NEW HAVEN,Conn. - Top-ranked Caroline Wozniacki remained in Connecticut on Saturday to play the final of the New Haven Open before heading to the U.S. Open.
Wozniacki and Czech qualifier Petra Cetkovska began play shortly after 1 p.m. outside at the Connecticut Tennis Center on the Yale campus, a start time that was moved from 5 p.m. in the hopes of avoiding the effects of Hurricane Irene.
"Hopefully it won't rain,'' she said Friday night. "If it will, then we want to play it (Saturday) so we can get down to New York. Then we have to see. (We're) trying to figure out a plan where we can be safe.''
Tournament officials brought in cranes overnight to remove the two-ton scoreboards from the top of the tennis stadium and replaced them with two smaller scoreboards courtside.
Tournament spokesman Matt Van Tuinen said they also have made contingency plans to move the final from the 15,000-seat Connecticut Tennis Center to the nearby 750-seat indoor Cullman-Heyman tennis facility on at Yale if the rain starts.
That facility was used by the tournament in 2009 for several matches when the remnants of another hurricane hit the area.
"We're playing today,'' he said. ``This tournament will be finished today.''