ROME 2012: Men and Women Semifinals Set

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MadProfessah and Sentient Meat attended the Italian Open today on quarterfinals day. It was interesting to attend the joint WTA/ATP stop in Rome one week after attending a similar tennis tournament in Madrid.

The semifinals are now set: Novak Djokovic beat Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 7-5 6-1 and will face Roger Federer (who beat Andreas Seppi 6-1 6-2). Rafael Nadal (who beat Tomas Berdych 6-4 7-5) will face David Ferrer (who beat Richard Gasquet 7-6(4) 6-3).

I didn't see any of these matches, since I was only able to get (very good) seats in the Super Tennis Arena, where I saw Li Na beat Dominika Cibulkova 6-1 7-6(4) and Maria Sharapova beat Venus Williams 6-4 6-3. Sharapova will play lefty phenom Angelique Kerber (who beat Petra Kvitova 7-6(2) 1-6 6-1) in the first semifinal while Serena Williams will face Li Na in the other. In Rome, if you buy tickets to one arena you are not automatically given access to the other (smaller) arenas on the site, which is different from any other tournament I have ever attended. I would have got tickets for the larger site, the Foro Italico, but it is a much larger arena and i was not able to get seats as close to the action in it using the tournament's recalcitrant ticketone.it website to buy tickets.

I predict a Djokovic-Nadal final and a Serena-Maria final on Sunday. It's possible I'll be able to get tickets to the final on Sunday, but more likely I'll be watching it on TV like most of you (the weather report has a 70% chance of rain).