Schnyder is not officially in yet, but will probably get a WC.

Davenport to play doubles at Pilot Pen

By Jim Fuller, ©New Haven Register

For the second consecutive year former world No. 1 Lindsay Davenport will be coming to New Haven to play doubles in the Pilot Pen Tennis tournament.
Davenport contacted tournament director Anne Worcester on Thursday to inform her that while she would be unable to play singles in New Haven because of her balky right knee, she intends to play doubles with Daniela Hantuchova at the Pilot Pen.
A year ago following the birth of her first child, Davenport made her return to the WTA tour as she teamed with Lisa Raymond to play doubles in New Haven. Unfortunately for her, Davenport and Raymond drew the top seeds Cara Black and Liezel Huber and lost in three sets in the first round.
Ironically, Davenport is currently playing with Huber at the Olympics and is still in contention for a medal.
Sania Mirza and Samantha Stosur have withdrawn from the women's singles draw allowing Daniela Hantuchova and Nicole Vaidisova to move into the main draw. Sybille Bammer and Ashley Harkleroad have taken their names off the women's alternate list. On the men's side, Robin Haase has pulled out of both the Pilot Pen and U.S. Open.
The full women's field will be announced Thursday afternoon, shortly after the 4 p.m. entry deadline. The men's entry deadline is Friday at noon.
The tournament begins Friday with play in the women's qualifying draw.

Draw:

CHAKVETADZE, Anna RUS [1]
BYE

DELLACQUA, Casey AUS
RAZZANO, Virginie FRA

QUALIFIER
CIRSTEA, Sorana ROU

DULKO, Gisela ARG
PENNETTA, Flavia ITA[6]

A. SZAVAY [4]
BYE

QUALIFIER
QUALIFIER

KANEPI, Kaia EST
MAURESMO, Amelie FRA

CRAYBAS, Jill USA
SCHNYDER, Patty SUI [5]

CIBULKOVA, Dominika SVK [8]
WOZNIACKI, Caroline DEN

KIRILENKO, Maria RUS
QUALIFIER

MATTEK, Bethanie USA
PIRONKOVA, Tsvetana BUL

BYE
BARTOLI, Marion FRA [3]

CORNET, Alize FRA [7]
VAIDISOVA, Nicole CZE

QUALIFIER
SREBOTNIK, Katarina SLO

GOVORTSOVA, Olga BLR
KLEYBANOVA, Alisa RUS

BYE
HANTUCHOVA, Daniela SVK [2]


Kleybanova, oh well, time for revenge. And then Srebotnik. Though she has never lost to Kata, the matches has always been close. I guess it is one match at a time - again. She showed some fine play against Sugiyama in the first set, hopefully she can take that form into this tournament. Then she can go far.

Dominika and Caroline in the first round.

It's really an interesting tournament in that there are no top players but there's a lot of depth. It's looks like a really hard draw, but there's a lot of dangerous unseeded players here: Dellacqua, Dulko, Kanepi, Mauresmo, Wozniacki, Kirilenko, Vaidisova and Srebotnik. Of the seeds, only Szavay and Pennetta have a clear path to the third round. It's wide open. Hopefully, Daniela's rested and ready to go.

Doubles draw is out. Here is what she and Lindsay are looking at in the bottom half. Black and Huber are the only team of note in the top half of the draw.

Daniela/Lindsay
Craybas/Govortsova

Rodionova/Voskoboeva
Husarova/Mattek

Kirilenko/Pennetta
Cecil/Stephenson

Llagostera Vives/Martinez Sanchez
Peschke/Raymond

Good luck, ladies. Here's hoping Daniela gets to beat Govortsova twice.

Govortsova crushed Kleybanova 6-0 6-2 so she'll be a tough opponent for Daniela. If Daniela plays like she did against Ai at the Olympics, certainly the way she played on the first day of the match, then she's got a great chance of winning. I think Daniela's level of play will determine what happens in the match. Daniela's in the more difficult part of the draw, so we have to go by the cliche of one match at a time.

The doubles draw is fine and Daniela's had good results with Lindsay so a run there would be nice as it would give her some more match practice.

It's important that Daniela does well here as she needs wins to build her confidence and to give her momentum going into the US Open, plus New Haven and the US Open are the last opportunities she'll have to gain points until after the Australian Open.