We made it back to the tennis tournament in Cincinnati today and stayed for over five hours (click on the thumbnails below to see the larger photos). We started the day on the Grandstand court watching 6’10” John Isner playing against Italian, Andre Stoppini. While Isner is known for his big serve, Stoppini was serving just as well in the first set. However, the Italian made too many unforced errors in the second set and lost 7-6, 6-3.
We also watched Jesse Levine lose in two sets to Australian, Chris Guccione, 6-3, 6-4. Guccione was a much bigger hitter than Levine, but Levine showed some real finesse on the court with well-placed shots.
The featured match of the day was Roger Federer versus Robbie Genepri. In the second set, it appeared that Federer was going to suffer another early-round setback, however, the Roger-man held on to win 6-7, 7-6, 6-0. Since Genepri played as skillfully as Federer through the first two sets, I’m sure he was disappointed in getting “bagel-ed” in the third.
It’s interesting to note the number of players that have withdrawn after the tournament got underway. We saw Stanislas Warinka practicing on Sunday but discovered that he withdrew on Monday complaining about knee problems. Mario Ancic pulled out of the tournament on Monday as well. On Tuesday, Nicholas Kiefer withdrew due to an ankle injury, and Andy Roddick pulled out after warming-up complaining about severe shoulder pain. It appears that the ATP substituted four players that lost during the qualifying round (Ram, Capdeville, Jun, and Clement)