Wednesday 6th September
Peter Polansky ousts the number one seed
by Annie Paton
If ever there was a more deserving winner today it has to be Canadian, Peter Polansky. His calm demeanor and explosive game wore down the French Open champion, Martin Klizan (1) of Slovak Republic, in a thrilling nail-biting three setter, 6-3; 6-7(3); 6-4.

"It was a tough match and I only got broken once, which was when I was serving for the match," said Peter, when he tried to serve it out at 5-3. He made up for it in the next game going up 40-15 and breaking to win the match when Martin's forehand sailed long. "I was serving pretty well the whole match and he was barely getting points on it until the very last game. It was tough to break him but I was able get one in the first and one in the second, but we both played pretty well and I got lucky in the end."

Unbelievable as it may sound, his upset win today almost pales by his remarkable achievement of coming back from a critical sleep walking accident in April, which put him in a wheel chair for nearly six weeks.

It's been well recorded in the media about how Peter had a terrifying nightmare and kicked in his bedroom window in Mexico City to escape from a dark figure approaching his bed wielding a knife. He awoke lying in a pool of blood in the bushes below his third floor window, alive but with the flesh hanging off his legs and he could see his own bones. He thought he was going to lose his left leg, but after five hours of surgery in Mexico he began the long road back to recovery. He says he has no pain now, but his legs are still showing the scars from the 420 stitches they needed to wrap the muscles back around his bones. The fact that he missed major arteries and nerves, and that he missed the pavement around the hotel, is a miracle. His win today is also a testament to that miracle.

"I was lucky it was only the third floor," said Peter, who underwent intense rehab and physiotherapy afterwards. "Now I stay with someone in the room, but it's the only time it's happened to me so I can't really do much about it. My mom told me it happened once or twice when I was nine or ten, but I saw some doctors when I got home and they said kids usually grow out of it."

Peter's return to competitive tennis has been impressively quick. He joined the Canada Davis Cup team in July, then qualified into a challenger in Granby followed by the Roger's Cup, where he earned a wild card into the ATP Masters Series, Canada. Last week he reached the final at the Junior Canadian Open in Repentigny.

"I have been working really hard on fitness in the last two months, ever since I came back," said Peter. "I feel now I can go out there and play for days."
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Another great win today went to Madison Brengle of the USA who eliminated the 7th seeded Dominika Cibulkova from Slovak Republic, 6-3; 6-3.

"I played aggressive; I played my game," Madison said. "She's a great player. She's had a lot of solid big wins and I know she's really fast and get's a ton of balls back, but I played really well and I am very happy."

Madison played two rounds in women's qualifying two weeks ago. "On this same court," she said, looking at court 8. "I feel really confident now. I lost to the third seed and I played really well in that match too, but I want to play here tomorrow. This is my court."

Not realizing it, Madison's match attracted the attention of Chris Evert and brother John as they sat courtside watching. "Oh my gosh that's so cool," said the American, overwhelmed when we told her. 'I tried to be focused but this is cool, oh my gosh."
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The tide turned overnight for those leading before the rain delay and returned to face fired up opponents. Lauren Albanese left the court yesterday leading 7-5, 0-1. Her fellow American opponent, Chelsey Gullickson, stormed to the second set, 6-1 before Lauren stemmed the tide and rattled off the third set.

"Coming out, she just played an unbelievable second set and there wasn't much I could do," said Lauren. "She was hitting the ball from both sides. She was holding serve and doing a great job and coming in and she was putting all kinds of pressure on me. If she had kept going like that I could have lost so it was a good thing I held in the first game of the third and got a little momentum after that."

Russian qualifier, Artem Smirnov edged past American Dennis Lajola, in a riveting contest, 2-6; 7-6(1); 7-5. Dennis lead 6-2; 2-2 before the rains came, but after the match resumed today he fell heavily on his right hand at 5-6 in the second set.

"I played better after talking to my coach last night," said Artem, on how he recovered on the return. "But after he fell down, he cannot play from the backhand and can only play forehands, so it helped me to win."

Ayumi Morita (3) of Japan made up for her lull from behind (3-6; 3-0 before the suspension) against Ksenia Lykina of Russia, and turned it around to win 3-6; 6-1; 7-5.

Meanwhile, Thomas Fabbiano of Italy managed to hold on to his 6-0 lead from yesterday, against Jurgen Zopp from Estonia. The ITF blogger rolled on to a 6-2 second set to finish in a flourish.

In other impressive matches, American wild card, Ashley Weinhold, who played two rounds of women's qualies, mixed doubles with Donald Young and women's doubles with Jamie Hampton, outlasted Alexsandra Panova of Russia, 6-3; 3-6; 6-3. The feisty American, who reached the final at the USTA Girls 18 National Hard Court Championships, engineered her way into the net and used her exemplary serve and tricky sliced forehand to extract the victory.

"I did get a little impatient at times, so there were a few points here and there that I couldn't pull out, but I think she raised her game in the second set," said Ashley, "In the third I tried to put more pressure on her and I came in a couple more times. I tried to use my forehand and move her around the court to try to get in because I don't think she dealt as well from the defensive end coming through the court."

Katarina Vankova of Czech Republic pulled out a revenge victory over ninth seed, Ksenia Milevskaya, 6-7(2); 7-6(3); 7-5. Last week she lost to the Belarussian winner of the Canadian Open in the semifinal round. "It was after a match with Cirstea so I was very tired and I couldn't move," explained Katarina. "But today I was ready and that's why I win."

Katarina broke when Ksenia served for the match at 5-4 in the third and then rolled on to win. "I was like 'just hit it in the court, she can't move so good like in the beginning of the match.' So I tried it and I win."

Finally qualifier, Jade Curtis, cruised past Urszula Radwanska (14) of Poland, in an impressive 6-3; 6-1. The British player has always shown promise and could be a threat to the Russian number one seed, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.

Check back for all the action at the US Open tomorrow.

Martin Klizan


Dominika Cibulkova


Dennis Lajola


Ashley Weinhold


Urszula Radwanska