Madrid Crisis Center, Day 7

By Rosangel Valenti, TW Contributing Editor

Hi all. Please, as usual, use this space to discuss today's matches as they progress. The Zurich final begins any moment now, and the final in Madrid begins at 4 p.m. local time, or 10 a.m. EST.

I returned home last night, so will be watching the Madrid final on TV along with the rest of the Tribe. Yesterday was a long day in the Madrid Arena. It may not be obvious on TV, but when the stadium is full it's fairly warm at court level, and I was taking pictures virtually the whole time. In fact, I used every compactflash and SD card I had with me - that's about 25 gigabytes-worth  of pictures to process and sort, just from two matches. You can't tell from he pictures I put up on the web, but there are usually some tricky shots that I wish I'd made a better job of; every time I attend an event like this it's an opportunity to improve what I'm doing and try to get those shots this time. Having sat out Friday in the audience while affected by a nasty cold, I decided to make the most of semifinals day - which is why I easily broke my own record for "most pictures taken in a day". I've been trying out different cameras, and experimenting with various lenses.

I've said before that photographing the players gives a very specific perspective on a match; I'll be able to say with certainty what a player's court positioning was like, which were the strongest shots, which wing was most often under attack - and what the player's expressions and gestures gave away in terms of emotions. The lens brings the players' faces closer, in other words. What I can't do in these situations is give a point-by-point account of a match from both perspectives - that's only possible if I decide to sit out some passages of play, which some of the time I'll do.

Player of the Day

Yet again, Gilles Simon. I don't think Rafael Nadal was at his best yesterday, for reasons I've already discussed in the comments, but no player can be asked to do more than beat the player who is on the other side of the net that day. Some of us thought that Simon might be affected by finishing his three-set defeat of Ivo Karlovic after midnight, but somewhere he found the energy and ability to save numerous break points, keep on running, and take a small number of key points in the match - he actually won less points than his opponent, but the last two were tthe ones that mattered most.

Match of the Day

After his three-set defeat of Roger Federer yesterday, Andy Murray now leads their head-to-head 3-2, though I'm sure he'd prefer to have won their previous encounter in New York. Today he takes on Gilles Simon. They have a 1-1 head-to-head. Both previous matches were on clay. Murray lost to Simon in Rome last year over three sets, but defeated him in straight sets in Hamburg earlier this year.

I was wrong about a Federer-Nadal final yesterday, but I predict that Murray will win his second consecutive Masters Series shield today, if he serves as well as he did yesterday, and manages to find similar depth and variety with his groundstrokes.

Enjoy today's tennis.

[Note: The pictures here were taken yesterday, during and after the Federer-Murray match (Murray took the time to sign every autograph that was asked for). Web galleries to follow, probably early next week]