What a difference a couple of days make on tour. Rome has started out looking like Madrid through the looking glass. Two of those who were up last week, Grigor Dimitrov and Ana Ivanovic, are already out. Roger Federer has cut his hair, and he cut out the shanks that plagued him at the Caja Magica in a 51-minute blitz job over Potito Starace on Tuesday evening. The Romans themselves sound like Madrileños in reverse: Rather than whistles, Novak Djokovic heard little but love from them in his comfortable opening-round win today. Next thing you know, Maria Sharapova will be announcing her break-up with Dimitrov on a camera lens after her next victory.
The atmosphere couldn’t be more different in general. Where the courts are sealed away in concrete in Madrid, they’re sunken and open to the strolling public in Rome. So open that, with a TV and a couple of side-by-side streams on your laptop, you can almost feel like you’re strolling from one court to the next there yourself, even if you’re an ocean away. Here are a few notes from the early rounds in Rome.