By Rosangel Valenti, TW Contributing Editor
Good morning. By the time you read this, I should have already arrived at the Monte Carlo Country Club in Monaco, for a day of watching live tennis. Today's packed schedule comprises the remainder of the second round. Matches on Centre Court include Nikolay Davydenko versus Simone Bolelli (just three days after Kolya retired injured from the Estoril final), Roger Federer's meeting with Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo, second up, and Rafael Nadal's clash with Mario Ancic. Afterwards, Richard Gasquet puts in his first appearance since his...ah...non-appearance against Andy Roddick in Davis Cup against the USA ten days ago (albeit afterwards playing a dead rubber against James Blake), taking on Kristof Vliegen. This assumes that he does not pull out due to back pain, which has already led to his withdrawal from the doubles.
Over on the Court des Princes, Marat Safin, having surprised many of us by undramatically winning his first-round match yesterday against Xavier Malisse, takes on David Ferrer in the first match. There are also several other interesting encounters, including the lone American in the draw, Sam Querrey (having defeated Carlos Moya in his first-round match), against Andreas Seppi. David Nalbandian also meets Olivier Rochus. Somehow, the match between Juan Monaco and Nicolas Almagro, which many of the Tribe would doubtless wish to see, has been relegated to the obscurity of Court 9. The same is true of the all-German clash between two recent Davis Cup team-mates, Philipp Kohlschreiber and Nicolas Kiefer.
In tomorrow's Crisis Center post I hope to be able to provide you with some colour on the day as seen from Centre Court, and some pictures of the action.
As always, enjoy today's tennis.