The top seeds always draw big crowds during practice, and it's easy to tell when Federer shows up. He hits for a while with Stanislas Wawrinka, his partner in the doubles draw. Early in the session, Roger shanks a couple of backhands and, after practicing his swing twice, asks Stan to give him a few more. Federer then proceeds to blast five in a row, crosscourt, all of them less than a foot inside the baseline. Problem solved.
I pack up for a break and almost step right in front of Lleyton Hewitt, who has shown up for an unscheduled practice. Maybe once you've won a couple of Slams, you get some perks. Lleyton takes the court and is looking pretty lethargic until he starts playing games with his partner. True to form, once someone is keeping score, Hewitt fights for every point.
New star Milos Raonic draws a pretty good crowd, but his practice session is not high energy. Sania Mirza is having a fun hit nearby, while Ivanovic and Darren Cahill are on the next court (they must have changed their court time). Ivanovic is having trouble getting serves in and Cahill keeps trying to lighten her mood. It doesn't work.
Maria Sharapova has a rough session as well. Serves aren't going in – most aren't even clearing the net. She hits some nice groundies, maybe to end on a positive note, and then sits down and starts massaging an obviously uncomfortable right forearm. It takes her a while to resume play, and the arm doesn't seem to trouble her anymore.
The offcourt highlight of the day turns out to be a soccer match involving Marcos Baghdatis, Novak Djokovic, Richard Gasquet, and a few other players and coaches. Meanwhile, the highlight on the practice courts is probably an intense match between Li Na and her husband, Jiang Shan. He is no slouch with a racquet and it's all Na can do to maintain an edge. An impressive crowd gradually gathers for this one, and they go wild when Mr. Li ends a corner-to-corner 20-hit rally with a cheap net cord. Na feigns admiration while her husband plays to the crowd for support.
The rest of the afternoon is a whirlwind. I catch the last few games of Donald Young's big win over Potito Starace, Roger Federer holds a pre-tournament media interview, and Melanie Oudin, Sam Querrey, and John Isner attend a ceremony at a local school, each of them adding a stitch to The National 9/11 Flag that is touring the country.
For my money (that would be the Canadian Dollar), the match of the day involves Canada's Rebecca Marino and the Russian Ekaterina Makarova. Makarova took the first set in straightforward fashion, but Marino stepped up her game in the second and began hitting a series of powerful, low groundstrokes that Makarova had trouble answering at times. Combining that with her powerful serve, Marino took the second set. Her concentration waned for just a moment and she quickly found herself down a break early in the third. But the fight wasn't over yet. With the crowd almost entirely pro-Marino, she managed to put a lot of pressure on Makarova's service games and earned herself a slew of break points. Twice she had 0-40 but both times Makarova fought back to hold. In the end, Marino ran out of time and Makarova was able to serve out the match. The considerable tension on the court was only momentarily lifted when the Chair Umpire mistakenly called "game, Macarena." before quietly correcting himself. Finally, all the crowd could do was applaud the tremendous effort and shout encouragement about the "next time" the two would face each other.
All in all, it was a pretty full first day for me at the BNP Paribas Open, and I'm excited to be your eyes and ears on the ground for the next ten days!
