[teentodiefows]

I take it back -- caught second set of Reynolds vs. Stepanek, because the vibe on Court 1 was getting too ugly. Bobby not in same league as Radek, but showed some nice touch at the net. Radek thought he'd served an ace on match point, but the chair umpire belatedly called "let" when Radek was mid-fistpump and already walking toward the net. There was a reallllly long stare between them before Radek went back to serve it out.

Court 1 was only a third full for Julien v. Phillipp (and the handful of fans who were vocal or clappy were for Phillipp), and as the match wore on, more people bailed (eventually including me). Both players were majorly displeased with the linecalling within a few games in, repeatedly rolling their eyes and gesturing and complaining to the chair, and at one point Julien screamed, "Nooooo! Nooooo!" The chatter from Grandstand (Oudin/Hampton were one of the teams playing dubs) was so bad that Phillipp stopped serve to complain, and on and on and on. Not a good experience.

Melzer v. Istomin was filled both with lots of errors and a decent quantity of winners. If I had to sum up, Denis was more precise but Jurgen was more aggressive (crowd was slightly pro-Melzer from what I could tell, but applauded good shots by both players), and the aggressive net play paid off in the 3rd set tiebreak. (Denis owned the one in the first set.) I really liked watching Istomin play -- he hustles after every point (there were a couple where he nearly ended up in half-splits); seemed a little stiff in the legs second half after he slipped (strain? cramp?), but nonetheless scrambling after everything; it was nice to see him and Jurgen deliberately moving each other around the court (didn't get that sense so much with the other matches I caught today).