Cincinnati Highlights Days 4 & 5: Wozniacki, Wawrinka, Petkovic, Fish, Federer, Stephens, Harrison, Haas, Paire

One of the joys for fans at the Cincinnati Open is the ability to see player practices, usually on smaller courts that offer up-close-and-personal vantage points. The popularity of these practice sessions means that some of them become absolute madhouses, with huge crowds crammed into small spaces. It’s no surprise, then, that some players might like a little time away from the danger-of-stampede situations.

Which brings us to Roger Federer, who is the Maestro of all things, including faking people out. The photo above shows him on a closed-to-public Center Court, practicing with Coach Paul Annacone–while all his fans sat waiting for him to show up to the scheduled Court 5. That is until someone leaked Roger’s Super Sekrit location to Twitter.

Stan Wawrinka and Benoit Paire did show up to their scheduled practice, however, a quick hit for both before their Tuesday singles matches.

I liked this shot of smiley Benoit.

Stan did a lot of scrolling when he checked his Twitter during a break in practice. I realized that was probably him sailing by the three pages of babble that Katie (@breakpointsaved) and I had tagged him on. Like we do.

On center court, Ryan Harrison did everything humanly possible to try and win against Ferrer. And some things that we though were only Djokovic-possible…

Sloane Stephens did a bit of pouting and teenagery sighing early on in her match against Maria Sharapova…

…but as we all know, she managed to kick it into a higher gear, enough to get her another big win over a top player.

On Wednesday, Caroline Wozniacki took to the court, showing off her fine overhead shots, tenacity, and that weird but mesmerizing Stella McCartney kit.

Afterwards, Mardy Fish and Jurgen Melzer took on the duo of Granollers and Lopez in a high-energy match that was a standing-room-only event.

And then Stan played an incredible night match against Tommy Robredo, a searingly fast frenzy of one-handed-backhand goodness that went to three sets.

I always love watching a Stan match with a crowd that’s not necessarily that familiar with the players. It starts with polite interest, but once Stan starts cracking those BH winners down the line, people are shouting “HOLY $#%@!!!!!” and applauding like crazy.

Which brings us to tonight’s collection of clickable pics. Yes J.D. and I were at Stan’s match, and if you click the pic below, you’ll see just how close we were able to sit.

Here are two pics that I thought were gorgeous of Andrea Petkovic, that show off her strength and form, as well as the sexiness of that somewhat oddly designed Stella kit.

And last, but certainly not least, this Click-to-Enlarge pic is for those lusty ladies I met at the shirtless Monaco practice earlier this week.

This is the guy I told you about.

You’re welcome.

In case you missed it, check out Cincy posts from Days One, Two, and Three!

~
PHOTOS: c2013 Valerie David for TennisInsideOut.com