Talk about "luck of the draw"

Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova

The main draw was held today on the Grand Lawn at the Family Circle Cup, and it turned out to be an unusually interesting occasion. Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, who has replaced Julia Goerges as the 8th seed, was on hand to assist. Everything went well until right toward the end, when it was discovered that some player chips hadn't made it into the giant tennis ball from which names are drawn. At that point, the draw--with the exception of the placement of seeds--had to be done over.

In the first attempt, Venus and Serena Williams were scheduled to collide early, if they had both won their early matches, but that changed when the "real" draw was made. But here is the thing that is interesting: Both times, Jamie Hampton and Sloane Stephens were drawn to play each other. None of us was sure what type of mathematical odds would make that happen, but happen it did.

This is the 40th anniversary of the tour, and now--on the walkways--there are images of tennis balls with champions' names written on them. There are also some really nice (the one of Serena Williams looks real from a distance) cardboard cut-outs of  various Family Circle Cup champions scattered here and there. Beginning Tuesday, each Happy Hour will honor a decade, starting with the 70s, and a 40 Love cocktail (sweet tea is one of the ingredients) will be offered at the bars. There's also a new bar on the terrace level.

We spotted Sania Mirza practicing, and we also saw Irina Falconi watching some of the action in the stadium. The stadium court, according to one player, is kind of gritty, and is playing slower than the outer courts. Rain was an issue this evening, but the forecast from here on is for sunny weather.