Like a lamb to slaughter ...

But first, a major hissy fit:
What the hell is wrong with NBC? Really, NBC? Really? Is your Today Show so precious? All eight hours of it? Can't air the semifinals of a GRAND SLAM live? Not only that, but you cut the hell out of it? Then, I open my Yahoo page, thinking the stupid match is live, only to find out that Rafa Nadal had already mopped the floor with Novak Djokovic! You know what, NBC? Back off my tennis. I'm better off watching a grainy feed on the internets.
I think that's it.
No, it's not.
Plus, NBC, this is the three-time French Open champion playing for the number two ranking against a bona-fide contender! And that's the one you tape delay? Not the one with Federer playing a surprise semifinalist he's heavily favored against? Had any of you people even looked at the draw, read anything about tennis in the last couple months? No? Why does that not surprise me?
I'm moving on now, because I'm bigger than those morons. So, how about those matches? How about Rafa Nadal making Novak Djokovic look like Andy Roddick on clay? Muy impresivo. How could you not watch that match and think, "Look what he's doing to that poor bastard!" Djokovic tried, but how long can you hang with Nadal's body blows? Nadal's just too good a retriever to allow a point to end quickly. So that was the blowout.
Not the Roger Federer/Gael Monfils match. Yes, Fed came out on top, as expected. I am, however, (a) impressed with Monfils' ability to hang with Fed and (b) thinking that Federer is not looking particularly strong this tournament. I fully expect him to raise his game for the final, but is it going to be good enough for someone who's been in rare form for the entire two weeks? Eh, we'll talk about that tomorrow.
The women's final is tomorrow, and here's hoping that NBC doesn't have something better to show, like "That's so Raven" or a ten-year-old rerun of "Saved by the Bell." The women's draw has been way too schizo to predict. Honestly, I'd love to be surprised. When was the last time there was a competitive women's final in a Grand Slam? Anyway, tale of the tape: Safina's won their only match on clay, but Ivanovic holds a 2-1 lifetime edge. I'm giving Safina an edge, because I think something happened to her when she beat Henin this year. I think she's starting to believe, and considering her harrowing escapes from defeat in this tournament, she's got the mental edge. Ivanovic, though, has been here before, and wigged out under the weight of the situation. She seems to have matured a lot since then, too. So, it could be interesting or it could be a dud. We shall see. Hopefully, it won't be on tape delay. (Due to time constraints, we are jumping ahead in our coverage from 2-1 in the first set to match point. Enjoy the match.)