Cincinnati Day 1 recap and photos

The practice courts were buzzing during the first full day of main-draw action at the Western & Southern Open, with Montreal finalists Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic making quick turnarounds to a second consecutive Masters 1000 event. Djokovic practiced at 5:00 on Court 5 with Ricardas Berankis and he went for almost two hours because Nadal–scheduled at 6:00 in the same spot–showed up exactly one hour late. Not surprising in the least! Juan Martin Del Potro, Tomas Berdych, and many others (John Isner, Ryan Harrison, and Montreal semifinalist Vasek Pospisil pictured) were also out there.

Djokovic’s practice began with a girl screaming from the fence at Djokovic that she wanted to rub is hair. Lo and behold, the world No. 1 ran right over at let her rub it. Typical Djoker! The court did not have lights, so Nadal and Marc Lopez were practicing in dark conditions and having trouble seeing the ball. Shanks were plentiful and Nadal was not happy–although most of the time it appeared to be in a joking mood.

In the stadium, Sam Querrey showed signs of extending Janko Tipsarevic’s slump by coming out on top of an entertaining first-set tiebreaker, complete with a wild, set-clinching rally at 7-6 in the tiebreaker. Tipsarevic, though, recovered and won in three with one break in each of the final two sets. He saved all six of the break points he faced (two in the second, four in the third) after dropping the opener. A few hours later in the stadium, James Blake treated the night-session crowd to the performance of the day. He handled Jerzy Janowicz’s booming serve and managed to out-slug the huge-hitting Pole 6-1, 7-5. Janowicz basically tanked the rest of the first set after getting broken at 2-1, but he threw everything he had at Blake in the second. The 33-year-old saved one set point with a big serve at 4-5 before breaking Janowicz one game later. Blake sealed the deal with one more outrageous forehand on match point at 6-5, 40-15. Both offensively and defensively, Blake was in rare form the entire time on Monday night.

In a battle of one-handed backhands, Grigor Dimitrov took care of Nicolas Almagro in straight sets. They delivered some great baseline rallies, but Dimitrov simply wanted this one more and that mostly made the difference. Sloane Stephens was next up on the Grandstand and held off Petra Martic in three sets. Martic showcased a great all-court game with plenty of forays into the net, but Sloane had too much power from the back of the court. The night session on Grandstand featured David Goffin vs. 18-year-old American Mackenzie McDonald. Playing in Kalamazoo last week, the UCLA-bound junior did not even know the Cincinnati tournament was happening until he was offered a qualifying wild card after losing at the ‘zoo. McDonald was slightly out of his league in the main draw of a Masters 1000, but this was actually way closer than the 6-1, 6-1 scoreline suggests.

In other action, Fabio Fognini lost to Radek Stepanek on Court 3 and it ended on a Fognini foot-fault. Dmitry Tursunov overcame Martin Klizan in three sets on Court 4 after trailing 3-0 in the third. Genie Bouchard won a battle of up-and-coming stars against Monica Puig, also on Court 4. Perhaps the most entertaining outer-court match was a doubles showdown; Mardy Fish and Jurgen Melzer vs. Gilles Simon and Jarkko Nieminen. Although all four players were in a good mood (Fish despite an apparent left knee injury) and clearly not living and dying with every point, they produced an amazing super-tiebreaker. Both teams saved multiple match points, at times in dramatic fashion, before Fish and Melzer prevailed 14-12.

Finally, here’s an excerpt from Milos Raonic’s press conference transcript–the part when he was asked about the Montreal net-touching incident against Del Potro: