NEW HAVEN - World No. 4 and two-time defending champion Caroline Wozniacki, and a trio of Americans, - Melanie Oudin, Sam Querrey and Mardy Fish - headline the fields for Pilot Pen Tennis at Yale, an Olympus US Open Series event on the ATP World Tour and Sony Ericsson WTA Tour, to be held Aug. 20-28 at the Connecticut Tennis Center at Yale.
Last year, the 20-year old Wozniacki began her run to a second straight Pilot Pen title at the Tuesday evening session of the tournament. A fan favorite in New Haven, Wozniacki reached the finals of the US Open last summer, and climbed to as high as No. 2 in the world.
Oudin, the then-relatively unknown 18-year-old, became the Cinderella story of the Open last summer with her stunning run to the quarterfinals, upsetting the likes of Maria Sharapova and Elena Dementieva along the way.
Querrey, 23, and ranked No. 19 in the world, has had a strong start to the 2010 season, winning three titles at Memphis, Belgrade, and in London.
Fish (World No. 49) is a two-time finalist and fan favorite at the Pilot Pen. He was hampered by injuries last summer, but has rebounded nicely and, in July, won the fifth title of his career at Newport.
A host of international stars who have won on Tour this year, veterans and rising stars round out both player fields. On the women’s side, French Open champion Francesca Schiavone (World No. 8), Flavia Pennetta (World No. 12), Yanina Wickmayer (World No. 17), Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez (World No. 22), Alisa Kleybanova (World No. 26), Alexandra Dulgheru (World No. 28), Alona Bondarenko (World No. 30), and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (World No. 31) have all won titles this year.
On the men’s side Thomaz Bellucci (World No. 22), Marcos Baghdatis (World No. 24), Richard Gasquet (World No. 47), Sergiy Stakhovsky (World No. 48), and Juan Ignacio Chela (World No. 54) have also added titles. Veterans like Marion Bartoli (World No. 14) and Daniela Hantuchova (World No. 25), will be making their sixth and ninth appearances, respectively, in New Haven. Rising stars Petra Kvitova (World No. 29) and Tsvetana Pironkova (World No. 35), who both reached the semifinals at Wimbledon, add to the depth of the tournament.