For ages, I have been begging, asking for the moment when someone other than Roger Federer, as much as I admire his tennis, would take the stage at a tournament. Come on! Federer is the kind of guy you want to know has skeletons lying around somewhere in his grand Swiss closets adorned o’ trophies. He is too perfect.

“I did not have much time to adjust after the Australian Open; it was not easy to meet people’s expectations. I am proud about what I’ve done,” Cilic said. “I have played lot of matches this year, but it was also mentally tough. Now I can relax.”

Notes: Croats Cilic, Ljubicic, Karlovic among seeds; Cilic could face Crazi Dani 2nd rd.; (4) Troicki opens against Schuettler, and (2) Ljubicic vs. Clement; Cilic beat Mario “Baby Goran” Ancic in last year’s all-Croat final; Ljubicic won in 2006.

Notes: Should be called the Spanish Open with four Spaniard leading the seeding and five seeded total.

Other players chose tracks that were unbelievably inappropriate. I can’t say who. I’m a massive Neil Young fan and I think the audience would be disgusted if I started playing that [particular song].”…

“I was down a set, and only the second set was I able to sort of get the ball into play, find my range, find my rhythm,” said Federer, who has been plagued by an erratic forehand during the end of 2009. “I got a little bit lucky maybe to get through in the second set. At the end in the third set I played great.”

Grand Prix de Tennis de Lyon Lyon, France Surface: hard indoor Seeds: Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Gilles Simon, Ivan Ljubicic, Juan Monaco, Julien Benneteau, Paul-Henri Mathieu, Benjamin Becker, Al Montanes ADHEREL Floaters: None Notes: One Top 10er in Tsonga; wildcards to oldies Arnaud Clement, Sebastien Grosjean, Michael Llodra (are there no French up-and-comers?); Algeria’s Lamine Ouahab gets [...]

BLAKE AND BARKER BREAK — James Blake and his coach Brian Barker, who has coached him since his junior days, have mutually parted ways. Blake is finishing out the year with fellow Floridian Kelly Jones as his coach. Jones, a former No. 1-ranked doubles player on the ATP tour, has worked with other Floridians Mardy Fish and John Isner.

Notes: Weak, weak seeded line-up; tough openers include (1) Davydenko vs. Safin, (4) Andreev vs. Ginepri, (6) Tipsarevic vs. Crazi Dani, and (5) Cuevas vs. Lu (upset alert); Russians have won 13 titles in the 19 years of the event; unseeded Igor Kunitsyn is the defending champ, and is looking at a second-round meeting with the Davydenko-Safin winner; Davydenko looking for fourth Moscow title; Yevgeny Kafelnikov won the Moscow title five years in a row from 1997-2001.

“We were ready for a dog fight,” Bob Bryan said. “When you’ve got one of the best singles players of our era playing with one of the best doubles players of our era it’s going to make for a great match up. Mike and I came out focused and played one of the best matches we’ve played in a long time.”