Pilot Pen Tennis

Infobox joint Tennis Tournament
Name = Pilot Pen Tennis
Current =

Logo_size = 100px
City = New Haven, Connecticut
Country = USA
Venue = Cullman-Heyman Tennis Center
Surface = DecoTurf/Outdoors
Web_site = http://www.pilotpentennis.com/home/default.sps
Notes =
ATP_Category = International Series
ATP_Draw = 48S / 32Q / 16D
ATP_Prize_Money = US$675,000
WTA_Tier = Tier II
WTA_Draw = 28M / 32Q / 16D
WTA_Prize_Money = US$600,000

The Pilot Pen Tennis (currently known as the "Pilot Pen Tennis presented by Schick" for sponsorship reasons) is a professional tennis tournament played on outdoor hard courts. It is currently part of the International Series of the ATP Tour and of the Tier II Series of the WTA Tour. It is held annually at the Cullman-Heyman Tennis Center in New Haven, Connecticut, United States, just before the fourth and last Grand Slam tournament of the season, the US Open.

History

The tournament was created in 1948 as the "U.S. Women's Hardcourt Championships", and first played in Sacramento, California, United States. Over the twenty following years of its first run, the event was moved regularly to several U.S. locations, including Berkeley, California, Salt Lake City, Utah, Seattle, Washington, La Jolla, San Diego, California, and Denver, Colorado, and numbers of women's tennis champions participated to and won the event, among which Doris Hart, Rosemary Casals, Billie Jean King, and Jane "Peaches" Bartkowicz. The event was eventually discontinued after its 1969 edition, following the beginning of tennis' Open Era.cite news|author=pilotpentennis.com|title=2008 Pilot Pen Tennis Press Guide| url =http://dps.usta.com/usta_master/usta/doc/content/doc_584_13009.pdf?8/15/2008|date =2008-08-15| accessdate =2008-08-22| language =English]

In 1988, the United States Tennis Association (USTA) decided to reinstate the tournament. The first edition of the new "U.S. Women's Hardcourt Championships" were held that year in San Antonio, Texas, first as part of the Tier IV Series of the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) Tour, and then, in 1990, as an upgraded Tier III event. The championships were first sponsored by Post Cereals in 1990,cite news|author=sonyericssonwtatour.com|title=Sony Ericsson WTA Tour Final Results: 1971-2007| url =http://www.sonyericssonwtatour.com/3/global/includes/TrackIt.asp?file=http://www.sonyericssonwtatour.com/3/global/pdfs/events/2008/tournamentfinals.pdf| accessdate =2008-09-07| language =English] and, from 1992 to 1994, by Acura. Over the first years of its second run, the tournament saw among its champions several past or future World No. 1s, as Steffi Graf, Monica Seles, or Martina Navratilova. After the event was moved to Stratton Moutain, Vermont, for the 1993 and 1994 editions, conflicts with the 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympics eventually prevented the tournament from being held in 1995 and 1996. In 1997, the event returned again, now a Tier II event, first taking place in Stone Moutain, Georgia, then, starting from 1998, in its current location of New Haven, Connecticut, under the new sponsorship of Pilot Pen.

That year, the "Pilot Pen International" became the second tennis tournament of New Haven, alongside the men's "Pilot Pen International", first created in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire in 1973 as the "Volvo International", and moved to Connecticut in 1990, where it took the Pilot Pen sponsorship in 1997. When the men's event was cancelled in 1999, the women's "Pilot Pen" tournament remained the only one of the region until 2005, when the USTA decided to purchase the men's tournament of Long Island, New York. [cite news|author=Associated Press|title= USTA buys ATP event, moves it to New Haven| url = http://www.usatoday.com/sports/tennis/2005-05-09-usta-event_x.htm|date =2005-05-09| accessdate =2008-08-22| language =English] Started in Long Island's Jericho hamlet as an four-player singles exhibition in 1981, the event, first known as the "Hamlet Challenge Cup", developped into a larger draw competition, and saw winning numerous top players in the 1980s, including Ivan Lendl, or an eighteen-year-old Andre Agassi in 1988. [cite news|author=Judy Weinberg|title= LI Sports: A Chronology| url = http://www.newsday.com/community/guide/lihistory/ny-historysports-chron,0,6602613,full.story| accessdate =2008-09-11| language =English] [cite news|author=The New York Times|title= Mayer Beats Kriek| url = http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F04EFD81738F933A0575BC0A964948260| date=1982-08-30| accessdate =2008-09-11| language =English] [cite news|author=The New York Times|title= Gene Mayer Wins, Beating Gunthardt| url = http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F70C1EF73F5C0C7A8EDDA10894DB484D81| date=1983-08-29| accessdate =2008-09-11| language =English] [cite news|author=The New York Times|title= Gomez Is Beaten By Lendl, 6-2, 6-4| url = http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F60E10FE3B5C0C748EDDA10894DC484D81| date=1984-08-27| accessdate =2008-09-11| language =English] [cite news|author=The New York Times|title= Lendl Defeats Connors| url = http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9900EEDF1139F932A25753C1A963948260| date=1985-10-11| accessdate =2008-09-11| language =English] [cite news|author=The New York Times|title= Lendl Dominates McEnroe To Win Final| url = http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F50715F9385E0C768EDDA10894DE484D81| date=1986-08-25| accessdate =2008-09-11| language =English] [cite news|author=The New York Times|title= Tennis; Manuela Maleeva Defeats Hanika| url = http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DEFD8113BF932A0575BC0A961948260| date=1987-08-31| accessdate =2008-09-11| language =English] [cite news|author=The Washington Post|title= Agassi, Graf Win Final Tune-Ups; Both Say They Are Ready for Beginning of U.S. Open Today| url = http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1P2-1276005.html| date=1988-08-29| accessdate =2008-09-11| language =English] [cite news|author=The New York Times|title= U.S. OPEN '89; Lendl Tested in Final But Prevails as Usual | url = http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=950DE7DD1530F93BA1575BC0A96F948260| date=1989-08-28| accessdate =2008-09-11| language =English] In 1990, the Long Island tournament officially entered the newly created Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) Tour, becoming the "Norstar Bank Hamlet Challenge Cup" in 1990 and 1991, the "Waldbaum's Hamlet Cup" from 1992 to 2000, "The Hamlet Cup" in 2001, and finally the "TD Waterhouse Cup" from 2002 until the move to New Haven, adding over the year names like Stefan Edberg, Yevgeny Kafelnikov, Magnus Norman, Paradorn Srichaphan or Lleyton Hewitt to its list of champions.

Creating the first large joint ATP-WTA tournament leading to the US Open, [cite news|author=pilotpentennis.com|title= USTA purchases ATP men's tournament to create first combined summer event| url = http://www.pilotpentennis.com/tournamentinfo/fullstory.sps?iType=12795&iNewsid=336432|date =2005-05-10| accessdate =2008-08-22| language =English] the 2005 merge allowed the "Pilot Pen Tennis", which also became the last event of the US Open Series, to continue to attract top players, with Svetlana Kuznetsova, James Blake, Justine Henin or Nikolay Davydenko winning the event in recent years.

Past finals

Men's singles

Women's doubles

References

External links

* [http://www.pilotpentennis.com/ Official website]
* [http://www.atptennis.com/en/tournaments/profile/3348.asp atptennis.com profile (New Haven years)]
* [http://www.atptennis.com/en/tournaments/profile/441.asp atptennis.com profile (Long Island years)]
* [http://www.sonyericssonwtatour.com/tournaments/profiles/newhaven.asp sonyericssonwtatour.com profile (New Haven years)]