Verdasco Receives New Haven Wild Card

© Getty ImagesFernando Verdasco has accepted a wild card for his fifth appearance at Pilot Pen.

Rising Young American Stars And Yale Summer Championship Winners Gain Wildcards Into Pilot Pen Tennis Qualifying Draws

NEW HAVEN, Conn., – World No. 10, and Australian Open semifinalist Fernando Verdasco and World No. 12 Nadia Petrova have been granted wildcards into Pilot Pen Tennis presented by Schick, an Olympus US Open Series event on the ATP World Tour and Sony Ericsson WTA Tour set for August 21-29, 2009 at the Connecticut Tennis Center at Yale, it was announced today by Anne Worcester, tournament director.

Verdasco, who will be making his fifth appearance at the Pilot Pen, is having an exceptional year. The Spanish left-hander reached a career-high No. 7 earlier this year after advancing to the quarterfinals or better in his first eight tournaments, including a semifinal showing at the Australian Open where he lost to fellow countryman and eventual champion Rafael Nadal. Since then he has reached the fourth round at the French Open and Wimbledon, and the quarterfinals at Bastad. He was a semifinalist in New Haven last year and reached the quarterfinals in 2005 and 2007.

Petrova, who last year won the eighth and ninth titles of her career at Cincinnati and Quebec City, will be making her fifth trip to New Haven where she has won doubles titles in 2001 (with Jelena Dokic) and 2004 (with Meghann Shaughnessy). A veteran on tour, she has played in Grand Slam semifinals (French Open), been a Fed Cup and Olympic team fixture for Russia, and also has sixteen Tour doubles titles on her resume. This year she has reached the semifinals at Ponte Vedra Beach and the fourth round of both the French Open and Wimbledon.

They join fellow wildcard recipients Taylor Dent, 2009 French Open champion, 2007 Pilot Pen champion, and World No. 6 Svetlana Kuznetsova and American Meghann Shaughnessy in the field. John Isner, who was to receive a wildcard, has withdrawn his request due to exhaustion suffered while playing in Cincinnati. Two men’s wildcards and one women’s wildcard are still to be awarded.

Wildcards into the qualifying draws of Pilot Pen Tennis were awarded to Devin Britton, Chase Buchanan, Jessie Levine, Gail Brodsky, Mallory Cecil and Christina McHale in addition to Yale Summer Championship winners Marc Powers and Rachel Kahan. The men’s qualifying draw features 32 players while the women’s qualifying draw features 48 players.

Britton, 18, of Jackson, Miss., burst onto the tennis scene by reaching the 2008 US Open boys’ final as a qualifier. He enrolled at the University of Mississippi this past winter, and in May he became the youngest man ever to win the NCAA Division I singles title.

Buchanan, 18, of New Albany, Ohio, earned his wild card into the 2009 US Open main draw by winning the USTA Boys’ 18s National Championships this past weekend. Buchanan helped lead the Ohio State Buckeyes to the 2009 NCAA team final as a freshman. Levine, 21, of Boca Raton, Fla., had his best performance as a pro last year when he reached the quarterfinals at the Pilot Pen. He had his best Grand Slam showing at Wimbledon this summer, upsetting 14th-seeded Marat Safin and reaching the third round as a qualifier.

Brodsky, 18, of Brooklyn, N.Y., captured the USTA Girls’ 18s title in 2008 and has since played mostly ITF circuit events. Cecil, 18, of Spartansburg, S.C., capped off her stellar rookie season at Duke by winning the NCAA Women’s Tennis Singles Championship and claiming ITA National College Player of the Year honors. McHale, 17, of Englewood Cliffs, N.J., won the USTA Girls’ 18s singles and doubles (with 18-year-old Asia Muhammad) finals last weekend in California to complete the first sweep of the USTA Girls’ 18s National Championships since Kristen Schlukebir accomplished the feat in 2000. With her victory she will earn a wild-card into the US Open women’s main singles and doubles draws.

Powers and McHale won the Yale Summer Championship titles earlier this summer gaining automatic wildcards into the qualifying draws of Pilot Pen Tennis. Powers, from Stamford, CT, will be a freshman on the Yale tennis team in the fall. Kahan, from Unionville, CT, has had success 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.

For tickets, how to become a volunteer, or more information about the tournament, please call the Pilot Pen Tennis Box Office, 888/99-PILOT, 203/776-7331, or log on to www.pilotpentennis.com.