Paris Crisis Center, Day 7

By Rosangel Valenti, TW Contributing Editor

Good afternoon. This is the last Crisis Center for the Paris Masters event. As always, please use this space to discuss the day's tennis; once the final is over, some off-topic chat will be acceptable.

Today's final between David Nalbandian and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga should be a crowd-pleaser. The Frenchman can expect great crowd support, but I've noticed that Nalbandian is also a popular player in Paris. In addition to the local interest, there's something other than a Masters Series title on the line, as the winner will claim a spot in Shanghai at the Tennis Masters Cup.

These two have never yet played each other, which always adds intrigue. I continue to be surprised by the number of first-time matchups we see occurring on the ATP tour - before this week we had never seen Tsonga play James Blake, while other first-time matchups included Marcos Baghdatis and Sam Querrey, and Marat Safin and Juan Monaco.

In terms of the quality of his opponents, Tsonga has not had a finer run through a tournament since the Australian Open, though he defeated Novak Djokovic in winning the Bangkok title in September, and was a semifinalist last week in Lyon. This week he numbers Novak Djokovic, Radek Stepanek, Andy Roddick and James Blake among his victims. He's played three three-setters. Nalbandian's path has looked easier, for the defending champion has dropped just one set so far, in his semifinal against Nikolay Davydenko. Otherwise, he's handled Nicolas Kiefer, Juan Martin Del Potro and Andy Murray in straight sets. He failed to defend his Madrid title, but in the past few weeks Nalbandian has won in Stockholm and reached the final in Basel

Picture of the Day

I took this during Nalbandian's quarterfinal match against Andy Murray. Bearing in mind that we have Nancy and linex in da house to support him today, I've just found time to publish a few of the other pictures taken of him during the same match in this web gallery. Click on any image to enlarge, and page through using the arrows. There are more web galleries to come, as I sort through the various pictures taken this week.

As always, enjoy today's tennis.