!Arod

Good morning. Please talk about today's tennis in Madrid here. As with all Crisis Centers, we'd appreciate it if you could keep the talk focused on tennis until today's matches are over.

Today's Order of Play can be found on this link. Today's match of the day for me is Fernando Verdasco versus Juan Monaco. Monaco leads their head-to-head, 4-1, including all three of their matches on clay, but they haven't met since 2007. Stanislas Wawrinka versus Juan Martin Del Potro also looks promising. Wawrinka leads the head-to-head 2-1, but lost the only match the two have played on clay, just two weeks ago in Rome, over three tight sets. Today's most interesting match on the WTA side could be Venus Williams' conqueror, Alisa Kleybanova, versus Caroline Wozniacki. These two have never played each other before.

I'm nominating Andy Roddick as yesterday's player of the day on the ATP side, after he pulled back from an uninspired first set and saved two match points during the second-set tiebreak, before eventually breaking the serve of his opponent, Tommy Haas, late in the third set. The match didn't contain either man's best tennis, but it certainly showcased Roddick's competitive spirit. On the WTA side I'll go with Amelie Mauresmo, for pulling off a win in three sets over Elena Dementieva, and also overcoming a 1-6 first set.

-- Rosangel Valenti

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