HEAD Pros Enjoy Extreme Victory in New Haven

HEAD players enjoyed success this weekend at the Pilot Penn Tennis tournament in New Haven, Conn., USA.

HEAD player and top-seeded Svetlana Kuznetsova won the women’s title. The Russian, who plays with the MicroGel Extreme Pro, won the match when her opponent Agnes Szavay of Hungary retired with a back injury while leading, 6-4, 0-3. The victory gave Kuznetsova her first title win of the year.

“Finally, it feels good,” said Kuznetsova. “I was playing some good tennis the past weeks when I made it to the final, but then I couldn’t make it in the final.”
Kuznetsova will now head to Flushing Meadows as the No. 4 seed at the U.S. Open, which was the site of her first Grand Slam triumph three years ago.

In the doubles competition, HEAD player Sania Mirza and partner Maria Santangelo crushed top seeds and number one women’s pair, Cara Black and Liezel Huber to win the final, 6-1, 6-2 in 53 minutes.

Mirza, who also uses the MicroGel Extreme Pro as her weapon of choice, earned her seventh career doubles title and her fourth title of the year.

Meanwhile, top-seeded HEAD player Nenad Zimonjic and his partner Mahesh Bhupathi defeated fourth seeds Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski 6-3, 6-3 to win the male doubles competition.

Zimonjic, who plays with the MicroGel Radical MP, praised Bhupathi, saying, "Mahesh is one of the greatest doubles players. He has won the U.S. Open twice and I hope that I can win it once. I hope we can continue with this form and maybe play even better. I think Mahesh had a really good summer by winning Montreal and here."

HEAD player Ivo Karlovic reached the semifinal of the men’s singles competition after beating Thomas Johansson in the third round 4-6, 6-4, 7-5. Karlovic then advanced with a 6-7 (8), 6-4, 7-6 (1) quarterfinal victory over Igor Andreev. In the semi final, Karlovic went on to compete against Mardy Fish and was defeated 7-6 (3), 6-4.