As I headed to the Eastern Courts, I passed by a court with three women and a man practicing, and to my delight, one of them was Mirjana Lucic. Mirjana's sister, Anna, was sitting nearby as usual, watching her sister trade groundstrokes with the guy (I'm not sure if that was her coach. She'd recently split with Joey Giuliano, and might not have a coach she's sure about yet). I stopped for a while to catch a glimpse at how the Croatian was doing, and then headed to the courts where the matches were about to start.

As was yesterday, the matches featuring Tathiana Garbin and Evelyn Fauth were side-by-side. The Italian top seed would take on the volatile local player Rennae Stubbs, and Evelyn Fauth would play against Nuria Llagostera of Spain. Fauth got off to a good start, breaking serve to open the match, and easily consolidated her break. On the other hand, the top seed was struggling a little with her game, and the veteran Rennae wasn't about to let opportunity slip away. Garbin had a curious habit of serving very far away from the middle marker, quite near to the doubles alley, much like in doubles, and Rennae had a choice of hitting a down-the-line winner or wrong-footing the Italian with a deep cross-court return. A couple of drop-shots from Rennae gave her break point early, but Garbin stepped up her play and forced her to come up with difficult shots. Garbin saved the break point, and managed to save her service game.

Rennae was mixing things up well, not letting Tathi groove on anything, but a few careless mistakes or shots landing just out made the temperamental Australian even hotter on an already hot day. Garbin had no intention of returning the favour extended to her earlier, and broke serve to go up 4-2 She found herself in trouble, though, on her own service game, and faced two more break points at 15-40.Rennae needed both opportunities to break, and got things back on serve at 4-3.

Back on the other court, Evelyn Fauth was getting more and more frustrated, and Nuria Llagostera was hitting each shot with purpose and conviction. The set was even at 3-all, and the Spaniard took the next three games in a row to take the first set 6-3. Fauth was having a bit of trouble with her backhand, mishitting a lot of them, and it was only a matter of time before tempers flew. However, she evened up the odds by making sure her serves counted, and got in more of her first serves. She managed to hold serve to open the second set. Llagostera had little trouble holding her own serve, and managed to break serve easily break serve in the next game. Just then, Evelyn called for the trainer, and took an injury timeout for the trainer to check out her right calf.

Over on the other side, at the Ren and Tathi show, the top seed found herself in a bit of a hole. She had dropped the first set 7-5, but managed to hold serve to open the second set. Fauth and Llagostera headed back on court, the former with a newly wrapped calf. She had trouble moving to the right, and Llagostera recognized the opportunity. Evelyn's heavy, deep groundstrokes were keeping her in the match, though, and unable to out-rally the Austrian, Llagostera resorted to drop-shots, and when that started to get her opponent off her game, she played more aggressively to take control of points early and run her side-to-side. The score soon got to 4-1 in favour of the Spaniard. Both players managed to hold serve, and Llagostera would serve for the match. She knew that the odds were hugely in favour of her, and she stepped up to the plate. Some good serving and excellent first returns gave her the match.

Tathiana Garbin had started playing her usual tennis, and Rennae Stubbs had calmed down a little with a first set insurance behind her. I went on court to get some shots of both players. The second set was at 4-3, on serve, when Garbin ran after a drop shot, stumbled near the net, and fell. She grabbed her ankle, and I thought the match was over. She got up slowly, testing her ankle, and then gingerly walked over to her chair, letting the umpire know that she needed the trainer. This was turning out to be casualty day. Conveniently enough, there were two trainers in the stands. One was there for Rennae, who had called for one in the first set, just for a precautionary check, and the other had just come over from the Llagostera-Fauth match. Rennae looked impatient and annoyed, and kept warm by stretching and jumping a little. Players soon went back on court. Rennae started to serve-and-volley a lot more aggressively hoping to wrap the match up. She rushed net at every opportunity, and that worked for a while, but Garbin started hitting harder, deeper shots to keep her pinned to the baseline.

Garbin's serve remained to be an advantage in the match, and on one return, Rennae was going to smack a ball that landed outside the service court into the net, but mishit it. Where else would the ball head but right at me. Good thing I wasn't looking the other way through my viewfinder. I managed to grab my camera out of harm's way and duck as the ball went whizzing by. That makes it 2 out of 2 of Garbin's matches that I had tennis balls coming at me. Garbin broke to go up 5-4, but Rennae, cheered on by Lisa Raymond in the stands, managed to break back. In spite of her tumble, Garbin was running around the court as usual, and showed no signs of any trouble with her ankle. She held serve to go up 6-5, and Rennae looked annoyed with herself for getting in a situation where she would have to serve to stay in the set.

Garbin started a more aggressive net game, rushing net, and took the first point on a volley after setting up the point well. She got the next point when a lob over Rennae's head finally landed in after at least 7 attempts throughout the first two sets. Showing a little youthful impatience, Garbin went for a service return winner on the next point, but the shot landed long. Another unforced error from Garbin and a nice volley winner from Rennae took the set to a tie-break.

Garbin opened the tie-break with a double-fault, and hit a textbook forehand long on the next point. Two more silly errors put Rennae up 4-0, three points away from the match. While many players would have just given up and gone home, the top seed wasn't there to be a second qualifying round casualty, and picked up her game. She reeled off 5 points in a row, playing beautifully and constructing points with more care, and totally pissing Rennae off in the process. Two more errors made it 6-5, Garbin. Rennae looked like she couldn't believe what had happened in the last few points, and a careless return of serve landed in the net, giving Garbin the set and a new lease on the match.

Rennae served to open the set, and continued her aggressive serve-and-volley play. She took the opening game, and looked like she was going to get an early lead when she went up 30-love on Garbin's serve. Halfway through yet another long rally, Garbin's forehand hit the net cord and dribbled over to Rennae's side, partially helped by the topspin on the ball. Garbin apologized, as is the custom, but when she turned back, she had look of amusement on her face, and she looked over to her support group as if they had an inside joke going on. On the next point, Rennae managed to get up to net on the fourth shot, and Garbin, going for a low, hard drive, hit a forehand that clipped the net and changed trajectory, causing Rennae to miss the volley, and landed a couple of inches inside the baseline. Once again, after apologizing, Garbin looked amused that she would have such luck at such a crucial time.

The two lucky net cords must have still been on her mind, as she double-faulted on the next point. Both players were trying hard to be the more aggressive one, and this time, Rennae managed to get control of the point early with a smart chip to return serve, which landed deep and gave her time to rush net. Garbin opted to go for the passing shot instead of the lob which had been unsuccessful so far, but missed it by a hair. That gave Rennae an immediate break in the third set.

Now came the task of consolidating the break. Up 30-15, Rennae thought she had served a let, but there was no call. She continued the point, but lost it on an error, and by now was really fuming at the umpire. The umpire had so far annoyed Rennae by not overruling a couple of line calls that Rennae thought were bad, and this was apparently the straw that broke the camel's back. Rennae argued with the ump for a while, and when he didn't change the call, she stood at the net, not moving for a couple of seconds. Then, all of a sudden, she slammed her racquet on the net, and it bounced off and landed near her chair. This moment perfectly reflected the contrast between the players. Rennae looked like she was at war, while Garbin always had a smile around the corner. Totally upset, Rennae lost the next few points as well as the break of serve.

All this while, after every incident or error that Rennae made, whether tactical, technical or stroke-wise, Lisa was encouraging Rennae on, telling her to calm down, or to forget it. It didn't seem to help much, though, when a fine lob by Garbin over Rennae's head landed just in the baseline to make it 15-30. Rennae managed to get a beautiful volley winner to bring it to deuce, but Garbin reeled off a down-the-line winner to take the advantage. Rennae saved the game but Garbin took the next two points to hold serve.

The two players stepped up their play, and both took turns being the aggressor. While Garbin played smarter tennis as the match went on, Rennae started becoming a little careless every now and then. At 3-all, the umpire made a late call on a let, which, though it seemed impossible, got Rennae even madder at the umpire. Rennae had enough experience to channel that energy, though, and played beautifully to hold serve. She carried her momentum to get a break in the next game, and served at 5-3 in the third set.

Rennae ran Garbin all over the place, but miraculously, the Italian managed not only to get the shots back, but to hit them well enough to get her back in the point. A gutsy performance two point away from losing the match gave Garbin a break back, and more aggressive play gave Garbin her service game to even the set at 5-all. The tension rose as both players knew how much a small mistake could cost them at this point. Both managed to hold serve, taking it to 6-all.

At this point, Garbin played a higher percentage game, and Rennae, going for a little too much a little too soon, made a couple of errors that helped Garbin take the break. Garbin utilized some solid serves to finish the match 5-7 7-6(5) 8-6. Both players shook hands, and I don't think Stubbsy bothered to shake the umpire's hand. Garbin packed up her stuff and joined the two remaining members of her camp (comprising of her coach and her sister, if I'm not mistaken). Lisa Raymond was waiting nearby for Rennae to emerge, and as she tried to console and calm Rennae down, Rennae kicked a recycling bin nearby, cursing the umpire.

By the time this marathon match was over, most of the other matches had been completed, or were near completion. I had intended to catch Lina Krasnoroutskaya in action, but she had had another straightforward match, and luckily, I would be able to catch her the following day in her final qualifying match. Alina Jidkova had also had a quick match, and made it through to day 3. The sole Aussie survivors of the first two qualifying rounds were Kerry-Ann Guse and Christina Wheeler.

I headed to the media center to get the schedule for day 3 as the men tried to get their second qualifying round matches through. The next day would see a lot more spectators around on the weekend, and with the Australian Open officially "starting" on Monday.