Radwanska stops Svitolina in straight sets to win her first-ever Connecticut Open championship

Photos by Bill Harper

By Bob Phillips

NEW HAVEN—Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland topped Elina Svitolina of Ukraine 6-1, 7-6(3) to win the Connecticut Open on Saturday for the first time in her career. The 21-year-old Polish star did not lose a set the entire tournament.

After Radwanska cruised through the first set, jumping out to a 5-0 lead, winning 20 of the first 27 points in the match, and winning, 6-1, in just 29 minutes. The second set, however, proved to be much more competitive.

Radwanska had the opportunity to apply the dagger in the second set when, tied at three, she broke her Ukrainian opponent’s serve to take a 4-3 lead. That gave her the opportunity to serve out the match. But Svitolina had other ideas. She broke right back to even the set at 4-4, but then Radwanska broke Svitolina’s serve once more in an epic 15-volley game: 5-4 Radwanska, and one service hold away from the championship. But Svitolina broke right back, tying the match at 5-5. The Ukrainian then appeared to seize control of the set, holding serve to go up 6-5, and taking a 40-15 lead on Radwanska’s service game—one point away from forcing a third set. But then Radwanska reached down into that reserve owned exclusively by champions, and rallied to win the game. That tied the set and forced a tiebreak.

In the tiebreak, Radwanska took a 4-2 lead, which meant she needed only to hold serve to win the set, the match, and the championship. But she did one better, breaking Svitolina in Game 8 for a 6-2 lead, then holding serve to win the tournament.

Radwanska, who, as the No. 1 seed first earned a first-round bye, defeated Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia (who ousted four-time champ Caroline Wozniacki in the first round) in the second round, Kirsten Flipkens of Belgium, a lucky loser, in the quarterfinals, and two-time defending New Haven champ Petra Kvitová in the semifinal round. Svitolina, the tournament’s No. 10 seed from the Ukraine, defeated Russian Daria Kasatkina in the first round, Elena Vesnina, also of Russia, who reached the finals in 2009 before falling to Wozniacki, in the second round, and lucky loser Johanna Larsson of Sweden, who upset No. 2 seed Roberta Vinci, in the semifinals. This year’s field included an unprecedented six lucky losers in the main draw.

This was the second win of the season for the 27-year-old Radwanska, who also won in Shenzhen, China, in her first tournament of the season. The win in New Haven, which she entered as a wild card to tune up for this week’s upcoming U.S. Open in Queens, was the 19th of her career.

With the win, she also clinches the Emirates Airline U.S. Open Series women’s title.

“I didn’t really know that I had chance to win [the U.S. Open Series],” said the Polish star. “I was really surprised myself when I find out (Friday) I can be No. 1 in that list, as well. So now it’s everything in my power to do good in the US Open. It will be worth it, right?”

What it will be worth is an extra $1 million if she wins the U.S. Open, where she will be the No. 4 seed. If she goes the distance at Flushing Meadows, Radwanska will earn $4.5 million—$3.5 million for winning the Open, and a $1 million bonus as U.S. Open Series champion.

“It’s been a couple of good weeks,” said Radwanska.





                                                                                                —With Kristine Phillips and Staff Reports

Yankees Clobber Baltimore; Inch Closer To Wild-Card

When Brian Cashman dismantled what remained of the “old Yankees” at the trading deadline, transforming them into the “new Yankees” overnight, logic would dictate that the team would go through a period of growing pains today on their way to competing at a championship level tomorrow. Well, tomorrow may be coming a little earlier than expected. Behind Gary Sanchez, one of the “Baby Bombers” who is currently on an historic run, the Yankees topped the second-place Baltimore Orioles, 14-4, at The Stadium on Friday night.

Sanchez delivered right off the bat with a two-out single in the bottom of the first. Mark Teixeira followed with a home run deep into the bleachers to stake New York to a 2-1 lead. Then, in the second, the Yankees blew it open. Brett Gardner delivered a one-out, bases-loaded single to drive in two, and the next batter, Jacob Ellsbury, singled to drive in Ronald Torreyes. That brought up Sanchez again who—naturally—banged out a double to drive in Gardner and Torreyes to make it 7-1 New York.

Baltimore manager Buck Showalter called in Vance Worley to take over for starter Yovani Gallardo, but that didn’t stop the Bombers. Now it was time for the veterans to step up. Mark Texiera delivered an RBI single to put the Yankees up 8-1, and that was followed by a two-run homer by Chase Headley in the bottom of the fourth.

As they say in tennis, that was game-set-match.

With the win, the fourth-place Yankees improve to 66-61 (36-27 at home), and are 5.5 games behind first-place Toronto.  More importantly, however, is that they are now just 3.5 games behind Baltimore in the only race that matters—the wild card slot that opens the door to October baseball.

Sanchez, currently hitting .403 with 10 dingers, 20 RBIs and a crazy OBPS (1.309), was demoted to Scranton early in the season after getting off to a slow start. But that was then and this is now, and the 23-year-old catcher is the leader of the youth movement in the Bronx. Sanchez is quickly becoming the face of this new team, which was transformed from ancient pretenders to young contenders virtually overnight when oft-maligned GM Brian Cashman shed the roster of age (Carlos Beltran, Yvan Nova, Andrew Miller, and flame-throwing closer Adonis Chapman, a pending free agent) while bringing in the likes of minor-league shortstop Gleyber Torres, minor-league outfielders Billy McKinney and Rashad Crawford, and pitcher Adam Warren (from the Cubs); minor-league outfielder Clint Frazier and minor-league pitcher Justus Sheffield, Ben Heller, and J.P. Feyereisen (from Cleveland); and Dylan Tate, the No. 4 overall pick in the 2015 draft (from Texas).

In the span of seven days, the Yankees had gone from one of the weakest farm systems in baseball to one of the strongest. At the time, Yankee fans thought it was just a matter of sucking up losses in the short term for, hopefully, a bright future for many years ahead. After all, it’s unheard of for a team to be a “seller” at the trading deadline, and then contend for the postseason after shedding itself of significant veteran talent.

This year, it seems, the Yankees may be re-writing those rules.

AHL announces 2016-17 schedule, Sound Tigers and Wolf Pack gear up for new season

While it may be true that the summer of 2016 will be remembered for its brutal heat and humidity, there is relief on the horizon. What proof? The American Hockey League has released its 2016-17 schedule, which will result in plenty of action for the AHL’s two Connecticut-based franchises, the Bridgeport Sound Tigers and Hartford Wolf Pack.

The Sound Tigers will play two preseason games: Wed., Oct. 5, vs. Hartford at Trinity College, and Sat., Oct. 8, vs. the Providence Bruins at the Wonderland of Ice in Bridgeport. First puck drops at 7 p.m. for both contests. Tickets for the Wonderland game will be $10, with proceeds going towards youth hockey. Gates will open at 6 p.m. The regular season opens a week later, Sat., Oct. 15 vs. the P-Bruins at the Webster Bank Arena. Faceoff is at 7 p.m.

In all, 31 of the Sound Tigers’ 38 home games will be on weekends, this season: three on Friday night, 15 on Saturday night, and 13 on Sunday afternoon. In addition, the annual “Cool Fun 101” school-day game will take place Wed. Nov. 2 when the Tigers entertain the Albany Devils with an 11 a.m. faceoff. The Tigers will also have a “Spring Fun 102” game on Tues., Apr. 4, vs. Springfield at 11 a.m. The team’s full promotional schedule with details on Opening Night and all other theme nights will be released over the next two weeks. For a complete schedule, please click HERE.

“We are excited to have more than 80 percent of our home games on the weekend,” said Sound Tigers’ president Michael Picker. “There’s a lot to look forward to, including the return of 3 p.m. starts for most of our Sunday contests. [Last season, most Sunday games started at 5 p.m.] In addition, we are incorporating fun themed activities into a significant amount of our home games.”

Bridgeport will play division rivals Providence and Springfield (who this year will be known as the Thunderbirds) 12 times apiece. Meanwhile, the Sound Tigers and Wolf Pack will do battle eight times in the 2016-17 season. Bridgeport will also play the Hershey Bears and Lehigh Valley Phantoms eight times each, and the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins six times.

Season, partial and group ticket plans are on sale now through the Sound Tigers front office. Please call (203) 345-2300 for more information. Tickets can be purchased online at Ticketmaster.com , by phone at (800) 745-3000 or at the Webster Bank Arena Click It Or Ticket Box Office located at 600 Main Street, Bridgeport. Executive suites & premium seat packages are also available by calling 203-345-2300 ext 8.

The Wolf Pack will kick off the regular season at home with a game against the St. John’s IceCaps at 7:15 p.m. on Fri., Oct. 14, at the XL Center. A special discount package is available for the home opener, including one Red-level ticket as well as one complimentary Red-level ticket to an October, November or December Wolf Pack home game of the purchaser’s choice.  In addition, every package purchased will include a $5 Dunkin’ Donuts gift card. The Opening Night package is priced at $30, and will be available starting on Wed., Aug. 24, through Sept. 7, and is available only on the Wolf Pack’s official website, www.hartfordwolfpack.com. The home opener will be the first of 12 Friday night games on the Wolf Pack’s home schedule that will also include 10 Saturday night games and seven Sunday home dates. The Wolf Pack will also have one Tuesday night and eight Wednesday night home games.

Wednesday, Nov. 2, will be Pack’s third annual “Sonar’s Edu-skate” school-day home game with an 11 a.m. faceoff. First puck will drop at 7:15 p.m. for all Friday night home games, while the remainder of the non-Sunday home contests will start at 7:00 p.m.—except for Sat., Jan. 7 and Sat., Feb. 4, which will start at 7:30; Sat., Dec. 31 (New Year’s Eve), which will have a 5 p.m. faceoff, and Sat., Mar. 4, which will have a 3 p.m. start. All Sunday home dates will start at 5 p.m., except for Mar. 5, in which first puck will drop at 3 p.m.

The Wolf Pack’s most familiar foes will be Atlantic Division opponents Springfield and Providence, whom the Pack will face 10 time each—five home, and five away. Hartford will face the rest of their divisional rivals—Bridgeport, Hershey, Lehigh Valley, and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton—eight times each (four home, four away).

In addition to those 52 divisional games, the Wolf Pack will play 24 contests against North Division competition, including four games (two home, two away) vs. Albany, Rochester, Toronto, Utica and St. John’s, and two games each (home-and-home) with Binghamton and Syracuse.

Wolf Pack 2016-17 single-game tickets will go on sale Tue., Sept. 13, at noon, at the XL Center box office, on-line at www.hartfordwolfpack.com and by phone at (877) 522-8499.  Also, similar to the past three seasons, on Sept. 13, fans will be invited to participate in the ice-painting process during the installation of the XL Center ice surface.  Fans are encouraged to come to the XL Center between noon and 1 p.m. that day, to take paint brush in hand and apply some of the special red and blue “Jet Ice” paint to the newly-frozen rink. Those interested are asked to come to the XL Center atrium, where Wolf Pack staff will be on hand to escort them to ice level.