But her teenage opponent did not fade away, as Wickmayer served three of her four aces in the third set. Serving at 3-3, Kuznetsova squandered a 40-0 lead, courtesy of a double fault and a few forehand errors, and Wickmayer scored a go-ahead break. Wickmayer, who is projected to make her Top Fifty debut in next week’s WTA rankings, served for the match at 5-4. Kuznetsova’s experience showed, as she extended points and forced errors from Wickmayer. Svetlana earned the break back, forced the tiebreak, and finally closed it out, seven points to two, with a 109 mph ace down the T. With the win, Kuznetsova earns a trip to the quarterfinals against her good friend and occasional doubles partner, Amélie Mauresmo.



Women’s Second Round: E. Vesnina def. (9) S. Stosur, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4

Australia’s Sam Stosur, who battled from a set down against Alizé Cornet to advance to the second round, started this match quickly, grabbing the first set from Elena Vesnina, 6-3. But the 23-year-old Russian secured an early break of serve in the second set, and jumped to a 3-0 lead. Although Stosur had a couple of chances to put the set back on serve, Vesnina held tough. On the strength of three aces, Vesnina won the second set by an identical score.


The decisive set appeared to be a blowout, as Vesnina’s groundstrokes kept Stosur on the defensive, and Elena raced out to a 4-0 lead. But with a two-service break lead, Vesnina tightened up, and Stosur closed to 3-4. Vesnina, who had struggled with injuries and won only one summer hard court match coming into New Haven, managed to maintain her break advantage. But serving for the match at 5-4, in a see-saw tenth game, she found herself down 15-40. Some loose errors from Stosur suddenly gave Vesnina the advantage, and a match point. Two consecutive double faults later, Stosur had another break point. Vesnina later acknowledged she was trying to go for too big of a serve to close out the match. On her third match point, another strong backhand from Vesnina forced a Stosur backhand wide, and Elena notched her eighth Top 20 win of 2009. Despite the loss, Stosur remained satisfied with her summer season, and is confident about her chances to advance deep at the US Open.


Men’s Third Round: (6) S. Querrey def. B. Phau, 7-5, 6-3

Sam Querrey served his way to a 4-1 lead in the first set of this third round match, but Bjorn Phau of Germany was able to pull even at 4-4. Phau’s biggest weapon this afternoon was his legs, as he chased down Querrey’s shots, and forcing the 21-year-old American to continually hit one more ball to win the point. But Phau’s biggest downfall was his serve. While serving to stay in the set at 5-6, Phau delivered three double faults, which easily sealed his fate. Querrey took the opening set, 7-5.


Querrey, ranked 23rd after a strong summer season, had to sidestep some danger early in the second set. Serving at 1-1, he found himself down 0-30. He cracked a 136 mph heater, the second fastest serve of the tournament behind Taylor Dent (139 mph), but soon faced a break point at 30-40. Querrey escaped that deficit with a service ace carved out wide at 115 mph. In his post-match interview, Sam mentioned that he’s been trying to add some variety to his serve, and this third game was evidence that this strategy is paying dividends. Sam wasn’t threatened the rest of the way, serving 14 aces in total for the match, and breaking Phau in the eighth game, as he eased his way to a 7-5, 6-3 victory. With this win, Querrey advances to his seventh quarterfinal of the year, and edges out Andy Murray to become the 2009 US Open Series Champion.


Men’s Third Round: (2) F. Verdasco def. (16) A. Seppi, 7-6 (3), 6-2

The official time of this match was one hour 26 minutes, but it took more than three hours to complete due to a couple of rain delays. Fernando Verdasco, the 10th-ranked player in the world, and Spain’s No. 2 behind Rafael Nadal hit three double faults in his second service game, donating the game to Andreas Seppi, and giving the Italian a 2-1 edge. Verdasco later explained that this was his first night match in some time and he found playing under the lights tricky, especially when serving. The 25-year-old Seppi maintained the advantage, and served for the opening set at 5-4. At 15-40, a Verdasco forehand return was called long, but the Spaniard successfully challenged the call; when the replay showed the ball clipped the baseline, Verdasco was awarded the point and broke back to 5-5. Verdasco cruised through the tiebreak, and secured the opening set.


Verdasco was up 3-1 in the second set when the first rains hit. The players returned a short time later, and soon Fernando had grabbed another break of serve. With Verdasco ready to serve 4-1, there was a longer rain suspension. By this time, the second seed had won eight of the last ten games, and it appeared Seppi had little interest in playing late into the evening. When the pair returned to the court after 10 pm, the final result was a formality, and Verdasco advanced to the quarterfinals in New Haven for the fourth time, extending his head-to-head lead over Seppi to 5-0.


Around the Grounds

So I guess this means there’s no Kuznetsova/Kuznetsova mixed doubles in Flushing? In her on-court interview after her victory, Svetlana Kuznetsova talked about how happy she was to participate in Tuesday’s Girl Scout Night at the Pilot Pen because, at one time, she was a young girl too… The truth comes out: Querrey mentioned in his press conference that it’s unlikely that the Top Ten men’s players are preoccupied with the US Open Series, because for someone like Federer an extra million dollars (the bonus awarded if you win the U.S. Open title) is a drop in the hat. But for Querrey and his peers, it is a big deal… He knows when to say when: Nikolay Davydenko, when asked to comment on his opponent Fabrice Santoro, who plans to retire at year’s end, said Fabrice is a “nice guy,” but seventeen years of professional tennis is “too much!”... More faces in the crowds: Alizé Cornet and coach Pierre Bouteyre watching the Kuznetsova vs. Wickmayer thriller. Cornet was considerably less foul-mouthed than she was in her match Tuesday


More photos from the 2009 Pilot Pen Tennis Tournament.
Photos: Jack Cunniff, Mariya Konovalova