Exclusive: Day at the Masters Pt. 2

Troy is at it again on semifinal day at the Madrid Masters (or as he calls it, "Quadruple M"). Check out his latest post, complete with pictures:

Things are wrapping up quickly at the Quadruple M this weekend. Nalbandian's run continues as he takes yet another Top 3 victim in Novak Djokovic. Ironically enough, Nalbandian's run is looking more and more like Novak's at this summer's Masters Montreal. Djokovic's game seemed intact all around excluding his serve which disappointed on several key points. It seems he is also suffering something common among the elite Serbian tennis players: burnout. Novak admitted that he felt "really exhausted" during the match and smiled at the prospect of a week off.


Mirka, no stranger to R & R herself, continued her courtside reign this weekend. Last night she spent most of her time on her new pink cellphone and chatting with her friend. Today was no different, although, judging by other's reactions, she seems to have picked up a strange odor today. Too much arroz con habicheula's?


Meanwhile, Mirka's unidentified boyfriend continued to live up to his reputation and seemingly permanent number one seeding during a semifinal routing of Nicholas Kiefer. Kiefer, the only man to play Federer in all four Grand Slams (as recalled by Fed himself), took a respectable eight games off the Swiss. The 6-4, 6-4 victory kept
Federer's straight set record intact at this year's MMMM. People have started to run out of things to ask Roger, as the latter part of his press conference was dedicated to his F1 Racing predictions and the whereabouts of Juliette the cow (which he received as a gift for winning the Swiss Open at Gstaad in 2003). Federer admitted the cow was slaughtered.


The Bryan Brothers kept their slaughter of the doubles game alive with a win over the resurgent Argentine team of Nalbandian and Guillermo Canas. There was plenty of belly-bumping and Argentine ball abuse to be had during the entertaining match-up.


Tomorrow's finals should be interesting. Although the number one seeds in both singles and doubles are through (again) this time, it seems like they will all have their hands full. Anyone else smell an upset? Or is that just Mirka?


All photos by Troy Venechanos.