Harry How
INDIAN WELLS, Calif. - The tournament site at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells is easily the most spacious at any of tennis's Masters 1000s events.
One of its features is a large grassy expanse that is only accessible for players, coaches, agents etc. Thursday afternoon, there was an animated pick-up game of soccer going on there with a motley crew that included Novak Djokovic on one team and Gaston Gaudio, the 2004 French Open champion, on the other. Gaudio was very nifty with his footwork but Djokovic was the only one to score while I was watching. With characteristic panache, Djokovic then ran toward his teammate and agent, Benito Perez Barbadillo, and slid down to his knees and embraced him.
Just the fact that there is a fenced-off space for the players to jog around, do stretching exercises on, and where they can play soccer and just generally chill is one of the many features that makes the Indian Wells event so player-friendly.
Earlier in the day, another positive aspect of the tournament was mentioned by a woman working for the WTA Tour. She said she had noticed adifference from the women-only events that preceded Indian Wells, saying that the women players seemed in a much better mood because the men were around.
One woman, Gisela Dulko of Argentina, told this reporter that she will not be playing the Fed Cup playoff (for a spot in World Group II in 2011) in Canada (likely Montreal) the weekend of April 24-25. "Not this time," were her actual words.
That should make it a cakewalk for the Canadians, because the next best Argentineafter the No. 37-ranked Dulko is the little-known Maria Irigoyen, ranked No. 222.
Canada should be able to call on No. 35-ranked Aleksandra Wozniak as well as three players who currently conveniently line up at No. 112, 113 and 114 in the world - Stéphanie Dubois, Valérie Tétreault and Sharon Fichman.
In Indian Wells, new Canadian Fed Cup captain Sylvain Bruneau conceded about Dulko's probable absence, "Not only is she Argentina's No. 1 player, but she's No. 37 in the world. It will make things easier for Canada, I can't deny that."
The heart-warming story of the day had to be Mario Ancic winning his first-round match over American Bobby Reynolds 4-6, 6-3, 6-4.
Afterward, the 6-foot-5 Croat talked about his frustrating and arduous ordeal with a mononucleosis-like condition.
It began shortly after the Australian Open in 2007, and he said about his attempts to come back to the tour, "I counted, and there were like 10 times when I played, and then could not play, played and then could not play..."
During his off time, Ancic, 25, went back to university and got a law degree in Croatia. Early last year, he was invited to give a paper on sports law at Harvard University in Boston. There he met some doctors from the Massachusetts General Hospital and underwent tests. That was in March and he was ordered not to do anything physical for at least six months. He got a regular job, refrained from exercise, and actually worked for a law firm in his homeland. Then, in November, new tests were done and he was finally cleared to play again.
The mono-like symptoms were originally diagnosed as flu in 2007 and, when he continued to play, they led to serious complications with his heart and his thyroid. "You could say I was messed up," he joked on Thursday.
But all that is in the past and he now plans to try to improve his current No. 694 ranking by using a protected ranking and wild cards to get into tournaments. He has ranked as high as No. 7 in July, 2006.
"I love the game and I feel so much passion for tennis," he said. "I feel I'm ready again."
Early Thursday evening, defending champion Rafael Nadal drew a large crowd as he practised with friend and sometimes doubles partner Marc Lopez in front of the main stadium court. He looked eager and speculation is that, because he was hitting after nightfall, that he could be preparing for an opening-round match on Saturday evening. It will be his first since he retired with a right knee injury against Andy Murray in the quarter-finals of the Australian Open.
There were pre-tournament media conferences with three top players - Djokovic, Nikolay Davydenko and Murray.
Djokovic said he feels comfortable playing in Indian Wells, where he won the title in 2008, praised Roger Federer for performing so well after an eventful year in 2010 when he got married and had twins, and said that men's tennis is very interesting now with several players being capable of winning Grand Slam titles.
Davydenko, who is getting over a left wrist injury after he fell during the Rotterdam event four weeks ago, said he still has swelling "in the bone."
In keeping his sometimes outrageous pronouncements, the Russian made strange comments about his quarter-final against Roger Federer at the 2010 Australian Open. Davydenko led by a set and 3-1, with points for 4-1 in the second set, before losing an astounding 13 games in a row and eventually the match in four sets. "Maybe it was because I started to think I could win," he suggested about the dramatic turn-around. "I don't think Federer started to play better, for sure I started to play bad. It happened so fast and I lost 13 games in 20 minutes."
Then, to reporters, he added somewhat mysteriously about his startling fall-off, "I know why but I don't tell you guys. We'll see how I can play against him in the next Grand Slam."
Murray, after Britain's bad loss without him in Davis Cup last weekend in Vilnius, Lithuania, inevitably had to answer questions about his country's unsuccessful player development program. Explaining his own emergence from the system, he credited almost everything to going to Spain at age 15 to learn the essentials of tennis from Spanish coaches and by playing there against tough players there who were older and forced him to work extra hard to keep up.
Following his media conference, Murray, from the home of curling in Scotland, was asked whether he had ever played the game. "I've never curled," he said. "But I've watched my grandpa curl."
So, does he know the difference between and in-turn and an out-turn? "No, I don't," he said.