Family Circle Cup--more odds and ends

If you attended the Family Circle Cup last year, you will remember how much fun it was to hang out in the Bell South eZone. There were many computers for checking email and surfing the Web, and many telephones for calling long distance. And players had a nice space to do autograph sessions, with a basket of tennis balls to sign.

No more. The eZone is now in a tiny trailer near the Althea Gibson Club Court. It has a couple of computers and a few phones, and players have to do their sessions (no tennis balls supplied) outside.

There is also no Puppy Park this year. My best guess as to why is that there are no puppies. Martina Navratilova is not here, nor are Golovin and Davenport, who brought dogs last year.

The food court is better, however, with several vegetarian offerings, but, alas, no falafel this year.

In the daytime, the sun burns right through our clothing, and at night, the wind is very cold. Tonight there was almost no wind, so it was quite comfortable. Last year, there was a cold snap throughout the entire tournament, and we froze during the night matches.

I met Nathalie Dechy today, as I mentioned in another post, and though I did not speak with her, I was able to get some nice close-up photographs of Mara Santangelo. I also met Anabel Medina Garrigues, who signed a photo I took of her last year (she really liked the photo).

My tennis outfit pick of the day is, once again, Julia Vakulenko. This time, she had on a tiered hot pink tennis dress, which looked wonderful. My other favorite today was Lucie Safarova's simple short, fitted orchid (or it may have been periwinkle) tennis skirt with a 3/4 sleeve fitted white top.