Family Circle Cup--in and around the stadium

There were practice times posted today, for the first time. I still have not figured out what happened to all of the practice times. I watched Jill Craybas practice for a while. She is out of the tournament, but was practicing, presumably for Fed Cup. Yesterday, I watched Jamea Jackson practice; she, too, is on the U.S. Fed Cup team. I wanted to watch Sam Stosur, but her practice time coincided with the Schnyder/Henin-Hardenne match.

Today was a day of crazy loose balls. Several were hit into the stands. Patty Schnyder hit a ball straight into the body of Justine Henin-Hardenne, and Henin-Hardenne caught it with her hand. In the doubles match, Shinobu Asagoe whacked a ball that hit Virginia Ruano Pascual right around the crotch. But the biggest stray ball of the day--of the tournament, for that matter--was hit by Anna-Lena Groenefeld. A little boy was walking down the stairs to his seat in the second tier of the stadium, and Groenefeld's stray ball hit him in the head.

The wind blew so hard today that it knocked down a large planter filled with geraniums. Play had to be stopped while volunteers put the planter back together.