Madrid Crisis Center, Day 7
Hi everyone. Please use this space to discuss the live tennis that's going on, and any other tennis-related issues of the day. As always we ask that you keep back your off-topic talk until after the day's matches are over. We'll be putting up Overflow posts when needed, to try to avoid the worst TypePad-related holdups. The first Overflow will be linked from the foot of this headline post; subsequent Overflows will be found via the usual links at the top and bottom of each page on the Overflow blog. If you find that any of these posts suddenly closes while live tennis is being followed, it means that a new post is already available for you to use.
Today's Order of Play can be found here. In the next few minutes Roger Federer and Andy Roddick will take to the Court for the battle of the newly-married men - Pete's preview, in "House Money", is below this post. Afterwards Ivan Ljubicic takes on Novak Djokovic. I think Ljubicic deserves to be viewed as yesterday's ATP player of the day, for the second time this week. Yesterday's three-set defeat of Gilles Simon was unexpected, coming from a set and a break down - and he's now the only player in the quarterfinals who's not in the top eight in the world.
During the evening session Rafael Nadal plays Fernando Verdasco, then Andy Murray will play Juan Martin Del Potro. Neither Verdasco nor Del Potro has ever beaten tonight's opponent, but we could see some quality matches.
I haven't been able to follow the WTA much this week (I think I may be able to catch some of the match between Jelena Jankovic and Patty Schnyder on TV later today), but congratulations are in order for Caroline Wozniacki, who has broken into the top 10 with this week's performance.
As always, enjoy the tennis.
-- Rosangel Valenti
[Note: we have opened an Overflow post at around 10.40 a.m. EST. Please follow the link in blue just below - RV].