Just as a follow-up to yesterday's post, I see that John Isner and Sam Querrey won their doubles in Rome today, taking about the powerful Bhupathi-Mirnyi squad. The draw at the official Internazionale D'Italia website won't load for me, but I assume the Americans are still on track to play Roger Federer and Yves Allegro in their next match.
BTW, Isner told me last week that shortly after he returned to the tour last summer after a bout of mononucleosis, he found himself feeling sluggish and out of sorts at the Cincinnati tournament. Craig Boynton, Isner's coach, reached out to Severin Luthi, who assists Federer. He was hoping to get some advice on coping with mono.
The next day, Isner was killing time playing some arcade-style golf game in the Cincy player lounge, when Roger Federer approached him and told Isner he'd heard about his struggles with mono. They had a conversation about mono. "Roger told me to listen to my body," Isner said. "He said if I felt spent, I shouldn't be afraid to pull out of a tournament, or even a match. 'Don't be afraid or ashamed to do it,' he said. For Roger to take the time to do that, I thought that was pretty cool."
So put another gold star next to Federer's photo on that employee-of-the-year contest chart. I see a reserved parking space near the main door for a month in this guy's future!
Rafael Nadal won't be in action until tonight (night sessions at a spring clay event, and "not before 8:30 pm" - is nothing sacred anymore?) But Ivan Ljubicic is playing Feliciano Lopez later today, so it's Mr. Baldy vs. Mr. Gel. Looks like Ivan is reprising some sort of On Golden Pond thing - until you take a close look at his upper back and body in the photo above. It's a winnable match for Ivan the Occasionally Terrible.
Well, I've got some magazine work to take care of here today, so I'll let y'all take it from here.
-- Pete