Paris Crisis Center, Day 6

By Rosangel Valenti, TW Contributing Editor

Hi all. It's semifinals day in Paris. As of yesterday Nadal and Federer are both out of the tournament with injuries - with a retirement and a walkover respectively. In Nadal's case, watching him being booed off the court in Paris is certainly not how I'd envisaged my Rafa Euro-spectator Slam of 2008 ending, but as I've discovered in following the tour in Europe over the past eighteen months, viewing a demanding individual sport has its hazards, of which injury-related issues are one. I was, after all, present for the 48 minutes of play that comprised this year's Rome semifinals, when both Roddick and Stepanek were forced to retire. That was not a good day to be a spectator.

The tennis continues, however, and there's potential for what remains to be very enjoyable. First up, the champions of the past two years, Nikolay Davydenko and David Nalbandian, will play each other for a place in the final. Their head-to-head is pretty balanced - Nalbandian leads 5-4, but Davydenko won their two most recent encounters (in Davis Cup this year, and at Roland Garros in 2007) over four sets,

Afterwards, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga takes on James Blake, for their first career meeting. Davydenko has already qualified for the Masters Cup Shanghai; the other three are in with a shot of making it there.

Please use this Crisis Center thread to discuss the day's matches. After play is over, it's OK to drift off-topic to a reasonable degree.

Picture of the Day

For some reason, much as I enjoy the way he plays, I've often found Andy Murray difficult to photograph. Sometimes it takes a little while to develop a sense of a player's activities while watching "through the lens", and to time the capture of the best shots. I don't like to publish pictures that are unflattering. Yesterday I felt better about my efforts in photographing Murray - and thought that his match against David Nalbandian was of very high quality, though Nalbandian was the thoroughly deserving winner.

I have some nice shots of Nalbandian from that match too - web galleries to follow. I also noticed in the comments section that TW regular jbradhunter wondered whether I would post a picture of "Rafa receiving treatment to his knee". I plead guilty to being one of the two photographers closest to that particular action as it unfolded, and to spending more time worrying about getting the shot than the state of the right knee. See here  - at least the trainer looked happy.

As always, enjoy the tennis.