New Haven Register Blogs: Pilots' Blog: Hurry up and wait

Pilots' Blog

Our bloggers check in with the latest news and views from the 2008 Pilot Pen Tennis Tournament.


Thursday, August 14, 2008

Hurry up and wait

The women's field, barring any withdrawals between now and the draw Friday at 12:30 p.m., is set. The biggest surprise on Thursday was Lindsay Davenport deciding to play doubles with Daniela Hantuchova.

Tamarine Tanasugarn, Nathalie Dechy and Tathiana Garbin are waiting in the wings if there are any withdrawals and wild card recipients Patty Schnyder and Bethanie Mattek move into the main draw.

Men's wild cards have been awarded to Robby Ginepri and Ivo Karlovic. If tournament officials have their way Donald Young and John Isner would move into the main draw without the aid of wild cards and that would allow 2005 finalist Feliciano Lopez and American Jesse Levine would get given wild cards into the main draw.

Three names to keep an eye on are Flavia Pennetta, Juan Martin Del Potro and Igor Andreev. Pennetta, who would be seeded fifth in the women's draw, is still alive in doubles in the Olympics. Because of the rain and the Olympic organizers to start Thursday's session at 4 p.m., all the matches could not be completed. Pennetta and Schiavone will play the Bondarenko sisters in the quarterfinals in the second match on Court 2. Pilot Pen tournament director Anne Worcester hasn't heard anything on Pennetta's plans but she would not be the first player to withdraw from the tournament after going deep into the Olympics. Samantha Stosur did just that in pulling out of the Pilot Pen on Thursday.

Del Potro didn't go to the Olympics but seemingly has won every other tournament since Wimbledon. The 19 year old Argentine won clay court titles at Stuttgart and Kitzbuhel and proved he was not a one-surface wonder by winning the hard-court championship in Los Angeles when he beat Andy Roddick in the final. Del Potro has played 16 singles and six doubles matches since Wimbledon, a heavy work load by anybody's standards. He is still entered but tournament organizers must be a bit anxious to see if Del Potro will be a part of the field.

Andreev went deep in both the singles and doubles draws in Beijing, Arnaud Clement is still alive in doubles and Jurgen Melzer was a surprise quarterfinalist in singles so it will be interesting to see if they choose to get on a plane, fly half way around the world and play in New Haven.

Stay tuned.

Here is the schedule for Friday.

GRANDSTAND
Matches Start At 10 AM
Sara ERRANI (ITA) vs Christina MCHALE (USA)
followed by
Ekaterina BYCHKOVA (RUS) vs Asia MUHAMMED (USA)
followed by
Alla KUDRYAVTSEVA (RUS) vs Anastasia PAVLYUCHENKOVA (RUS)

COURT 1
Matches Start At 10 AM
Monica NICULESCU (ROU) vs Evgeniya RODINA (RUS)
followed by
Anastasia RODIONOVA (RUS) vs Magdalena RYBARIKOVA (SVK)
followed by
Camille PIN (FRA) vs Anna LAPUSHCHENKOVA (RUS)

COURT 2
Matches Start At 10 AM
Soledad ESPERON (ARG) vs Jelena KOSTANIC TOSIC (CRO)
followed by
Maret ANI (EST) vs Maria Jose MARTINEZ SANCHEZ (ESP)


COURT 3
Matches Start At 10 AM
Vasilisa BARDINA (RUS) vs Vesna MANASIEVA (RUS)
followed by
Stephanie COHEN-ALORO (FRA) vs Julia GOERGES (GER)



MCENROE DEFAULTED
This is not a Pilot Pen related item, but it appears as if some habits are hard to break for notorious tennis hothead John McEnroe. McEnroe was defaulted in his Champions Cup match against Mal Washington for multiple audible obscenities, abuse of officials and unsportsmanlike conduct.

McEnroe, who will remain in the round-robin event, did not meet with the press after the match which was a bit hypocritical since he is a member of the media now in his duties as a television commentator. Washington did talk to reporters.

"I guess 1992 in New Haven was the last time I played John. Has anything changed? I guess he has one of those explosive personalities, you could say. There are a lot of things I can deal with, disputed line calls, stoppage in play. I have an issue when my opponent starts berating people, fans, and umpires. I said something to the official. As players, we are in control of the match. Officials are in charge of the integrity of the game."

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