Last round of qualifiers was picture perfect at the ConnecticutOpen

The last round of qualifying matches was picture perfect today at the Connecticut Open. Warm weather blanketed the courts as spectators enjoyed watching some exciting tennis matches. American Christina McHale advanced to the main round as she defeated Japan's Misaki Doi 6-4, 7-6(2).

“It’s the last American in qualifying but I’m just really happy with how I competed today and how I fought,” McHale said. “It was a really up and down match. At times Misaki was really playing well and I kind of just had to weather the storm and try and use my serve to mix it up and get myself back into the games."

“Even when I was down 3-0, I knew that just like she had done in the first set, I could do the same. The games were still really close. Sometimes there were just times Misaki was coming up with shots that were really good.”

Earlier in the day, former World No. 2 Vera Zvonareva won a match against Anastasia Rodionova in her first return to WTA Tour play since 2015. Saturday afternoon, attendees also watched a second match where Zvonareva played this year’s Wimbledon semi-finalist Magdalena Rybarikova. Rybarikova led the match 7-5 before Zvonareva retired with a left achilles injury.

During her time away from tennis (2015-2017), Zvonareva got married, earned a masters in Global Studies and Political Science from a joint program between Northeastern University and the Women's Tennis Benefits Association and became a mother in 2016.

The matches took place in the Sportsmaster Grandstand court as well as Courts 1, 2 and 3. The nice thing about the smaller courts is that you're up close to the action within 20 feet of the court. The bleacher seats are three rows high and provide a closer location to the court than ever before.

Tickets are still available for the first day of the main round. The best option for families is the Family Four-Pack of tickets which also gets you a $20 food voucher and a tournament poster.

Here are the rest of my photos from Day #2:

A rainy start to this year's Connecticut Open Tennis Tournament

It was a rainy start to the 2017 Connecticut Open tennis tournament in New Haven, Connecticut. The tournament draw was moved inside to the media center. Children from NewHYTES (New Haven’s Tennis and Education initiative) helped tournament director Anne Worcester, 3-time Connecticut Open champion Petra Kvitova and representatives from Porsche (the official vehicle sponsor) drew numbers to fill out the draw sheet. 

After 5 hours of rain delays, the qualifying matches for the tournament started and spectators enjoyed the return of womens professional tennis to the Elm City.

There’s a lot of fun activities for families to enjoy at this year’s Connecticut Open and they start on Sunday with ShopRite Kids Day! Sunday kicks off the first round of matches and the first 1,000 kids receive a goody bag!

On Monday, August 21, there is a free USPTA lesson during Session 2 from 1-4pm. Don't miss the 

Opening Night Ceremony during Session 3 (starts at 7 pm) which will have star players, local celebrities and entertainment.

Individual Stadium Box seat tickets for Sunday start at $27 and family 4-packs are $85.

#SoxWinterWeekend at Foxwoods with the Red Sox recap

This past weekend, we had the pleasure to join the Boston Red Sox at Foxwoods for their #SoxWinterWeekend. We had an amazing time! There were so many "great moments" it's hard to nail it down to just a few but here's some highlights...

We first checked in at the Grand Pequot hotel to pick up our passes. When we registered for the weekend we got a welcome email about a week before telling us what to expect but also asking us to preregister for autograph and photo sessions and whether or not we wanted to take part in the Kids Clinic or add on a breakfast with Wally to our package.

The preregistration was a great idea because it allowed us to select autograph times that were convenient to us. While there were 4 rooms per hour, and we didn't know which player/coach would be in which room, so we chose at random.

While there were quite a lot of lines for the autograph sessions or player panels, everything seemed to run smoothly and the team was really smart to have some entertainment provided for fans while they waited in line.

We also liked that you could use the MLB Ballpark app to get the schedule for the weekend at any time on your mobile device. The panels were amazing: we were able to relive the '07 world series championship as they brought head coach John Farrell, Tim Wakefield, and Jason Varitek to tell some inside stories from the season and answer fans' questions. The other sessions were Call to the Hall which had Sox who were in the National Baseball Hall of Fame, a game show which had players play against coaches and even a press conference from the kids in attendance - those questions were the best and a few were absolutely hilarious!

The fan fest in the Premier ballroom in Fox Tower had something for everyone and was open even after the sessions all ended so you could still experience it if you were in panels and getting autographs all day. They literally brought the Fenway experience from Boston to Foxwoods: banners, David Ortiz' lego statue which is normally out in the kids' concourse, Mickey Mouse adorned in Red Sox logos and colors that usually is on the 3rd base deck, and silver bats and gold gloves. They had batting cages, wiffle bats for the little ones, a mini baseball field that kids could field balls, the Sox Showcase with Red Sox Virtual Reality, steal-a-base contest, NESN Clubhouse auditions and even the Team Store!

NOTE: We were provided with passes to attend Winter Weekend at Foxwoods from the Boston Red Sox. No other compensation was provided and all opinions are our own.

Great time at the Mystic Aquarium

We had an awesome time at the Mystic Aquarium this week! We were guests of the aquarium and had the chance to check out the exhibits as well as a special Kidsploration performance that is being held three times this summer. We had the chance to check out the performance first and there were lots of families in the Foxwoods Marine Center auditorium enjoying the music with lots of kids dancing around. This is definitely great for families.

Next we looked at the Titanic exhibit. This exhibit has many facts and details about the Titanic's fate and uses some really cool technology to enhance the experience. We enjoyed reading up on all that they had to say about it.

We walked around the outside exhibits and saw beluga whales, seals and penguins. There are lots of exhibits to see and things to learn. We saw the sea lion show in the marine theater. This show seemed geared towards children between 5 and 9. Our daughter was nervous about the noise and then adjusted to it and was fine.

We were treated to the 4D performance of Spongebob Squarepants and thought it was pretty cute. It was very entertaining. There were bubbles flying all over and jellyfish galore. You even felt like they were coming by which got lots of laughs from the crowd.

Inside the gallery they had some pretty neat exhibits that included turtles, fish, jellies and even the seals from the performance before. We watched some kids play with the seals and then we started to smile at them and they started reacting and playing too. It was pretty cool.