Andy Murray, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic take to intimate Court 9 at the Rogers Cup, and cause gridlock

MONTREAL – Compared to the singles matches on the two big show courts, the action on Court 9 Monday on the first day of the Rogers Cup was star-studded – even if it was doubles.

First Andy Murray took the court with Indian doubles legend Leander Paes. Rafael Nadal and countryman Fernando Verdasco followed, in a first-round doubles match against two other accomplished singles players in Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic and American Jack Sock.

Finally, No. 1 Novak Djokovic and great friend and fellow Serb Janko Tipsarevic joined the Court 9 party, against Viktor Troicki and Andreas Seppi of Italy.

On the day, all the "singles specialists" won, too, which means they get to play another round.

But all day long, Court 9 was absolute gridlock. Here's what it looked like.

Fans began arriving during the first match of the day, a singles match between American Sam Querrey and Martin Klizan of Slovakia. So by the time Murray and Paes took the court, it was already full.

And it stayed full.

The concept behind Court 9 for the last couple of years, since the stands that are actually technically outside the stadium in Jarry Park were added, is that you can sit in those stands and watch for free. What the tournament's organizers hope is that some of those people will catch the tennis bug, and become patrons in the future.

It's a great concept. And obviously the programming was sterling – these were matches better suited for 4,000-seat Court Banque Nationale, where there were first-round singles matches going on all day and which has broadcast capabilities.

Court 9, including the free stands, has a capacity of 900.

But the theory behind the scheduling turned into something else in actual practice. The "inside" stands were so jammed, and never got unjammed; one usher estimated 80 to 90 per cent of the people in the "free" stands were actual ticket holders who went over there because - at least early on - there was still space available.

In the meantime, even the coaches and families of the players had trouble finding a seat.

They had three spots reserved for each team – drastically underestimating the size of the support groups these days. As well, both Nadal and Verdasco's girlfriends are in the house.

So Jack Sock's longtime friend Chris Fotopoulos ended up sitting on a folding chair – right next to Team Nadal. And Sock's brother Eric couldn't even find a seat with his crew, relegated to the very end of the stands, all by his lonesome.

Later, Tipsarevic's longtime coach Dirk Hordorff got the folding chair treatment. He joked that he told them he was "over 80", so at least they found him a seat.

None of the crews were complaining about the rather basic conditions – a long way from the players' box at Wimbledon. And the crowd was loving every minute of it.

Also adding to the experience were some rather beautiful woman, the WAGS of Court 9,

we'll call them for the day.