Men’s First Round: T. Dent def. I. Ljubicic, 6-3, 6-4
Taylor Dent served eight aces today to Ljubicic's seven
Women’s First Round: A. Chakvetadze def. (4) N. Petrova, 0-6, 7-6 (4), 6-4This was a match-up between two players both mired in a slump, and it showed. Nadia Petrova cruised through the opening set, and had two break points for a 2-0 lead in the second. But she let Anna Chakvetadze off the hook, extending Chakvetadze’s head to head lead against her to 5-0. The younger Russian, now ranked 48th in the world, down from a career high of No. 5, actually served for the second set at 5-4 but some fine returns by Petrova put the two back on serve. Chakvetadze held on to win the tiebreak, after which Petrova left the court during the ten minute heat rule break. But shortly after returning to play, Petrova was staring down a 0-5 deficit in the third set, courtesy of some horrendous unforced errors. To her credit, Petrova battled back to 4-5 before throwing in a couple more errors in the tenth game that cost her the match. Despite scoring a win over the world No. 12, Chakvetadze, the 2008 Pilot Pen Tennis finalist, was less than glowing in her review of her game, and hardly seems poised to return to her top form given her lack of confidence.
More photos from the 2009 Pilot Pen Tennis Tournament.
Photos: Jack Cunniff