.m.–5 p.m. Early Round Day 5 Live ESPN2 / ESPN2 HD
Saturday, June 27 8 a.m.–3 p.m. Early Round Day 6 Live ESPN2 / ESPN2 HD
Sunday, June 28 4–6 p.m. Week One Highlights Taped ESPN / ESPN HD
Monday, June 29 7–10 a.m. Round of 16 Live ESPN2 / ESPN2 HD
1–7 p.m. Round of 16 Live ESPN2 / ESPN2 HD
Tuesday, June 30 7–10 a.m. Ladies’ Quarterfinals Live ESPN2 / ESPN2 HD
1–5 p.m. Ladies’ Quarterfinals Live ESPN2 / ESPN2 HD
Wednesday, July 1 7–10 a.m. Gentlemen’s Quarterfinals Live ESPN2/ESPN2 HD
1–5 p.m. Gentlemen’s Quarterfinals Live ESPN2 / ESPN2 HD
Thursday, July 2 7 a.m.–Noon Ladies’ Semifinal Live ESPN2 / ESPN2 HD
8–10 p.m. Ladies Semifinals Highlights Same day ESPN / ESPN HD
Friday, July 3 7–Noon Gentlemen’s Semifinal Live EPSN2 / ESPN2 HD
8–11 p.m. Gentlemen’s Semifinal Highlights Same day ESPN2 / ESPN2 HD
Saturday, July 4 2-3 p.m. SportsCenter at Wimbledon Live ESPN2 / ESPN2 HD
Sunday, July 5 3-4 p.m. SportsCenter at Wimbledon Live ESPN2 / ESPN2 HD

ESPN's list of announcers includes the usual suspects with the exception of Suzy Kolber who will share hosting duties with Chris Fowler. Dick Enberg and Cliff Drysdale will call the matches with assistance from Darren Cahill, Mary Carillo, Mary Joe Fernandez, Brad Gilbert, Patrick McEnroe, Pam Shriver and Bud Collins.

NBC's Wimbledon coverage will begin on June 27 culminating with the televising of the men's and women's singles finals. Here's the complete broadcast schedule

The Tennis Channel will also be providing coverage of Wimbledon. For those staying in tonight, they are showing the classic 2008 Wimbledon final between Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer tonight at 7 p.m. and Saturday at 7:30 (to be preceded by the 1975 Jimmy Connors/Arthur Ashe Wimbledon final).

Here are the hours that The Tennis Channel will be broadcasting during Wimbledon
Date Time (EST)
Monday, Jun. 22 7 PM
Monday, Jun. 22 11 PM
Tuesday, Jun. 23 7 PM
Tuesday, Jun. 23 11 PM
Wednesday, Jun. 24 7 PM
Wednesday, Jun. 24 11 PM
Thursday, Jun. 25 7 PM
Thursday, Jun. 25 11 PM
Friday, Jun. 26 7 PM
Friday, Jun. 26 11 PM
Saturday, Jun. 27 7 PM
Saturday, Jun. 27 11 PM
Sunday, Jun. 28 7 PM
Sunday, Jun. 28 11 PM
Monday, Jun. 29 7 PM
Tuesday, Jun. 30 midnight
Tuesday, Jun. 30 7 PM
Wednesday, Jul. 1 midnight
Wednesday, Jul. 1 7 PM
Thursday, Jul. 2 midnight

Dent into Wimbledon

2009-06-18T10:32:00.002-04:00

Taylor Dent, who is including a trip to New Haven for the Pilot Pen in his comeback tour, played his way through the qualifying draw to earn a spot into the Wimbledon main draw.

Dent, currently ranked No. 269, will play in the main draw at Wimbledon for the first time since reaching the fourth round at Wimbledon.

Speaking of Wimbledon, a wrist injury has knocked out talented French star Gael Monfils out of the event. Here is the report from the BBC

Gael Monfils has been forced to withdraw from Wimbledon with a wrist injury sustained at Queen's Club.

The Frenchman pulled out of the Aegon Championships after his second-round victory over Andrey Golubev.

Monfils, seeded number 14 for the All England Club, will be replaced in the men's singles draw by a lucky loser from qualifying.

Tommy Haas, who beat Novak Djokovic in the Halle grasscourt event on Sunday, is granted a seeding at number 24.

Reports are circulating that a knee injury will keep Marcos Baghdatis out of Wimbledon.

Switching to the women, the Stanford direct acceptance list is out and it is a pretty strong field. This will be of interest when the Los Angeles list comes out. With most of the big hitters expected to play in Canada and Cincinnati, it is unlikely that a player will enter Stanford, LA as well as New Haven since that would mean playing five straight weeks heading into the US Open.

Here's the Stanford list:
Name Country Rank
Serena Williams USA 2
Venus Williams USA 3
Elena Dementieva RUS 4
Jelena Jankovic SRB 6
Nadia Petrova RUS 10
Agnieszka Radwanska POL 11
Marion Bartoli FRA 12
Dominika Cibulkova SVK 14
Samantha Stosur AUS 18
Li Na CHN 19
Aleksandra Wozniak CAN 23
Alisa Kleybanova RUS 26
Sorana Cirstea ROU 27
Sybille Bammer AUT 28
Anna Chakvetadze RUS 31
Daniela Hantuchova SVK 33
Peng Shuai CHN 36
Ai Sugiyama JPN 40
Sabine Lisicki GER 43
Anne Keothavong GBR 49
Melinda Czink HUN 54
Bethanie Mattek-Sands USA 56
Maria Kirilenko RUS 58
Maria Sharapova RUS 59

Blake reaches semifinals

2009-06-12T17:44:00.002-04:00

Coming off a first-round loss in the French Open to a qualifier making his Grand Slam main draw debut, former Fairfield resident and two-time Pilot Pen men's singles champion James Blake was looking to rediscover his form.

Well, getting off the clay seemed to be just what Blake needed. After a first-round bye, he defeated Ivan Ljubicic, Sam Querrey and most recently Mikhail Youzhny to reach the semifinals against second-seeded Andy Roddick at the Queen's Club event, a grass-court tournament in London.

I wasn't able to attend the auditions for on-court singers at the Pilot Pen, heading to UConn to catch up with Caroline Doty and her recovery from a torn ACL before covering a high school baseball game in Middletown. Fortunately, there was a well-done report filed by Annie Rourke of WTNH about the event.

Oh, say can you see ...

2009-06-09T12:31:00.001-04:00

We will be providing periodic updates, speculation, player updates leading up to the 2009 Pilot Pen Tennis tournament and will turn this into an all-things in the world of Connecticut tennis destination.

Starting off, the tournament will be holding auditions for national anthem singers (for contestants age 12 and under) on Wednesday. Here's the release:

SECOND ANNUAL PILOT PEN TENNIS CASTING CALL GIVES CHILDREN CHANCE TO PERFORM “AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL” AT THE 2009 TOURNAMENT

Boys And Girls Age 12 And Under Invited To Audition At The Shubert Theater On June 10; American R&B And Pop Singer-Songwriter JoJo To Judge on Celebrity Panel

NEW HAVEN, Conn., June 4, 2009 – Pilot Pen Tennis today announced it will host the second annual Pilot Pen Tennis Casting Call on Wednesday, June 10 at the historic Shubert Theater in downtown New Haven to select children to perform “America the Beautiful” at the 2009 Pilot Pen Tennis tournament, to be held August 21-29. Winners will perform live on stadium court during all evening sessions of this year’s tournament as well as both men’s and women’s final.

The open auditions, sponsored by Olympus America, are free of charge and will be held from 4:00-8:00 p.m. Children 12 years of age and younger (as of August 29, 2009) will be asked to sing “America the Beautiful” a cappella in front of a panel of celebrity judges, including American R&B and pop singer-songwriter, dancer, and actress JoJo, who’s first two albums have debuted at No. 4 and No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 200. Other celebrity judges include Desiree Fontaine, co-host of WTNH’s Connecticut Style, and a disc jockey from radio station KC101 (WKCI-FM).

"This Casting Call brings together some of our City's greatest treasures: kids, music, the Shubert Theatre and Pilot Pen Tennis," said DeStefano. "This program is a great opportunity to showcase the musical talents of our youth on the national stage of the Pilot Pen."

“Last year’s Pilot Pen Tennis Casting Call and subsequent performances by the children during the Pilot Pen were a resounding success,” said Anne Worcester, Tournament Director. “The Pilot Pen is always seeking to recognize local talent – both on and off the court – and this is yet another way we can showcase that talent.”

This exciting community collaboration will also serve as the kick-off for the Shubert Theater’s annual S.N.A.P. (Shubert Night at A Performance) program. S.N.A.P. is a community outreach initiative serving New Haven’s inner-city neighborhoods by offering community organizations the opportunity to experience cultural and entertainment events at the Shubert Theater. The S.N.A.P. program creates access to the arts for children, families and senior citizens from New Haven’s diverse community.

The Pilot Pen will announce the final selections on June 30, 2009. All
contestants will receive tickets to the Pilot Pen. For more information on the open casting call, including the official rules, log on to Www.pilotpentennis.com.

Now switching to tennis, considering that I saw some familiar names advancing deep in the French Open singles draw, my curiousity got the better of me. I looked up how often the singles quarterfinals on the men's and women's side have played in the Pilot Pen.

On the men's side, while Roger Federer has never been to New Haven, his opponent in the final has. Robin Soderling, who upset Rafael Nadal in the fourth round, reached the second round in 2005 and semifinals in 2006. Semifinalists Fernando Gonzalez and Juan Martin Del Potro played in 2005 and 2007 respectively (Del Potro was supposed to play last year but was a late withdrawal). Tommy Robredo is the only men's quarterfinalist who has committed to the tournament but Nikolay Davydenko has played the Pilot Pen three times (winning in 2006) and Gael Monfils also played in 2005, 2006 and 2007.

For the women, finalists Dinara Safina and Svetlana Kuznetsova (the 2007 champion) have played here twice but neither were in the event last year. Safina would seem to be a longshot if she remains the No. 1 player but both talented Russians figure to be pursued relentlessly by tournament director Anne Worcester. Semifinalist Dominika Cibulkova has already committed to play in New Haven and the other semifinal loser Sam Stosur played every year from 2004-07. While quarterfinalist Serena Williams has not played at the Pilot Pen (although she did have one well-documented late withdrawal), the other quartefinal losers Victoria Azarenka (who lost in qualifying in 2005 and 2006), Maria Sharapova (a second-round loser in 2004) and Sorana Cirstea (a quarterfinalist last year) have all previously played in the tournament.