Querrey earns chance for $1 million bonus, Kuznetsova, Davydenko advance at Pilot Pen

Querrey wins US Open Series championship

NEW HAVEN, Conn. — Hard-serving Sam Querrey won the U.S. Open Series championship Wednesday by moving into the quarterfinals of the Pilot Pen tennis tournament with a 7-5, 6-3 victory over Bjorn Phau of Germany.

The series ranks players using a points system based on their play in 10 selected tournaments throughout the year.

The victory gives Querrey 145 series points, enough to tie Andy Murray, who is not playing in New Haven. Querrey wins the title because he has 14 match wins in series events, to eight for Murray.

The title gives Querrey a chance to earn a bonus of between $15,000 and $1 million, to be determined by his finish in the U.S. Open.

Querrey said there won’t be any added pressure because of that.

“The most pressure I felt all summer was probably today, knowing that if I won it, I would win (the series) and if I didn’t it was third place,” he said.

He said he’s proud of the championship, but understands it’s not something that most of the top players worry about.

“I don’t think if Federer is 15 points away from winning, or Nadal, I don’t think they’re going to take a wild card into this tournament and say, ‘Hey, if I get to the quarterfinals, I’m going to win that,’” he said. “But, I’m going to.”

The 6-foot-6 American served up 14 aces against Phau, with a serve that reached 134 mph. He won a 84 percent of the points in which he managed to get his first serve in play.

Querrey will play top-seeded Nikolay Davydenko in the quarterfinals. The Russian advanced in straight sets, 7-5, 6-3 over Fabrice Santoro of France.

In the women’s draw, top-seeded Svetlana Kuznetsova needed a third-set tiebreaker to beat Belgian teenager Yanina Wickmayer 6-4, 5-7, 7-6 (2).

The French Open champion seemed to be cruising after taking 5-4 lead in the second with a match point on Wickmayer’s serve.

But the 19-year-old rallied, then broke Kuznetsova in the seventh game of the third set and was serving for the match. Kuznetsova came up with two big returns to break back, then dominated the tiebreaker.

“I knew at 5-all that if I wanted to win the match, I would have to play perfect,” Wickmayer said. “And I almost played perfectly, but I guess in the tiebreaker she was just too good for me.”

Kuznetsova acknowledged that she let her concentration lag at times, and said she sometimes needs to have her back against the wall before she plays her best tennis.

“I still have it, so I appreciate that I have it, but I have to work on closing out things when I have the chance to,” she said.

Kuznetsova will play her friend and sometimes doubles partner Amelie Mauresmo in the quarterfinals.

Two other top seeds advanced in straight sets. Caroline Wozniacki, the defending champion, dispatched Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia 6-1, 6-4, while No. 3 Flavia Pennetta beat Iveta Benesova 7-6(1), 6-4, racking up eight aces.

“My serve helped me a lot on the important points,” Pennetta said. “I didn’t make a lot of mistakes, I was very aggressive.”

Virginia Razzano also advanced, when Agnieszka Radwanska retired before the third set of their match with a hand injury. Radwanska said she will be able to play in the U.S. Open.