With 48 women's and 48 men's matches to get over, and only one day to get it all done in, it was inevitable that a few players I wanted to catch would be scheduled to play at the same time. I decided to catch Tathiana Garbin, the top seed from Italy, in action against her compatriot, Giulia Casoni. The last I had seen of her was in Kuala Lumpur where she had produced a dismal effort and lost in the first qualifying round. Since then, she has taken the title at Manila (where the final was played after a minor earthquake the night before), and reached the final in New Delhi where she had to withdraw from her match.

I headed over to the court, and since it was a Thursday and merely the first qualifying round, there was hardly anyone around except for some players, staff, coaches, and other non-spectators around. To my delight, the other match I had wanted to catch was right on the next court, between Evelyn Fauth of Austria and Haruka Inoue of Japan. I had reached the courts just in time after checking things out, and they were tossing the coin. Tathiana Garbin won the toss, and elected to serve. It's no wonder, with the serve she has. She opened the match with an ace, but whatever effect that had on her opponent's nerves was soon lost when she double-faulted on the next point. Garbin shook it off, and started getting her first serves in. On the fourth point of the match (if I'm not mistaken), Giulia Casoni mishit the return of serve, and the ball flew up about 30 feet in the air. The thing is, the ball was about to land right next to my seat. All eyes were on me as I realized this, and, holding a pen in one hand and a notebook in the other, made an attempt to catch it. The ball hit my hand and bounced a couple of feet away, to a collective sigh from the ballkids and the handful of people passing by. What a way to start the tournament.

The match continued, and Tathiana Garbin, Tathi for short, had it well in hand jumping to a 3-0 lead. I scooted over to the other court during the changeover to catch the match next door. Evelyn Fauth had started serving, and after a brief struggle, had managed to hold serve. Back on the other court, I heard the umpire announce that Giulia had managed to hold serve to get on the scoreboard. No such luck for Haruka, though, as she lost her first service game to go down 0-2 in the match. I waited for the changeover, when the photographer who was already on court was finished, and went on court to get some shots of the players. I think Evelyn recognized me, as she kept looking over, as if trying to attach a place to the face. I dunno whether she finally figured out where she saw me before, but I got worried that I might distract her, and finished taking my shots before the next changeover.

I headed back to the Garbin match, to catch a few shots of the two Italians, and as luck would have it, I got back just before a changeover. I waited at the little "gate" to the entrance of the court, trying to attract the ump's attention to let her know that I was coming on court. The ump was looking somewhere else, though, and didn't notice me there. Giulia Casoni noticed, though, and she called the umpire and pointed at me. The ump acknowledged that I was coming on court, and I set my stuff down at the side, thanking the thoughtful player with a wave.

The thing with Tathiana Garbin and Evelyn Fauth, is that the two of them are very entertaining to watch. For me, anyway. Garbin is intense, yet playful on court, and always presents a photo op with her actions on court. From playfully kicking the ball to questioning an odd line call, she's never very far from sporting a mischievous grin. Evelyn Fauth was far more serious and intense in her singles match at a Grand Slam, but comical antics aside, was still an explosive player.

Haruka Inoue got the break back to even the first set at 5-all, but her opponent wasn't about to let the first set slip away. As Evelyn took the first set 7-5, Tathiana was wrapping up her match against Guilia Casoni. Casoni had played a better second set, but Garbin managed to raise her game on the important points, and although she was running all over the place, she still looked as fresh as a daisy in the growing heat. And therein lies one of her big weapons. Tathi has a very athletic build, and has excellent movement around the court. Her footspeed might not be extraordinary, but she can get across the court pretty quick, and can run around the court all day. Her second big weapon is her serve, which gives her a lot of free points and sets up a lot of easy ones. She finished the match 6-3 6-3, after a good effort from Casoni.

I decided to check out how Alexandra Fusai was doing on a nearby court. The Frenchwoman had plummeted down the rankings, and has been relegated to Challenger events and qualifying rounds. She was struggling against Wang Shi-Ting of Taipei. After leading 5-2 in the first-set tie-breaker, she lost a whole string of points and gave the first set up at 8-6. Alexandra got mad at giving up the lead and the set, and tried to play more aggressively in the second set. She picked up her play, and looked like she'd decided to start all over again, with a fresh set. Meanwhile, Evelyn Fauth was down 2-3 in the second set. Patience was running thin, and her play became more and more erratic. She lost the next three games in a row to even it up at 1 set apiece.

Raluca Sandu hit the courts against Hila Rosen of Israel. Raluca managed to draw a rather decent crowd, and there was little doubt that many of them had just stopped by while walking around, attracted by her looks. The Romanian started the match decently enough, her thumping backhand and rolling forehand working well, but Rosen was match her shot for shot, and held serve to open the match. This was when things started to fall apart for the Romanian. Her game was all out of sorts, and her shots were landing everywhere but in. I think she might have had a small problem with her shoulder, and her serve was appalling. 6 out of 10 times, she'd mishit the ball, or even whiff it, and the ball would bounce on her side of the court or hit the bottom of the net. As the noon grew nearly unbearably hot (it turned out to be a particularly hot day in Melbourne), Raluca lost the first set 1-6 before anyone could say, "By crikey".

Back on court 7, the match between Haruka Inoue and Evelyn Fauth was turning out to be a marathon. The first two games of the third set had lasted forever, and finally Haruka broke serve to go up 4-3. Evelyn broke back to even it at 4-all. In the next game, at 30-15 Fauth serving, a bad line call made it 30-all instead of 40-15. Annoyed but surprisingly unshaken, Fauth took the next 2 points and broke serve to take the match 7-5 3-6 6-4.

On court 9, Raluca had finally got some pieces of her game together. She had a support group of a couple of coaches and compatriot Ruxandra Dragomir encouraging her, and it seemed to help as she served at 3-all. Her serve was still out of whack, though, and she immediately lost her serve. She had noticed me in the stands at the start of the match, and recognized me immediately. This time, she looked at me with a dismal look on her face, upset and frustrated at how her match was turning out and the conditions she had to play in. Hila Rosen consolidated the break, and both players must have been happy to get a chance to sit in the shade. Raluca immediately went to the cooler and grabbed a huge bag of ice and hugged it throughout the changeover. Just as I was noting that Rosen looked as unaffected by the heat as Sandu looked like she was withering out there, the umpire called "Time", and Sandu went on court. Rosen, however, was nowhere on court, and both Sandu and the umpire suddenly noticed that. She was bent over the short fence surrounding the court just behind her seat, introducing her lunch to the ground. Everyone looked concerned as she threw up quite a bit, but she managed to compose herself and headed on court, just as the umpire decided to give her her third warning of the match. Rosen was angry that she was given her third warning, but didn't have energy to argue with the ump. She played listlessly, but everything that came off of Sandu's racquet was a disaster, and 4 unforced errors gave Rosen the game, set, and match.

I thought the better of sticking around, as I didn't want to cause any awkward moments, but as I was a small ways off, I noticed that a couple of youngsters had asked Raluca for her autograph, which she complied. As she dejectedly walked off with her support group, Ruxandra and company tried to console her. It might be a while before she gets over her performance in the first Grand Slam of the year.