When Anne Worcester took over running what’s now the New Haven Open at Yale after years in senior management within women’s tennis, she recalls then-ATP Properties President Larry Scott telling her she would be the world’s most overqualified tournament director. Such was the reaction when the former WTA Tour CEO, director of worldwide operations for the Virginia Slims Tour, and managing director of the Women’s Tennis Council headed one tourney instead of 60. Worcester was at the forefront of many fundamental issues in women’s tennis, including the fight for equal prize money, and she helped make women’s tennis economically viable by significantly expanding sponsorship and TV revenue.

Worcester these days would much prefer to talk about the 5,000 New Haven kids the tourney has helped channel through grassroots tennis programs, and she is helping to market the city as CMO of Market New Haven. Overqualified? Few tournament directors of either gender have as much experience with players, events, TV and sales on a domestic and global scale as Worcester. If all that talent has accrued to one tourney and city, so be it.