You know you are in Quebec when the amount of people attending the post-loss interview of Aleksandra Wozniak is more than ten-fold the number of those who showed up to the conference given by former World No. 1 and 2008 Champion Dinara Safina. Similarly, while many came out to support locals Wozniak and Stephanie Dubois during the night session, the stands were rather empty throughout the day matches, including for Safina’s win over Andrea Petkovic. Of course, Wozniak is a higher-ranked player than Safina today.

Here in Montreal, coaches can sit on the court and be, at times, literally a step away from their pupils. During her match against Shahar Peer, Kaia Kanepi’s coach Silver Karjus cheered loudly, often as soon as Peer was getting ready to serve or receive right by his side. To his credit, Karjus also applauded some of the winners Peer hit. On one of the second set changeovers, Karjus got up and went over to the Estonian to give her advice without her requesting on-court coaching.

Tennis legend Chris Evert met with the media prior to her induction into the Rogers Cup Hall of Fame tonight. When asked the common question of why so many young top players were not American, including at Evert’s academy, the 18-time Grand Slam winner gave a commonly-given answer about young players in other countries being more motivated to “get out,” while American lifestyles are, apparently, so luxuries that they provide little motivation to dedicate yourself to a career. We’d buy that answer if Evert did not include the trite statement, “America is, like, the land of freedom,” in her response.

When asked whether she “feels protective of her records,” and, specifically, her seven wins at Roland Garros, Evert initially responded, “No, I’m not greedy.” But she followed that up by saying she does not see anyone outperforming her at the French Open. Evert was quick to qualify that she believes winning a Slam is more difficult now, with more depth in the women´s field.

Dinara Safina, who was impressive in her straight-set win over a resilient Andrea Petkovic, says she is now completely pain-free but that she has made permanent changes to her days. Stretching and strengthening exercises have become routine in the mornings for her, like brushing one’s teeth, and she takes more time for a pre-match warm-up now.

When asked whether being ranked at No. 70 hurts despite knowing the fall down the rankings is due to her injury layoff, Safina said, “Yes, definitely, it hurts.” The Russian hesitated to answer whether she still feels like a top player, but did note that, since she beat World No. 36 in Petkovic, she must be at least “as good as 35.”