Miami: Day 2 Crisis Center

[[Once again, TW's friend in Florida, Lance Harke - long known to most regulars here as "Todd and in Charge" -  is acting as our eyes and ears down in Miami over the first week of this event, including qualifying. Here's his first report, written yesterday - PB]]

By Lance Harke, Contributing Editor

It was bright and sunny as usual on Key Biscayne as Day One of the Sony Ericsson Open got off to a rousing start with some fine women's tennis and a few solid men's qualifying matches.

I've said this before, but I find the first week of this tournament to be the most exciting and fun for us  tennis junkies.  In particular I love wandering the grounds and just soaking in all the hope and excitement from the players looking to make this tournament their own.

Just today, for example, I saw Donald Young and James Blake doing sprint warmups together, Gael Monfils taking serves from Tomas Berdych, Christina McHale playing an intense practice match, Sam Querry posing for photos with fans, Tommy Haas doing net work and Serena hitting some killer serves.

Plus I chatted briefly with Ivan Lendl and saw Kimmy C pick up her credentials.  Sure beats my day job!

In terms of on-court action, young American Madison Keys rallied to win a tough three-setter against Anastasia Rodionova.  It was Kids' Day at the Sony and many young Miami-Dade County students and tennis players rooted for Madison as she came back from a set down to defeat the Aussie doubles specialist.

I also caught the entirety of the Jelena Dokic/Ekaterina Makarova match which, for long-suffering Dokic fans, merely prolonged the experience of being a long-suffering Dokic fan.  Jelena went down 6-1 in the first set, hobbled by poor service games and a misfiring forehand.  Though she rallied to 5 all in the second set, Dokic was unable to hold serve in a long deuce game and finally succumbed to the Russian lefty 7-5 by hitting three straight forehands off weak Makarova second serves right into the net.

If all goes well I should be out there today to watch Venus in action and root for my bad boy Xavier Malisse -- hey, this could be his year!

You can also follow my tweets from the Sony at @lharke).