Rafa Nadal on Center Court-Day 36, March 18

As the tennis tournament winds down, we are only going to the 7:30 sessions. This leaves our days a bit freer, although we have been sleeping in. We bought some pretty cheap bicycles today as renting them is so expensive. We are unsure about how it will affect our driving with bikes on the back, so we may leave the bikes behind at a Goodwill at some point. So, yesterday, after a nice dip in the pool we took a spin around the complex where the timeshare is located. Neither bike fits us perfectly, but...they are sufficient.

We saw yet another exciting match tonight. We have been so lucky as we have not seen many blow-outs. Tomas Berdych from the Czech Republic took on Rafael Nadal. Berdych put on a competitive and gutsy performance. But, Nadal's play was a thing of beauty with an over-the-shoulder shot. Both men played the net and played the angles. Both have big serves. It was not a walk-in-the-park for Rafa, even though he did win. 6-4, 7-6, the last set going to a tie break.

Then, we went down to courtside for a semi-finals doubles match between Kveta Pesche/Katarina Srebotnik and Chan Yeng-Jan/Zheng Jie. A nice couple from Chicago who sits behind us in the stadium got tickets from people leaving, so we sat together. We had all seen Zheng Jie play Caroline Wozniacki the night before and enjoyed seeing her play the angles in doubles. It looked as if the Chinese pair would win handily as they took the first set 6-1. But, as the wind picked up, so did the play of the other pair and Srebotnik/Pesche took the second set, 6-3. This forced a tie break. By this point, the wind had really picked up and lots of trash came floating onto the court, making the ball kids scramble to catch it. The tie break was won 10-4 by Pesche/Srebotnik. We got home, again, after midnight.