NEW HAVEN, CT, USA - No main draw matches made it on court but the final round of qualifying provided drama at the Pilot Pen Tennis at Yale on Sunday, with one of the star attractions from last week's Rogers Cup - Bethanie Mattek-Sands - among those making the main draw of the Premier event.
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Mattek-Sands, unseeded in the qualifying, had few problems with Vera Dushevina, who held the No.8 seed in the pre-tournament, cruising past the Russian, 63 62. Mattek-Sands was broken early in each set but stormed back each time, including winning six straight games from 0-2 in the second set.
Last week in Montréal, Mattek-Sands nearly pulled off one of the biggest wins of her career, building a 64 41 lead with points for 64 51 against Kim Clijsters, but eventually falling to the former No.1 and two-time Slam winner, 46 64 63.
Elsewhere, No.6 seed Anastasia Rodionova rallied from 1-4 in the first set and 2-4 in the second set - even saving three set points at 5-6 - to beat No.2 seed Dominika Cibulkova, 64 76(4). In the other two qualifying matches, No.1 seed Elena Vesnina beat No.5 seed Roberta Vinci, 64 36 63, and Varvara Lepchenko won an all-unseeded battle with Alla Kudryavtseva, 64 64.
Vesnina was a finalist in New Haven last year, losing to Caroline Wozniacki in the title match. Vesnina has reached three finals in her career, the two others coming at Auckland last year (finishing runner-up to Elena Dementieva) and at Istanbul this summer (runner-up to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova).
Wozniacki is the two-time defending champion in New Haven and the No.1 seed this year again. After a first round bye, she will play either Melanie Oudin or Cibulkova, who was given lucky loser status upon Pavlyuchenkova's late withdrawal from the $600,000 tournament due to a left hip injury.
