New Haven tournament becomes exclusive to Women’s Tennis Association
The Tournament held early at New Haven, a professional tennis event, is soon to become exclusively catered for the Women’s Tennis Association, making it a women’s only event. Another change in the tournament is the sponsorship, which will switch hands from
one major single title corporation to the division of several such sponsoring organizations.
This tournament was one of the four events in the tennis world which was approved by both the Association of Tennis Professionals and the Women’s Tennis Association Tour. It will be known as the New Haven Open at Yale in 2011, with Yale University as one
of the new sponsors, and will become a completely WTA-exclusive event. A total number of 28 women who will be allotted spots for the event and doubles draw is also one of the attractions of this event.
This announcement was made on Thursday at the Connecticut Tennis Center on Thursday, by tournament officials and spokespersons for Yale University.
"Today's announcement is an out-of-the-box, good-news solution to ensure that this large-scale, international sporting event will stay in our region for a minimum of three years," said Anne Worcester, the tournament’s director.
The tournament had been sponsored mainly by Pilot Pen Corporation of America for the past 15 years, but they chose to end the professional relationship this year due to financial and economic concerns. The company recently moved its headquarters to Connecticut
from Florida. Other organizations besides Yale University which have agreed to sponsor the event are Yale-New Haven Hospital, American Express and Aetna. The New Haven Register reported that this sponsorship would be binding for at least the next three years.
There were a few reasons behind the decision to eliminate male players from the event, most prominently the fact that the tournament’s draw has always suffered from the slot it takes up on the tennis calendar. The event is held in the week just before the
US Open Tournament, and most players opt to take a week off from tournaments before a Grand Slam event is played. Other players, who may not be so well-prepared, choose to ask for a wild card entry right before the event, using the matches as a practice run
for the Major tournament.
Anne Worcester, who is also a former WTA chief executive, has been successful at garnering top women players to play at the event, but she has had a more difficult time getting the male players to participate. She says,
“While we really would have liked to keep the men’s event, the financial model for staging a combined tennis tournament simply didn’t work.”
The tournament seems to have become something of a fixture in New Haven, which is why eliminating it all together would be impractical for the area. It reportedly has an estimated impact of 26 million dollars on the Connecticut economy. The mayor of New
Haven, John DeStefano, says that it has become an important aspect of the cultural identity of the area. "The tournament is a New Haven tradition," he said, "that residents and visitors alike look forward to every year."
The tournament will be held in 2011 before the US Open once again, at the Connecticut Tennis Center at Yale, from August 19-27.
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