Last year was my first IW experience - I remember brutal heat, a streak that ended at 41, and Rafael Nadal making a statement as a hard court contender.
This year, the heat is less of a factor, but the wind today has been brutal. Moya and Ginepri played a tough two-and-a-half hour battle on Stadium 2: serving upwind, the balls would occasionally break viciously into the net. Ginepri played hard for a tough loss, 6-4 in the third.
On the premier Stadium 1 court, Djokovic held off a brief revival by Se ppi to come through in straight sets. And Rafael Nadal was too steady for his Colombian opponent, who demonstrated that the percentages get you most of the time. To whit: Giraldo would unleash a ferocious flattened FH which would land in 40% of the time, and be put back into play by his opponent 60% of the time. The 16% odds of gaining a winner from the shot didn't add up to a sniff of an upset: although Giraldo broke back for 3-2 in the first set, he was broken straight back himself, and Nadal didn't look threatened afterwards.
Maybe Nadal's true opponent was the gusting wind: after the match, we had this exchange:
Q. How much of a problem was the wind out there today for you?
RAFAEL NADAL: Whew, big wind for me today. WIth these conditions, it's always very important, all the wind, so maybe today I win, and that's it, no? I can't do too much.
I've gotten to say hello to a few Tribe members: beth, Jenn (corrected - sorry! Andrew) and I watched some of Moya - Ginepri together, while Dunlop Maxply (Hank Moravec) and his son Liam set up an impromptu soccer kickaround on the grass outside the main stadium court.
Tomorrow morning, Andy Murray gets things started on Stadium 2 against Jurgen Melzer - I was surprised to see the Austrian down at 85 in the ATP rankings, figuring him in the 30s or 40s. On Stadium 1, Svetlana Kuznetsova goes against Dominika Cibulkova.
The matchups continue - Haas-Roddick, Daniilidou-Sharapova, then Federer-Garcia-Lopez in the day session on Stadium 1. On Stadium 2, look out for Bondarenko-Mauresmo and Gonzalez-Ancic, in the day, and Mirza-Peer, Fish-Andreev and Davydenko-Isner rounding out the evening session.
As I write this, Blake and Gicquel are in an enjoyable, good-tempered scrap. The crowd is hard to rouse, though, possibly because of the temperature - "people don't come to Palm Springs for the cold," growls the fellow in the seat next to me. Maybe they come for the waters.
