Outside reasons

Nadal is looking good and after overcoming Alamagro, will face another Spaniard in Ferrer in the semi-final. He should win that one too and reach the final. The other semi-final will see another duel between Federer and Djokovic. Both needed 5 sets in the previous round and the Serb had to save 4 match points to stave off elimination from local Tsonga. That Nole has an amazing fighting spirit, he's never out.

Nadal to beat Ferrer is a certainty. Nole should logically beat the aging Federer; it's not as certain as with Nadal, but it will bring better returns with some amount of risk.

Interesting developments in football around the non-selection of Rio Ferdinand after the defection of Gary Cahill due to injury. Hodgson was right to dismiss Rio from the original selection since the fresher legs of Terry, Lescott and Cahill give better cover. I have no problem with that. However, after the no-go of Cahill, there is no way that Tottenham's Kelly is a better defender than Rio. So, for pure footballing reasons, Hodgson has no real excuse for not selecting the Man Utd defender. The problem is that the manager shot himself in the foot in the first place by saying that he did not select Rio in the first place for footballing reasons, unaware he might eventually run short of defenders.

The reason he's right to omit Rio is because he and Terry can no longer play together on the same team after the racism scandal involving Anton, Rio's brother. The world knows that and if Hodgson were forthright and simply admit that, then he wouldn't be facing this debate. Being England manager makes him in need of being politically correct, not blunt honest, and this has played against him; if he's to be accused of a wrongdoing, it's of being dishonest in that instance. At this point, having Terry is more important than Rio, and there is no way he's going to include Rio at the risk of causing friction in the squad. Good decision, but poor execution and result. Let's hope England's Euro experience goes the other way round.

Win: Nadal