Miami arrival and day session report - and new photos

So this morning I got into Miami, on one of the worst red eye flights ever - TWO screaming children in the row behind me AND I had a middle seat. Obviously I did not sleep much.

Despite that, I made it to the NASDAQ right around 11AM - first getting all my tickets in order and then wandering off on my own to see what was going on. I didn't spend much of my time at Stadium Court at all - I ended up swinging by the practice courts and seeing a ton of players - Justine Henin-Hardenne was practicing with Daniela Hantuchova, Andy Roddick was practicing with Ginepri, Agassi with Hewitt, Nadal with Baghdatis and Schrichipan...and more. I ended up getting autographs on a hat from Fernando Gonzales, Marcos Baghdatis, and Marat Safin. Gonzales was by far the most autograph friendly of the bunch - he hung around and signed a ton of stuff. Safin was the least in the we had to run after him, although he very willingly signed anything for those of us who could catch him. Some crazy guy kept following Baghdatis and chatting about every past match that Baghdatis had ever played - so maybe Safin had run into this bozo earlier and knew to outrun him. Please note my "bozo" standard - it's ok to run after a player for an autograph, but not okay to berate him while doing so. ;) Safin was the last player I saw on the practice courts because the deluge and thunderstorm began right about when he left. He looked like he was trying out racquets with different string tension - he didn't seem very happy with any of the options.

So, I am posting the photos from this adventure - they're all here - and there will be tons of updates. I'm taking requests for player photos. :)

The next thing I did was get my volunteer credentials and uniform - I'm going to save that for another post after I get some sleep. I was watching the Henman / Safin match (Safin lost) and it ended around 1.30AM ET.