Wooster Square Blossom Blog: Wooster Square Blossom Blogs to the New, New Haven, Connecticut Open!

Wild Wacking Women Wow Watchers!

Summer in New Haven can only mean one thing to some people. Tennis.

The Women's professional tennis tour, the WTA, makes its annual stop right here in the Elm City. World class tennis in our Historic corner of New England. Travelers from around the world come to see great tennis and enjoy New Haven... a quiet preface to the Storm of the following weeks US Open,

the year's last Grand Slam.

The World of Tennis casts its watchful eyes on

New Haven Connecticut. Home of the New,

Connecticut Open!

Over the years the tournament has had its ups and downs, but for 2014, we hit the United Jackpot!

United Technologies, that is.

United Technologies, headquartered in Connecticut,

doubled down on its commitment to the state

by becoming the Title Sponsor.

This gave our World Class Sporting event,

and Tournament Director Anne Worcester,

some needed breathing room.

The State of Connecticut also came into the fray at the last minute with Governor Dan Malloy riding a white horse and a contract to

buy the tournament event and save

World Class Tennis here in Historic New Haven.

Thanks United Technologies!

Thanks
Anne Worcester
and
Dan Malloy!

To make things all brand new and shiney,

they renamed the Tournament the

Connecticut Open

(brought to you by UTC)

So this year, flush with new sponsorship,

Anne went out and got one of the best

Women's fields that any Tournament

of the season.

11 of the top 25.

French Open Semi-finalist and World #2

and last years New Haven Open Champion.

Simona Halep.

Wimbledon Champion and 2012 New Haven Open

Champion- Petra Kvitova.

4 time New Haven (Pilot Pen, New Haven Open)

Champion and Fan Fave - Caroline Wozniacki.

New comer and Wimbledon Finalist

Genie Bouschard.

And the names didn't stop there.

Cibulkova, Pennetta, Errani, Suarez-Navaro, Giorgi, Vandewegeh, Rybarikova, Petkovic, Vinci, Makarova, Muguruza, Flipkins, Peng and even Pittsburg's Allison Riske.

But in the end, Petra Kvitova bested out of
nowhere Magdalena Rybarikova, who beat Simona Halep, Allison Risk, streaking Camila Giorgi to get to the finals against Petra.

Petra says she likes New Haven.

New Haven loves you Petra!

Luckily, I had my camera to bring you some
of the fun and action that is
World Class Tennis, right here!

The Connecticut Open!

Connecticut Tennis Center at Yale

Petkovic Pows sans Prance
(if she wins she does a "dance")
((she lost to Flipkins))

Petkovic Serves up an ace

Japan's Kurumi Nara's form not enough for
the overpowering Samantha Stosur

Stosur Muscles a winner

Slamming Sam couldn't get past
Petra, the 2014 (and 2012) Champion

But Stosur dismantled rising American star
Genie Bouchard

Wimbledon Finalist Bouchard Bumped

Canada's Genie Bouchard

A Stosur missed serve...

Italy's Flavia Pennetta took down
America's own Alison Riske

The Pride of Pittsburgh People!
(Riske)

Some like it HOT!
(Temps made the action sizzle)

Four time Champion
Caroline Wozniacki...

...couldn't get by
the hot hand of the quick Italian
Camila Giorgi

Giorgi Gave it all, only to fall to the
very hot and semi-finalist
Magdelena Rybarikova.

Giorgi pride of Tirrenia, Italy
(outside of Pisa)

Eketerina Makarova, who made a run at the US
Open making it to the semi-finals
ran into hard hitting
Petra in the second round

Makarova couldn't make a move.

I bumped into her at New Haven Fitness
and wished her luck. Glad to see she
went on to much success in New York!

There was plenty to do and see during the week of Tennis here in the Elm City. All sorts of food
from the Square Doughnuts from Orangeside
and the Cassius Cheese Truck.

This year they decided to have a meet and greet players for box holders. The players are all
very grateful and polite (and tall!)

Caroline Wozniacki Wittily Wows

Former and Future Champ (current)
Petra and Anne Share a laugh

Fielding a question from a fan,
last year's New Haven Open
Champion and
World #2 Player
Simona Halep

Simona said she likes New Haven because
of the shopping and restaurants.

Unfortunately for Simona, she ran into red
hot Magdalena Ryybarikova who's run
endend against the powerful Kvitova
in the finals.

Magdalena Makes Meaningful Magic, Man.

Rybarikova Really Rocked

ending as a fitting runner-up to the
hard Hitting Petra Kvitova

Petra kept her eye on the ball
and on the title to become the first
Connecticut Open Champion!

At the meet and greet, I asked Petra
if the Wooster Square Blossom Blog
was her favorite New Haven Read and
she appeared...

in shock that I knew somehow it seemed...

Genie Bouchard, the tours new
sensation getting to the finals at
Wimbledon.

Here I asked her if she had any trouble adjusting to the language here in the US, to
which the stone faced serious Canadian native said there wasn't much of a difference.

And of course the whole affair ended with
Tournament director Anne Worcester
was dunked by the four stars for the
ALS Challenge.

It's all good in New Haven!

Could it be the last time we see
French Open Champion, Italian
Francesca Schiavone?
(she lost in the first round)
((she did have pizza at Bar,
and said it was as good as
any pizza in Italy!))

Click here to read about how the players enjoy our city in the New Haven Register

There's lot's of interesting things at the
tennis that I seem to notice...