The print media had its first taste of new ATP chief Adam Helfant and it was a low-calorie affair. Helfant, who was hired just a couple of weeks ago, met with a group of reporters in the outdoor media garden Wednesday morning.

Wearing a suit and a tie, Helfant, 44, struck a decidedly lower-key profile than his predecessor, the animated and charismatic Etienne de Villiers. His soft voice was barely audible in the clamor of surrounding noise from arriving fans, which required a venue change to the indoor media restaurant. There, the former Nike and NHL exec was quick to point out that he is very much in a learning/information gathering mode, even if he insisted he was already “up and running” by being in Australia. “It’s obviously early days for me,” he said. “I don’t have any grand pronouncements to make.”

Over the next 30 minutes, Helfant was peppered about what kind of regime he will run, what qualities he brings to the table, how the economy is affecting the ATP, and so on. Respected L’Equipe writer Philippe Bouin questioned the wisdom of having another Anglo-Saxon CEO when the power of the sport clearly resides in Europe. He even took him to task for speaking no foreign languages. “It’s one of my failings,” Helfant said.

Helfant’s view is that the men’s game has never been in a better place product-wise, and it’s hard to argue with that. He spoke optimistically of replacing tour title sponsor Mercedes when the time and partnership is right, but admitted that the ATP’s commercial potential has not been maximized, saying the “disparity is as high as it’s ever been.”

Of the players, he said he appreciated the involvement of the top three and added that his priority was to hear their voices – a big criticism of the bull-headed de Villiers. “First and foremost, they want to make sure I listen,” he said.

We learned that Helfant will relocate to London while his family will stay in Connecticut, and that, surprisingly, he has not spoken to de Villiers. He dodged the question about last Saturday’s players’ meeting, which according to several sources was the longest and one of the most contentious in memory.

In the end, there was little substance, and understandably so. Though he is no neophyte to tennis from his Nike days, the Harvard-trained lawyer has a lot to learn in the months ahead and the usual thicket of thorny problems to sort through. For journalists, the issue is access access access, and it’s too early to tell if that will improve.

Brother and Sisterly Love

An increasing number of siblings are teeing it up here in dubs, and all four of them were on tap Wednesday. The head of the class is the second-ranked Bryan brothers, who snatched their 50^th title in Sydney last week, becoming only the fourth team in the Open Era to win at least 50 titles, joining Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde (61), Peter Fleming and John McEnroe (57), and Bob Hewitt and Frew McMillan. The other DNA-sharing teams here include fellow Americans Venus and Serena Williams, Ukrainians Alona and Kateryna Bondarenko and Poles Agnieszka and Urszula Radwanska. Defending Aussie Open champs the Bondarenkos were the only losers Wednesday, falling to Gisela Dulko and Roberta Vinci 6-2, 7-5. “Its nice to see,” said Bob Bryan of the sibling solidarity. “We’re always pulling for family members.”

Troubling Trend Continues, but Some Bright Spots

A total of six U.S. players, four men and two women, reached the second round at the Australian Open. That sounded pretty dismal, so I asked my friends at the ITF to do a little research and my suspicions were confirmed: That’s the lowest total since at least 1980 in Australia, and by far the smallest number since the men’s and women’s draws went to 128 in 1987. The male players who reached the round-of-64 are Andy Roddick, James Blake, Mardy Fish and Amir Delic. On the women’s side, only Venus and Serena Williams advanced past the first round. The low numbers didn’t stop former NCAA champ Delic, 25, from scoring one of the biggest wins of his career Wednesday. The Illinois alum came back from two sets down to upset No. 28 seed Paul-Henri Mathieu 9-7 in the fifth to reach the third round for the first time at a major. Fish also advanced over Simone Bolelli in straight sets. Roddick played later.

National Tensions

The Bosnian-born Delic expressed concern after his win about fan behavior at his upcoming contest against defending champ Novak Djokovic of Serbia. During the latter part of Delic’s match versus Frenchman Mathieu, Serbians watching the nearby Janko Tipsarevic match wandered over and started chanting loudly at Bosnian fans supporting Delic. The two sides then got into it, bellowing obscenities at each other and eliciting a surge in security in and around the court.

“Here I am in the middle and Paul-Henri Mathieu doesn’t know what the hell is going on,” said Delic, who emigrated to the U.S. when he was 14. Delic declined to translate what the two sides were chanting, but said he would try to diffuse the situation by posting a message on his website and talking to Bosnian community leaders to tone things down. There is already a history of violence involving fans from the former Yugoslavia at the Aussie Open. Some 150 Croats and Serbs were ejected from the grounds in 2007. There is clearly no love lost between the Serbs and Bosnians even though the Bosnian War ended in 1995.

Tidbits

--The Nicole Vaidisova train wreck continues. Once a promising star that reached the Roland Garros semifinals at 17, the Czech player went down in flames 6-2, 6-1 to French veteran Severine Bremond in just over an hour. She later blew off the media and will surely be fined.

--A source in the Fernando Verdasco camp tells me that it was Ana Ivanovic who broke it off with the Spaniard because, for whatever reason, the relationship wasn’t helping her game.

--ATP player and board member and current pro Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia has resigned. No word yet on when he will be replaced or who is in the running.