Anna Chakvetadze ended fourth-seeded Nadia Petrova's final hardcourt tuneup for the US Open with a 0-6, 7-6 (4), 6-4 win Sunday in the first round of the Pilot Pen tournament. “If I had won the second game of the second set, the result would have been like the first set,” said Petrova, ranked No. 12 in the world. “When she got that key game, she felt like she was back in the match.” At one point, Chakvetadze led 5-0 in the third set, but had to withstand one last charge from Petrova before putting her away for the fifth straight match. In another first-round match, Alona Bondarenko defeated wild-card entry Meghann Shaughnessy, 4-6, 6-3, 7-5. Taylor Dent won his first-round match in the men's tournament, beating Ivan Ljubicic, 6-3, 6-4, to continue his comeback after retiring following two back operations three years ago. David Ferrer, seeded No. 4 in the men's main draw, withdrew because of a knee injury without playing a match. Djokovic growing in confidence Novak Djokovic said he will go into the US Open with renewed optimism after his run to the final of the Cincinnati Masters. The Serb was beaten in the final by Roger Federer but his confidence was lifted by the manner of his defeat of Rafa Nadal in the semifinal. When Djokovic was beaten in the third round of the French Open in May, the 22-year-old was the picture of dejection, depressed at the state of his game. But after making the final in Cincinnati, the former Australian Open champion said things were looking up once more. “Overall, it's been a great week for me - I got a lot of matches in before the US Open, so I'm satisfied,” he said. “I started quite slow, but then the quarterfinals was a little bit better, and then the semifinal was a great match.” Djokovic's defeat was his fourth in Masters Series finals this year and though he was hampered by a quick turnaround after playing Nadal on Saturday night, the Serb said he had been second best to Federer. “Unfortunately I was born in the wrong era,” he joked. “I was very close in most of those finals, but I don't think this is some kind of curse or something. “Everybody is playing (great) tennis. Those two guys, Nadal and Federer, and of course (Andy) Murray, they're all playing fantastic tennis. Roger and Rafa are maybe two of the best players that ever played this game. Roger for sure is.”
