Madrid SF

Friday at the Madrid Open was a mixed bag, all in all. First up, I was working during the Nadal match unfortunately and so missed a golden opportunity to get involved when Ferrer was close to the magical destination at which we knew he could never arrive! Rafa was always going to come through here and that would have been some very nice profit. Sometime life gets in the way of tennis! :P
Even more unfortunate from my point of view, I got home just in time to see Nishikori v Andujar. This was a match I never intended on getting involved in as I was 100% sure that Kei would win. He knocked out Melzer in straights, Troicki in straights, and Federer in straights, and then decides not to show up at all and gets sent packing by Pablo Andujar, in straights. I mean, Andujar has to beat the weakest player on tour mentally. He handed the inititiave back to Kei when he attempted to serve out the match at 5-4 in the second and then Kei handed a break straight back to him. It was pathetic stuff and is a worrying trait for Nishikori's long term prospects. He literally did nothing in the match today. How can he beat the world number 2 one day and lose to the world number 113 the next?

Thankfully, Tomas Berdych came to our aid with his straight set dismissal of Andy Murray. It was another exciting display from Berdych and he is giving us a real run for our money with the 50/1 outright recommendation at the beginning of the week. Murray looked somewhat frustrated as he can do from time to time, and he never looked like penetrating Berdych the way Berdych did to him. Berdych's serve is also a serious weapon here and he managed himself very well today.

The last match was the difference between a good day and a bad day for me. I predicted here yesterday that Tsonga would lose the first set and win the match. He duly lost the first set, won the second in the most exciting tie-break I have seen, and was in a great position at the beginning of the third. He was 1.50 in running at one stage and looked a great prospect. But he failed to convert from 0-30 on the Wawrinka delivery early in the third and promptly threw in a gift of a service break for Stan which the Swiss maintained until the end. It was a disappointing end to the day, but kudos to Stan. A good win for him.

Tomorrow's first semi final will take about half an hour. That's all the attention I'm giving it on this blog. It will be a lopsided joke of a match. A 2 and 1 beatdown or something similar.

In the only real match tomorrow, Berdych takes on Wawrinka for the right to face Rafa in the final. Their head to head record is tied at 5-5 and I expect tomorrow to be a close encounter. Berdych has the slight advantage in that he played first today while Stan didn't finish until nearly 2.00 am which is two late-night three-setters in a row for him. I am going to side with Berdych, just because I think he is the fresher of the two. Game-wise, they are both playing very aggressive tennis, both serving well, and both very strong from the back of the court. There is little to chose between them. Maybe Stan has a slight edge at the net but this is a department Berdych has improved a lot on over the last year or two. There are no odds up yet but I would imagine it will be very close in the betting with Berdych maybe being the marginal favourite. I hope for the sake of our outright bet that Berdych does progress, and, given his current form, his win today, and his history at this venue, I will take him to knock out the best Swiss player this week in three sets.

Enjoy the semi finals! :)