Friday the 13^th

Well, so far the day is going pretty well. Arrived in the desert around noon, picked up credentials, stored my gear, and hit the dining room. Indian Wells definitely has the best media dining on the tour. Beautiful patio and excellent cafeteria featuring very nice salad bar, pasta, hot entrée, fresh fruit, gorgeous strawberries. It’s the only event that allows media, to actually dine with the PLAYERS! Oh my word. Huge privilege! Most other venues treat us as though we have very bad table manners, must have strict supervision, and need to be kept in separate quarters from royalty.

Rafa was in line in front of me... wow... Even better and taller up close. He had a large portion of salmon and rice in case you want to eat like a champion.

1PM

Finished with lunch, checking out the draw, frankly there aren’t any matches that are really inspiring, so I decide to go for the eye candy. I head out to Stadium 3 for Tommy Haas, better known among women on the tour as Tommy Hottie. Tommy’s up a set against Oscar Hernandez and its 3-2 in the second. I settle in and grab a few snaps.

3:30 PM

Tommy wins his match and I wander over check out the practice courts. This is always a popular place at Indian Wells, a chance for the public to see players up close and personal. I catch Marat Safin on court two then try to get close to court one... huge crowd watching Federer practice hitting ground strokes. Dinara Safina is playing on Stadium one and is in a first set breaker against Tsvetana Pironkova, but there are a lot more people watching Federer practice. See what I mean about uninspiring matches?

4PM

UH OH... remember when I said Friday the 13^th and everything is going well? Okay, spoke to soon. Can’t get Blogger.com to respond. Darn... I need to get this blog up. Well, I can only do the best I can. I’ll keep writing and try to post later. I’ll figure something out. Meanwhile I notice on my TV monitor that Taylor Dent won the first set and is up 5-4 in the second …I wanted to shoot that match!! How did it go so fast? Oh well, at least he won so I’ll catch him in the second round.

4:30PM

Finally, I'm getting around to editing some of my photos. Got a couple of nice ones of Tommy... of course getting good photos of him is not too difficult.

5PM

BNP has invited the media to a reception where they will unveil the new trophy. On my way over, I see that there is still a huge crowd around court one. I grab a camera and get some cool photos of Roger signing autographs. The fans are thrilled, he’s really nice and giving them a lot of time.

5:30PM

Wow, BNP knows how to put on a party. There is nothing the media likes better than free food and drink, and this is first class. Tables with sushi, cheese, fruit, mini hamburgers and shrimp burgers. Excellent red or white wine. Mini cupcakes and my favorite… chocolate covered strawberries.

7PM. Hmmm really don’t want to do anymore work now. Ate way more than I should have... but they kept coming around with yummy things that were really hard to resist. Only had one glass of red wine, but seriously need a nap right now.

8:05 PM

Lopez and Nadal have split sets with Cermak/Mertinak in first round doubles. I’d like to have some photos, but it’s nearly impossible to shoot doubles at night, so I’m going to give it a pass. This was scheduled to be a day match and it’s already after 8... OH MY WORD… we are going to be here all nite. Still have the “Salute to Heroes”, then Roddick and Fish doubles, against Chardy and Simon, then Radwanska and Kuznetsova. Hmmm Friday the 13^th strikes again.

8:23

Rafa and Lopez win 10-7 in the super breaker.

8:59

Roddick and Fish are finally on... At least it’s only a doubles match so even if they split we won’t have three sets.

10:10PM

Forget Kuznetsova, I'm outta here.

10:15 PM

Making one more attempt to get this blog up...I think they have a firewall that is not letting me access the blogger site.

12:20 AM

Back at my hotel. Yep that was the problem. They have a firewall up at the site that won't let me access Blogger. Well, at least I can post now. See you in the morning.