Greetings from Cincinnati! My trip got off to a shaky start yesterday, what with my checked bag not arriving in Cincy until 2 in the morning(!), but yesterday's action more than made up for it.
On to press conferences. I couldn't wait to finally experience a live presser, and guess what happened? I missed every single one of them! The primary headliners of the tournament - Federer, Nadal, and Roddick - all held their pre-tournament pressers yesterday, and my timing was entirely off for all of them.
To be fair, Federer's was at 10 AM, which was when I was just arriving and getting myself settled and Nadal's was scheduled for 11:15 AM, when I was "stuck" on Centre Court watching Simon/Odesnik. Trying to make it to Roddick's, though, nearly turned me off of pressers altogether. Initially, I heard that he'd be in the press room at 2:15 ... then it was moved to 2:45 ... then after more than a half hour of waiting, we were told he'd be at least 15 minutes late (well later) ... then after 15 minutes we were told the presser was going to be rescheduled altogether.
After hearing that last update, I decided to wander around the practice courts again; for all I knew, Roddick wouldn't show up for 2 more hours. Apparently, in the 15 minutes I was away from the press area, the presser began. Without me, of course. I waited all the time only to miss the entire thing. Lesson learned - pressers never start on time. (Actually, I overheard the stenographer talking about that exact thing - players who show up late. The worst culprit? Nadal!)
After the presser debacle, I returned to the Grandstand Court for Robredo vs. Chardy (which saw a quick Chardy victory), then headed back to the hotel. I passed on the night session because I was feeling so wiped out after the luggage problems, but the day's events will definitely hold me over until Day 2.
Speaking of which, I gotta head out soon to catch today's events - we have quite a stacked OoP. It's currently raining, so keep your fingers crossed that it dies down enough to allow for a Day 2 report! Talk to y'all soon!