Former World No. 1 Dinara Safina and Americans Taylor Dent and Donald Young have been granted wildcards into Pilot Pen Tennis at Yale, an Olympus US Open Series event on the ATP World Tour and Sony Ericsson WTA Tour, to be held August 20-28 at the Connecticut Tennis Center at Yale, it was announced today by Anne Worcester, tournament director.
Safina rose to the World No. 1 ranking in 2009 during the best season of her career, which featured titles at Rome, Madrid and Potoroz, Slovenia; finals appearances at the Australian and French Opens; and semifinal results at Wimbledon and 's-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands. She has twelve singles titles in her career; eight doubles titles, including the 2007 US Open (w/ Natalie Dechy); and also won the silver medal at the 2008 Olympic games in Beijing. She has struggled with a back injury throughout 2010, but is finally healthy and returning to the form that saw her spend 26 weeks at the World No. 1 ranking.
Dent, a veteran who once reached a career-high ranking of No. 21 in the world, has recovered from a career-threatening back injury that required multiple surgeries and left him in a body cast, on his back, for 23 hours a day, for eight months in 2007 and 2008. Last year, he climbed more than 800 ranking spots to get into the top 100 of the world rankings. This year, his comeback has continued to gather steam and just last month he reached the quarterfinals at Atlanta. Young, who captured his first Tour level victory at the Pilot Pen in 2007, has played well this year, winning Tour level matches at the Australian Open and Atlanta, winning the USTA challenger at Carson, California, and reaching the finals at the USTA challenger in Aptos, California. American Sam Querrey has withdrawn from the tournament.
“Adding Dinara Safina means that our women’s field is incredibly strong with four of the top eight ranked players in the world, two former World No. 1 players, and a slew of other international stars,” said Worcester. “With Taylor Dent and Donald Young joining our men’s draw, we now have four American stars, including James Blake and Mardy Fish. The Pilot Pen gets underway tomorrow and will once again deliver world-class tennis in an intimate atmosphere, all for affordable prices.”
The tournament also has given a wildcard for the qualifying draw to rising American star Bradley Klahn, who won the NCAA men’s singles title this year while at Stanford. He joined some of the school's other NCAA champions, players like John McEnroe, Tim Mayotte and Bob Bryan. In addition, Jonathan Pastel, from Greenwich, Connecticut, received a wildcard for winning the Yale Open title in July. He played on Tour for a while after college, but has moved on to do equity research sales at Sanford Bernstein, an investment research firm on Wall Street.
The Pilot Pen still has two men’s qualifying draw wildcards to distribute. There are also four spots in both main draws for advancing qualifiers.
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.
About Pilot Pen Tennis at Yale:
Pilot Pen Tennis at Yale, an Olympus US Open Series event on the ATP World Tour and Sony Ericsson WTA Tour, will be held August 20-28, 2010 at the Connecticut Tennis Center at Yale and feature a number of international tennis stars. The 2009 Pilot Pen, whose champions are Caroline Wozniacki and Fernando Verdasco, drew nearly 80,000 spectators and was televised nationally for 16 hours on ESPN2 and CBS Sports. An economic impact study conducted in 2008 showed that the event generated an estimated total gross economic impact on the New Haven regional economy of more than $26 million.
About the Olympus US Open Series:
The Olympus US Open Series brings together the 10 summer tournaments in North America, three television networks, tennis’ sanctioning bodies and top corporate sponsors during the summer tennis season. In 2009 the Series continued its enhancements to the sport, including more national TV hours, live back-to-back Finals every weekend, bonus prize money at the US Open, and a significant national marketing campaign.
