Pilots' Blog

Fish, Kuznetsova in finals

2007-08-24T16:26:00.000-04:00

Svetlana Kuznetsova and Mardy Fish punched their tickets to Saturday's final.

Kuznetsova, the top seed on the women's side, was defeating fellow Russian Elena Dementieva 4-6, 6-3, 3-0 when Dementieva retired because of nauseous.

Fish followed on Stadium Court and defeated Ivo Karlovic 7-6, 6-4 to advance to the men's final, his first final of the year.

The fourth-seeded doubles team of Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski reached the men's doubles final for the second year with a 6-2, 6-3 win over Jamie Murray and Jordan Kerr.

The women's singles semifinal between Eleni Daniilidou and Anges Szavay will begin at 7 followed by the men's semi featuring 2005 champion James Blake and Paul-Henri Mathieu.

Semifinals set

2007-08-23T23:58:00.000-04:00

A marathon day of tennis at the Connecticut Tennis Center is over and only eight singles players and 16 doubles players remain.

With rain washing out Tuesday's day session, men's players were forced to play both the third round and quarterfinals on Thursday.

No. 1 seed Nikolay Davydenko, No. 2 Tommy Robredo and No. 4 David Ferrer never got to play their night matches on Thursday - not because of the weather but because they were the sent packing with third-round losses. Davydenko fell to Gilles Simon, Stanislas Wawrinka took out Robredo and Ferrer lost to Igor Andreev. James Blake, the No. 3 seed and local favorite, appeared well on his well to joining the favorites on the outside looking in. Agustin Calleri had triple match point on his serve in the second set but couldn't put Blake away. The former Fairfield resident rallied for a three-set win and then beat Fernando Verdasco in the quarterfinals to reach the semis. Fifth-seeded Paul-Henri Mathieu will be his opponent Friday night. Ivo Karlovic, a 6-foot-10 Croatian, will play unseeded American Mardy Fish in the other semi.

On the women's side, Russians Svetlana Kuznetsova and Elena Dementieva won their quarterfinals and will face each other in the semifinals in a rematch of the 2004 U.S. Open final. Kuznetsova won that match and as the top seed in the Pilot Pen, will be the favorite again. The other semi will feature qualifier against Elena Daniilidou, a player who got into the draw only because the tournament didn't have a gold or silver exempt player to award a wild card to so by rule the spot goes to the top player on the next-in list.

Here's the order of play for Friday.
ORDER OF PLAY
Stadium
Men's doubles semifinal: (4) Mariusz Fyrstenberg (POL)/Marcin Matkowski (POL) v Jordan Kerr(AUS)/Jamie Murray (GBR), 10 a.m.
Women's singles semifinal: (1) Svetlana Kuznetsova (RUS) v (6) Elena Dementieva (RUS), not before noon
Followed by
Men's singles semifinal: (WC) Mardy Fish (USA) v Ivo Karlovic (CRO)
Followed by
Women's doubles semifinal: (1) Cara Black (ZIM)/Liezel Huber (USA) v Iveta Benesova(CZE)/Bethanie Mattek (USA)
Not before 7pm
Women's singles semifinal: Eleni Daniilidou (GRE) v Agnes Szavay (HUN)
Followed by
Men's singles semifinal: (3) James Blake (USA) v (5) Paul-Henri Mathieu (FRA)

Grandstand Court
Women's doubles semifinal: Iveta Benesova (CZE)/Bethanie Mattek (USA) v Sania Mirza (IND)/MaraSantangelo (ITA), 3 p.m.
Followed by
Men's singles semifinal: (1) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/Nenad Zimonjic (SRB) v Eric Butorac(USA)/Ashley Fisher (AUS), not before 4.30pm

- Jim Fuller

Another No. 2 seed falls

2007-08-23T12:38:00.000-04:00

The upsets continue at the Connecticut Tennis Center.
On Wednesday, women's No. 2 seed Daniela Hantuchova fell to qualifier Agnes Szavay. On Thursday, the men's No. 2 seed Tommy Robredo lost to Stanislas Wawrinka 6-3, 6-3. Wawrinka obviously not only has a tennis game but also a sense of humor as he has taken to calling himself "The Swiss player who loses." Wawrinka is the No. 2 ranked men's player in Switzerland after No. 1 Roger Federer.

American Mardy Fish continued to advance as he outlasted Jose Acasuso to advance to the quarterfinals. Fish is thriving in the "upset bracket" at the Pilot Pen as all four seeds in that quarter of the bracket - No. 2 Robredo, No. 7 Filippo Volandri, No. 9 Dominik Hrbaty and No. 15 Gael Monfils - have been eliminated. Only one other unseeded player reached the Round of 16 in the quarters of the other three brackets and that player (2002 Australian Open champion Thomas Johannson) was knocked out in three sets.
- Jim Fuller

Tennis is on

2007-08-21T20:37:00.000-04:00

It took nine hours, but there was actually some tennis at the Connecticut Tennis Center on Tuesday.

John Isner blew by Benjamin Becker 6-3, 6-4 on Stadium Court and he will draw David Ferrer today. Ferrer defeated Isner in the first round at last week's event in Cincinnati. Ferrer and Isner will be the fourth match on Stadium Court on Wednesday.

The match between James Blake and Arnaud Clement is up next.

Tuesday's day session a washout

2007-08-21T17:11:00.000-04:00

Shortly before 5 p.m. the expected became official when Tuesday's afternoon session was canceled.
The evening session is still on at the current time although there have been changes.
The women's doubles match between Lindsay Davenport/Lisa Raymond and the world's No. 1 team of Liezel Huber/Cara Black will no longer be played Tuesday night and will be moved to Wednesday to the Grandstand Court and will not be played before 3:30 p.m.
The night session on Stadium Court is scheduled to begin with a 7 p.m. match between Benjamin Becker and John Isner followed by James Blake's match against Arnaud Clement.
Play on Grandstand Court is slated to start at 6:30 with the continuation of the Sania Mirza-Anabel Medina Garrigues match (Medina Garrigues leads 1-0 30-30) followed by another women's match between Ai Sugiyama and Agnieszka Radwanska.
- Jim Fuller

Night session washed out

2007-08-20T21:15:00.000-04:00

Score an ace for Mother Nature as rain washed out Monday night's session at the Pilot Pen.
Anabel Medina Garrigues was leading Sania Mirza 1-0 and the second game was tied 30-30 when the match was suspended. The men's singles match between John Isner and Benjamin Becker was also rained out. Both matches have been moved to today.
It was another good day for the American men as Vincent Spadea topped Evgeny Korolev 6-2, 5-7, 7-5 in the first round and Mardy Fish advanced to the third round with a 6-7, 7-5, 6-0 win over Filippo Volandri. Second seeded Tommy Robredo opened with a 6-4, 6-4 win over Marc Gicquel. Feliciano Lopez, the 2005 finalist, was eliminated in perhaps Monday's best match as sixth-seeded Jarkko Nieminen advanced with a 3-6, 6-2, 7-6 (8-6 in the tiebreaker)
On the women's side, No. 6 Elena Dementieva defeated Mara Santangelo 6-2, 3-6, 6-0, No. 7 Sybille Bammer defeated Meghann Shaughnessy 6-4, 6-2 and No. 8 Alona Bondarenko defeated Olga Govortsova 6-3, 7-6.
Tickets for Session 3 (Monday's night session) can be exchanged either Upper Tier tickets for Tuesday's day session or Tuesday's night session. The ticket exchange table will be located at the front gate of the Pilot Pen Tennis near the ticket trailing. Parking passes for session 3 will be honored for either sessions 4 or 5.
Play begins Tuesday at 10 a.m. on Stadium, Grandstand, Court 1, Court 2 and Court 3.
- Jim Fuller

In Your Court

2007-08-20T11:41:00.000-04:00

Our Pilot Pen bloggers (also known as New Haven Register staffers) would always like to know your thoughts about the Pilot Pen.

If you have any questions or comments, just click on "POST A COMMENT."

Davenport checks in

2007-08-17T16:27:00.000-04:00

Lindsay Davenport met the media Friday afternoon and did so while holding 2-month-old son Jagger at the podium. The youngster didn't seem to like the bright TV lights very much, BUT other than that he handled himself very well.

Davenport will be playing doubles with Lisa Raymond in her first competition since last fall. She is pointing to a return to singles action in about 4 weeks.

Mike Pucci and Jim Fuller have more in Saturday's Register

Blake seeded third

2007-08-17T15:36:00.000-04:00

Fairfield grad James Blake is seeded third on the men's side of the draw. He gets a 1st-round bye and then awaits the winner of Arnaud Clement and a yet-to-be determined qualifier in Round 2.

The men's seeds are as follows:

1. N. Davydenko
2. T. Robredo
3. Blake
4. D. Ferrer
5. P-H Mathieu
6. J. Nieminen
7. F. Volandri
8. P. Starace
9. D. Hrabty
10. N. Almagro
11. I Karlovic
12. F. Verdasco
13. G. Simon
14. I Andreev
15. G. Monfils
16. A. Calleri

Serena Withdraws

2007-08-17T15:19:00.000-04:00

A nagging thumb injury forced Serena Williams to withdraw from the Pilot Pen tourney on Friday. Tournament Director Anne Worcester made the announcement just before the draw for the women's field.

"We'll keep trying to bring Serena to New Haven," Worcester said. "We still have a very strong field and fans will see exciting tennis right from the first round."

It's a tough break for the tournament as billboards with Serena's image can be seen in many places and it was just about a week ago when she committed to play.

As Worcester said prior to making the announcement: "weather and player injuries" are two things she can't control.

-- Shawn Rychling

Welcome

2007-08-15T11:40:00.000-04:00

The New Haven Register's sports and web team will be out in force at this year's Pilot Pen Tennis Tournament August 17-25 at the Connecticut Tennis Center. Check this blog for frequent updates.