Shanghai Crisis Center, Day 6

Greetings, Tribe. I am auto-posting this as I prepare to drift up to the farm in game-rich Andes,  so
that you'll have a table-setter for your discussion of the clash between Andy Roddick and Roger Federer today. One of the chief flaws of the otherwise serviceable round-robin system is that you get matches that count, matches that don't count, and matters that sort of count - but not really...

The match-of-the-day  (I am not talking about Kolya vs. Gonzo, either)  falls into the last of those categories. It certainly counts for Federer and Gonzo, one of whom will join Rafael Nadal, Roddick and David Ferrer in the semifinals. But with Roddick already in the semifinals, you can bet that the fundamental meaninglessness of this match will be a topic of discussion, whether Roddick wins or loses. That's the problem that round-robin just can't solve.

Remember, Tomahawk Perrotta, who's in Shanghai, has promised to blog the Roddick-Federer match in real-time, meaning he will provide running commentary from the start, refreshing his post every few minutes as he adds information. Should be a fun experiment, look for him at the appropriate time at his String Theory blog.

I also have some important blogging notes: the invaluable Rosangel will be your master-of-ceremonies for the weekend, and Ed McGrogan will be back with a year-end Monday Net Post to wrap up the past two weeks (in his usual Monday time slot).  On Monday evening, I will post a navel-gazer about the unique situation Roger Federer finds himself in for 2008; that one is bound to generate a lot of discussion.

I'll be out of the woods and back on town on Wednesday, so we can all wish each other a Happy Thanksgiving, and I'll make sure y'all will have a watercooler or pumpkin-festooned still-life to gather around until we return to business-as-usual - on Tuesday, November 27th.

Have a great weekend of tennis, everyone.