Well, gentlemen, you've got a year to plan your kegger.
Caro will be 21 when she almost assuredly rides into New Haven next year.
Tennis will indeed be returning to New Haven next year, though without a title sponsor and without a significant amount of sausage. The New Haven Open at Yale will be a WTA only event, with the ATP side, according to Matt Cronin, being held that week though at a different location. So don't worry, journeymen ATPers, you'll still have your chance to tune up for your first or second round losses in New York.
I find it interesting that the ladies were able to get the tournament to stick it out with them next year. I have to think a lot of this has to do with the fact that their three-time defending champion just happens to be a highly marketable young kid who has professed her love of all things bulldog and will likely end the year at #1. And this year they actually had a pretty solid field, with Sam, Dinara, and Ana taking last minute wildcards, though Ana eventually had to withdraw.
Of course, this means that Caro's absolutely going to have to come back to New Haven next year, which means she'll likely have to do that Copenhagen --> Cincy --> Montreal --> New Haven --> USO swing again. I know she has to play Copenhagen and all but doing so definitely hampers her USO hard court preparation, as she misses out on Stanford and San Diego. Then, once she does get to the states, she has to play three straight weeks before going straight into the USO. That's a total of five straigth weeks of tennis if she makes it into the second week of New York. She clearly ran out of steam against Vera at the USO.
This does...not seem wise.
But congrats to New Haven for keeping the tournament for at least another year. One of my drivers was telling me how much money the tourney brought in to the City and I was blown away (can't remember the figure off the top of my head but it was huge). The Yale Tennis Center is a great venue for tennis and I would encourage anyone who's planning to go to the USO for qualies to come to NYC a little early and take the train to New Haven to catch some of the late round action.
Hopefully Sunshine can bring some sunshine in 2011. Because seriously? It was cold as fuck this year. Totally threw me a curveball on that one, New Haven.
