Strokes on the practice court sometimes resemble new clothes in a fitting-room mirror—clean and fresh. Even when Richard Gasquet mis-hit his trademark one-handed backhand today, the stroke looked immaculate.
Gasquet and a freshly shorn and shirtless Gilles Simon played points on Practice Court 5 this morning, two of the five French seeds in the men's field. Gasquet exhibits his familiar mannerisms in practice: Spinning his Head racquet in his hand while waiting to return, dispelling frustration after a netted backhand by puffing his cheeks, and exhaling audibly and jutting his chin forward after a satisfying cross-court backhand.
Simon, looking leaner than a triathlete, has rangy arms that appear to belong on a man four inches taller. When he bent low to scoop a stretched two-hander off the baseline, both his timing and expansive reach were in sync. By the end of the session, Gasquet, clad completely in black, looked like he had been dipped in ink, as soggy shorts and shirt clung to his slender frame.
Two courts down from the French pair, Agnieszka Radwanska was all business from the start of her practice. Forgoing the customary introductory rally, Radwanska planted herself atop the baseline and spent the start of practice working solely on taking her returns on the rise from the deuce court.
The USTA has installed a two-story seating pavilion above the popular bank of practice courts, and though the seats weren't open today, fans could walk behind those courts and stand in the shade below the new seating to watch practice through the back fence.
In Armstrong Stadium, a crowd of a few hundred fans watched as Andy Murray and Stan Wawrinka worked each other over in baseline rallies, while their respective coaches, Amelie Mauresmo and Magnus Norman, fed them the rally-starters.
At one point, Wawrinka was diligently driving his backhand down the line—and repeatedly steering it wide—until he connected on a flat bomb that seemed to spark his control. Above the court, a multi-colored TV test pattern repeatedly scrolled across the video screen as the tech crew, like the players, worked out the kinks.
The Grand Slam champions played points with Murray starting at the service line and moving into net to attack, while Wawrinka worked on passes behind the baseline. Then they switched spots. Murray, who sometimes looks fidgety tugging at his ankle wraps and clutching at his hamstrings on the baseline, was very smooth and still at net with no wasted racquet motion or extraneous footwork, leaving you wondering why he doesn't work his way up to the front court even more.
