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A lot more traffic going to the tennis today.  It kept feeling like a Saturday.  The skies were blue, nary a cloud and after a few hours, boy, you’re toast under the strong sun.   But the tennis was fun.  The best match I saw was between James Blake and Thomas Bellucci, a Brazilian player.   I didn’t necessarily think it would be much, but I was comfortably ensconced in the higher bleachers of Court 2, having just watched Mardy Fish play a second set and win his match, and so I stayed on, chatting with a woman from Milwaukee who was there with her grown daughter, the two of them grabbing some time together.

The line-up today on Court 2 was almost all Americans.  First Mardy, against Benneteau.  Then James against the Brazilian.  After that, Wawrinka and Granollers, no Yanks there.  Next Sam Querry.  Finally, John Isner.

Blake and Bellucci played to a packed crowd, bleachers on all four sides of this court.  I thought James would have a distinct hometown advantage, but this is Miami, it’s half Latin and South American.  There were so many Brazilians, it sounded like World Cup.  And without Hawkeye, there were a number of disputed calls that got the crowd riled.  Those Brazilians know how to whistle and boo, wave a flag and throw down a cheer.  It made for a great atmosphere.

And after losing the first set, Blake won the second, but barely.  The third set went to a tiebreak and at 6-3, James had three match points, the last on his serve, and he failed to convert any of them.  He secured another match point at 7-6 and brought it home.  It was just what you want from a match, excitement, great hitting from both players, some stakes.  I don’t know Bellucci’s story, but Blake is competing on a wild card entry, no longer within the top 100.  He’s a former number four player, I think.  I could be wrong about that, maybe not quite that high, but high.  So this is a comeback story and you could see how much it meant to him when he managed to close the door on match point number four.

But, prepare to go home, James.  I don’t think he’ll beat Novak Djokovic, his next opponent.

From where I was sitting on Court 2, you get a good view of the action on Court 8 as well.  Dominique Cibulkova was playing Tamara Bacsinksky of Switzerland.  I’ve written about Dominique before, tiny and feisty, and there she was with her long single blond braid down her back, scrambling all over and giving game.  The match seemed to go on forever and I couldn’t see the scoreboard clearly so I just kept watching even though I had no idea where they were.  Clearly it was close, clearly it had gone to a third set.  And then, finally, I saw Dominique hit a volley into the open court and the match was over.  Glad to see her win.

I wanted to see Milos Raonic play today, but it was at the same time as Mardy Fish’s match and you can’t get a seat in the Grandstand court with your back to the sun, those are preferred (duh).  And I won’t get a chance to see him play here because he lost to Devvarman, the Indian player who is on a winning streak.  And Soderling nearly lost early in the day as well.  He was down 4-0 in the third to a Croatian player named Dodig but fought back to win it.  I figured something had to have kicked in there, that kind of I’m not going down to number 60 in the world, not going to happen thing.  I like to see Soderling play so I wanted him to win.  He’ll play either del Potro or Kohlschreiber next, at the moment those two are in a decisive third set.  I hope it’s Delpo so we can see Robin and him in a huge forehand to forehand slugfest.

Tomorrow the biggest guns.  Federer on court for the first time, against Stepanek who can and may give him trouble.  Nadal on court at night.  And I hope to see Baghdatis against Olivier Rochus, that has to be entertaining.

More from Miami later.