By Rosangel Valenti, TW Contributing Editor
Good morning. Please use this thread for discussing today's tennis action, either for the men in Rome, or for the WTA in Berlin.
Today's Order of Play on Stadio Pietrangeli begins with Andy Roddick and Mardy Fish. For what it's worth, in eight encounters to date, of which Roddick has won seven, the two have never met on clay. Next, Roger Federer has the opportunity to even up his head-to-head with Guillermo Canas, which currently stands at 2-3.
Other matches in the main stadium today feature Italian players, Filippo Volandri and Simone Bolelli, respectively facing Nicolas Lapentti (I'd forgotten all about the Lapentti brothers until I saw him in Barcelona last week) and Olivier Patience. I suspect that the Tribe will be more interested in the matches over on Campo 1, featuring Fernando Verdasco versus Carlos Moya, and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga taking on Gilles Simon (the two have never met). On the same court, Fernando Gonzalez, last year's finalist, faces Janko Tipsarevic (the head-to-head is 1-1, both on grass), though this match is likely to overlap Federer-Canas. Meanwhile, Mario Ancic and Feliciano Lopez (Ancic leads, 2-1) have been banished to Campo 6, as have Ivo Karlovic and Paul-Henri Mathieu (who have never met), and Tommy Robredo and Juan Ignacio Chela (2-1, Robredo).
There was only one choice for today's picture - the unfortunate ending to the match between Andy Murray and Juan Martin Del Potro, when the latter was forced to retire due to a back injury in the second game of the third set - having been away from the tour recently because of a problem with his back. Before this happened, the match had been simmering nicely, partly due to something unflattering (according to Murray) that Del Potro had said about Andy's mother Judy, watching courtside. Not the pleasantest way for Andy Murray to win his first ever match in Rome.
As always, enjoy today's tennis.