NO tennis tournament is complete without the ball kids, which invariably means no tournament is complete without unfortunate incidents.

A holiday bug was to blame for one boy vomiting on centre court on Monday while nerves may have been responsible for another wetting himself during the qualifiers.

Bad luck, however, consigned one ball girl to infamy. After needing heavy persuasion to even take part, the youngster was hit full force in the stomach by a wide first serve in her first game and then had a sweaty towel flung at her by an angry player in the next.

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TENNIS is obviously the first love for the majority of players here, but that doesn't mean they can't be interested in other sports.

The Barcelona-Real Madrid soccer match on Sunday was of such importance to Gregory Zavialoff that he spent the breaks not discussing his doubles qualifier or eating bananas but checking the Primera Liga score on his cell phone.

He and his partner won the game despite the poor concentration levels.

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THE early darling of the tournament appears to be Juan-Pablo Brzezicki. The smiley Argentinian, whose heritage means he is looking to become a Polish Davis Cup player, has befriended everyone he's met this week and won over the evening crowd on Monday with his passionate victory over number four seed Michal Tabara.

The youngster, who celebrated his birthday yesterday, is staying at the house of Ian Davidson, a partner with large corporate sponsor PricewaterhouseCoopers, and believes the home-cooked meals from Iain's wife, Felicity, like English favourite roast beef and Yorkshire pudding are doing more for his performance than hotel food.

The qualifier originally couldn't afford to stay at the main hotel and even though he is now entitled to free accommodation after making the main draw, he has opted to remain at the Davidson residence ? for good luck and good food.

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AS well as all the Coral Beach merchandise available in the club shop at the tournament venue, another hot item is flying off the shelves.

Bermuda Skeleton Team hats and t-shirts are this month's till-jangler, an attempt to raise money to boost Winter Olympian Patrick Singleton's medal campaign.

His father Derek, Coral Beach pro for more than 30 years and a competitor in the Pan-Am Games in the 1970s, says the items are popular, especially with Americans who "all remember Patrick's Bermuda shorts from the opening ceremony in Salt Lake City at the last Games".