New Haven Pilot Pen Tennis

Hola! Blondie here… This week I am coming to you from New Haven Connecticut. Never heard of it, thought so. Did you ever see the movie Amistad? It took place here. I had planned to write you a nice column about the town and the tennis tournament here but this pesky little storm called Hurricane Dean threw a wrench in the plans. Currently that storm has morphed into Category 5 and is due to slam into the Yucatán Peninsula in the next few hours. Hope my friends at Diamonds International in Cozumel lock up tight, I need to do some shopping next time I go. Now those of you who read my cruise column know how I feel about land based Caribbean vacations versus cruises. How frequently I hear the "I don't want to cruise because of Hurricanes" excuse. Well who looks stupid now. Guess how many cruise passengers this week have had their vacations cut short due to Dean? ZERO! Now RCI, Carnival NCL and the others have made some modifications to the itineraries of a few of their ships, but no vacations have been killed. How many land based vacationers have been affected? Thousands! Too many to count. It is not just the passengers this week affected, but rather the guests next week and those booked in weeks to come. Ya'll really think the resort areas are going to get hit with 175 MPH wind and just rebound and be ready for business as usual on Monday? Dream on. It takes months to get infrastructure just up to basic living standards.

For those not in the know let me give ya'll a little lesson on hurricanes. A Cat 3 storm will rip off shingles, shutters and destroy anything not cemented down. A Cat 4 will tear even the strongest roofs off buildings, rip trees in half and make flying lethal projectiles out of blades of grass. A cat 5 destroys almost anything in its path including heavy damage if not destruction to even the strongest cement buildings. I do not know of too many structures in the USA able to withstand a cat 5. Now think about Mexico. Not a pretty picture. Oh, by the way, Katrina was a cat 3 storm when it hit New Orleans, but a cat 4 when it hit Biloxi, MS, a town that lost its ENTIRE waterfront. Oh and just to prove a point, the Magic Casino which normally sat on the intra costal about 150 yards from the ocean, was moved, yes, the whole building, about 1/2 mile inland. For more on Dean, be sure to read my cruise column this month.

Back to Connecticut. The Connecticut Tennis Center in New Haven is host to the Pilot Pen Tennis Tournament. Set amid the graceful Yale Bowl surroundings, the tournament offers up the best of both men's and ladies tennis. The history of the Tournament goes back several years at one point being a ladies tournament and prior to that a men's only event. Growing up in Connecticut I still remember the old Volvo tennis tournament commercials from the 80's. The men's event was moved to Long Island and the ladies took over. Then, three years ago the tournament was combined into a WTA and ATP event as the official warm up to the US Open.

Though not predictable anytime of the year, weather in Connecticut can play tricks on you in August. One day will be unbearably hot and the next downright cold, raining and miserable. The weather reports change daily. Those planning to attend the Pilot Pen or the US Open need to keep this in mind when packing and also in scheduling. If you plan to only come for one day, you may be out of luck. Better plan for at least 2.

The official hotel of the Pilot Pen is the Omni Hew Haven Hotel. Most of the players stay here but some are around the corner at the New Haven Hotel or even banished to the La Quinta. The Omni is a 4 star hotel with friendly staff, good restaurant, good location and best of all they accept pets. This meant my little Daisy got to come for the week. She loves to go by-by with Mommy, but even more than that, she loves to chase "city" pigeons. The hotel is one block from New Haven Green, a large park with a fairly large population of pigeons. Unlike the quick witted sea gulls and doves of Satellite Beach, the New Haven pigeons are easy prey for a fluffy spoiled little pooch. No pigeons were actually killed, but I fear a few may be walking funny for a while. The Omni is located close to the Yale campus and is in walking distance to many good bars and restaurants.

My favorite was a new Spanish Tapas place called Barcelona. Located directly next door to the hotel, the offerings were far superior than any of the other eateries in the vicinity. Across the street are 2 famous pubs: the Black Bear and the Playwrite. The Temple Grill, also across the street has decent fare as well. I personally liked both the Temple grill and the Playwrite because of their outside patios where I could dine alfresco with Daisy. Always a wine lover, "The Wine Thief", a specialty wine store is around the corner from the hotel. If you read my other columns, you know I always travel with a bottle opener precisely for this reason.

The New Haven Hotel is by contrast a 2 star establishment about 3 blocks from the Omni and both hotels can be booked at tournament rates directly from www.pilotpentennis.com Make sure to book early as both room blocks sell out about a month or so before the Tournament starts. You can cancel up to 3 days before arrival so better safe than sorry on that one if you think you want to go. Public transportation is available from the Hotels via the New Haven Trolley. It leaves on the hour or half hour from the downtown hotels and will drop fans off at the Connecticut Tennis Center. Parking is available at the Tournament but is costly and a fair distance from the Courts.

Ticket prices are reasonable as far as tournaments go but beware of the rain out policy. If a session is cancelled, they will swap out unused tickets for general admission, not a good trade if you bought costly lower seats. Unless you plan to attend the quarterfinals or finals, my suggestion is to buy your tickets at the gate or online day before. There are plenty of good seats available on the early days. Due to the large draws, the tournament must utilize several smaller courts where seating is not assigned and chances are that you may enjoy these matches just as well as the ones in the main stadium. Since this is a warm-up to a grand slam and follows two Masters Series men's events and two equally large ladies event, do not expect the biggest names in tennis to be playing there. You will see a large field of top talent but the cream of the crop are generally absent. That is not to say that a top 10 player will not be present, just don't count on many of them. The event itself is quite fan friendly. Food and concessions are plentiful and varied. While not cheap, the prices do not range into the usurious territory that the Sony Ericsson in Miami and the US Open explore. All of the practice courts can be viewed by the public and the event does list what time and on what court several of the more popular players will be using. This is a real plus if you have kids in tow. Another plus for kids is the interactive area set up just for them. It features games and attractions for the junior fans.

My biggest complaint about this tournament, besides the iffy weather and parking is the restroom situation. The only restrooms available are at the far end of the site in the main stadium. If you are watching on the smaller courts you have quite a walk and on a crowded day, quite a wait. I suppose port-a-potties would be the answer. Not that I plan to use them, but others would and then I would not have to wait so long at the real bathrooms. The owners of this tournament also own one in Buenos Aires and both have almost identical set-ups at the site including the location of the "real" bathrooms. Unlike New Haven, the Buenos Aires tournament has ample "sanatarios" located on site. The irony of that is that they do not sell alcohol at their tournament, yet have ample restroom facilities. Guess the joke is on us!