Good morning. This is today's thread for discussing the ongoing action in Monte Carlo. The order of play for today's quarterfinals begins with two Russians - Igor Andreev and Nikolay Davydenko. Their head-to-head is 1-1, with Davydenko winning their last encounter, in 2007, on a carpet court in Moscow, a surface on which Davydenko excels. Andreev won their only match on clay, but it took place five years ago.
The second match is the highly-anticipated encounter between Roger Federer and David Nalbandian. While on his hot streak late last year, as we all know, Nalbandian twice defeated Federer on indoor hard courts during Masters Series events, to level their head-to-head at 8-8, one of the most prolific on the men's tour. They have met three times so far on clay, with Federer leading their head-to-head 2-1. The two most recent encounters on the surface were in 2006. In Rome, the match was decided in a final-set tiebreak; at Roland Garros Nalbandian was forced to retire during their semifinal while Federer was leading 5-2 in the third set, with the first two split one apiece. Those results suggest that this could be a closely-contested affair.
The third match is between Rafael Nadal and David Ferrer. Ferrer won their last two encounters, at last year's US Open and Shanghai Masters Cup, leaving the overall head-to-head at 4-3 in Nadal's favour. Nadal won their last three matches on clay, with Ferrer's sole victory on the surface occurring in 2004.
The final face-off involves Novak Djokovic and the surprise quarterfinalist of the week, Sam Querrey, who yesterday saw off Richard Gasquet in three sets, after Gasquet's late-match collapse. Djokovic and Querrey have only met once, at this year's Australian Open, where the eventual champion won comfortably in straight sets. Current form would suggest that Djokovic is the heavy favourite today, though Querrey's serve has the potential to keep it interesting, if it's working well for him.
As promised, I have now uploaded my web galleries made from the pictures taken on Wednesday in Monte Carlo. Images of Roger Federer during his eventual victory over Ruben Ramirez-Hidalgo can be found here. The gallery of Rafael Nadal pictures is on this link, and there are pictures of the other players (especially Kolya, just for ptenisnet) in a separate gallery. To enlarge any picture, click on it, and use the arrows to page through. For anyone who still has the will or stamina to look at yet more pictures, I've also updated my web page containing links to all of my tennis-related web galleries. I'd note that I've copyright watermarked all of the pictures here after some pictures were posted unauthorised on other tennis sites. I've no objection to links being posted to any page or picture, preferably noting that they were taken for TennisWorld, but the pictures themselves may not be posted elsewhere. If anyone known to me has a favourite few pictures that they would like unwatermarked for their private use, send me an e-mail.
As always, enjoy today's tennis.
