The bulk of the first round matches got underway today in Cincinnati.
Brian Baker got the win in his first ATP main draw match since his knee injury in Australia, beating Denis Istomin, 7-5, 6-3. He looked like he hadn’t missed a beat.
Martina Hingis and Daniela Hantuchova had a successful outing in doubles, beating Anabel Medina Garrigues and Flavia Pennetta, 4-6, 6-4, 10-5.
Elsewhere, Ernests Gulbis hit with Richard Gasquet.
Gasquet was laughing at whatever Gulbis was saying to him during a break.
Li Na got some advice as her husband hit tennis balls at her from the other side of the court.
Grigor Dimitrov earned a comprehensive win over a very cranky Nicolas Almagro, who was rolling his eyes at missed serves, and generally looking miserable. It just wasn’t Almagro’s day.
Fabio Fognini provided some entertainment during his listless loss to Radek Stepanek. Serving to stay in the match, he double faulted twice, was given a point penalty for ball abuse, foot faulted on match point, then purposely foot faulted again to lose the match. He was booed off the court.
Maria Kirilenko toughed out a challenging match against Anna Tatishvili, who was throwing everything at her.
Mardy Fish and Jurgen Melzer had a good time playing doubles against Jarkko Nieminen and Gilles Simon on a packed Court 9. Everyone was laughing and smiling during most of the match, except for Simon, who was generally scowling.
But I caught him smiling once!
Quotes of the day:
Brian Baker on his knee injury: “I was devastated. Didn’t know exactly what it was at first. It was nice it wasn’t the ACL, but it was still a major surgery. I don’t like being the comeback kid every time, but it’s kind of been forced on me.”
Q: “I’m wondering if there’s any progress on the Knighthood front.”
Andy Murray: “No, I haven’t heard anything.”
Milos Raonic: “I feel like I made a mistake in the spur of the moment, something, I guess, because I hadn’t been faced with it before. I’m disappointed with myself how I dealt with it, and it’s something I learned a lot from. I really didn’t have the opportunity until really the last two days to think about it that much. It’s something that I feel sorry about and something I want to apologize to Juan when I see him here. I don’t think I dealt with that the right way, and I think it’s something that I probably should have in that situation, and probably in the future, call on myself.”
Q: “Anyone try to turn you into a serve and volleyer?”
Sam Querrey: “No.”
Q. “Would you let them?”
Sam Querrey: “I mean, I would just lose then. I’m not going to.”
Sloane Stephens, on dealing with attention from fans at the US Open: “I don’t plan on going outside because I know that I will probably not make it out alive.”
can’t help but eye roll on the sloane quote.
Wow Sloane..homegirl is delusional…