2010 Pilot Pen: Sergiy Stakhovsky Wins the Men’s Battle
The Ukrainian Sergiy Stakhovsky has emerged as the new men’s Champion of the 2010 Pilot Pen Tennis tournament after defeating his Uzbek opponent Denis Istomin in the final match held at New Heaven on Saturday. The final match score was 3-6, 6-3, and 6-4.
Sergiy captured his second title of the season after he had also won in Hertogenbosch earlier this year. He is now unbeaten in his four career finals. Stakhovsky found himself down during the first set when Denis broke him.
While commenting on Istomin’s game after the match, Stakhovsky said, “His serve has improved a great deal and he has been serving quite well over the last few days. It’s not just about his first or second serve in particular but actually his placement is the key as he places it extremely well. He did manage to move the ball all around the court which was very difficult to guess. I committed several mistakes in response to his second serve as he was slicing the ball differently.”
With this victory, Stakhovsky has also registered his name as the first Ukrainian tennis player from the men’s side to capture two tournament titles in the same year since 1994. “I am extremely happy to win the trophy. It will be a great confidence booster for my future matches.” He remarked.
On the other hand, the US Open hot favorite Caroline Wozniacki also captured her third Pilot Pen tennis trophy from the women’s side in a row, defeating her Russian opponent Nadia Petrova in a total of three sets. The final match score remained 6-3, 3-6, 6-3.
This win came as the second one for the twenty year old Danish this week as having already won the title at Rogers Cup Women tennis tournament in Montreal on Monday. Caroline now heads to New York with a total of four victories this year, the most of any female tennis player on the tour. “It feels absolutely great.” said Wozniacki.
She dominated the final battle right from the start and looked to be in total control of her game. However, holding the serve still remained a problem for both the players during the second set. Petrova at last found her return game and managed to break Caroline on three occasions and eventually grab the second set.
Caroline, after the match, said that major cause of this problem was sun light. “It was extremely hard to actually see the ball while hitting it from one side. That made it a bit tougher.” she said. Wozniacki came back strongly during the third set and in the end did well to win it along with the title.
Caroline is 13-0 in New Haven and has now captured the title more than any other player from the women’s side except Venus Williams, who grabbed a total of four titles in a row from 1999 to 2002. Nadia on the other hand, who was given a last-minute wild card entry into the championship, was contesting in her first final battle after a period of two years. She fired a total of two aces and said that despite losing, she is still satisfied with her play over the last few weeks.
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