And you all thought I was going to let it slide? Oh no way! You will be treated to a tennis post :p

Roland Garros is the name of the French Open tennis tournament, one of the four most important tennis tournaments. The other three are US Open, Australian Open, and Wimbledon. They are also known as "Grand Slam", like Grand Slam in bridge, if you like. Winning a Grand Slam tournament is the greatest achievement for a tennis player. Ok so of course you could win multiple Grand Slams and build up from there, but I am trying to keep it simple, so forgive me, all the tennis fans out there (yeah all three of you). Roland Garros is also the only Grand Slam tournament that is played on a clay surface. The significance of it is that the ball leaves a mark on the surface where it hits thus allowing to see whether the ball is "out" (player who hit the ball loses the point in this case) or "in".

Roland Garros is at its second week now, and today is the last day of the fourth round games. Those who make it through will be in the quarterfinals of the French Open - a great achievement in itself. The ATP (men's tour) guys who already made it through are: Roger Federer, from Switzerland, the greatest player of this century and the number one in the world; Mario Ancic, a Croat with the craziest eyes on tour (pretty handsome guy, lol) currently ranked 12th in the world; Nikolay Davydenko, Russian, perhaps the least famous of all in the top ten; and David Nalbandian, Argentine, who I don't really like, but who plays well. The other quarterfinalists are yet to be determined as eight guys take to the courts today to fight for the four remaining places. The guys that I think will make it are: Rafa Nadal, who is the defending champion of the tournament, and the only one who can beat Federer (if all goes well, they will meet in the final); Gael Monfils - a French teenager who is enjoying his dream run in the Grand Slam; Ivan Ljubicic, an ace-hitting Croat, number 4 in the world; and as for the last one - I have no idea, I don't know much about Benneteau and Martin to make a prediction. I hope Benneteau wins as he is a French guy and it will be cool if he wins in front of his home crowd, especially since...

...Amelie Mauresmo, French, number one in the world on WTA (women's tour), crashed out of the tournament yesterday, losing rather badly to Nicole Vaidisova of Czech Republic. So she is not in the quarterfinals. Great for Nicole, 17 year old, who reached her first Grand Slam quarterfinal. The rest of the quarterfinalists on the girls' side are: Venus Williams, the last remaining American in this tournament, she's back on tour after slumbering for quite a while with various injuries; Dinara Safina (who beat Maria Sharapova yesterday), she is climbing up the ranks steadily and clearly enjoying it; Sveta Kuznetsova, another Russian, and since she will play Safina in the quarters - one Russian will definitely make it to the semis; Justine Henin-Hardenne of Belgium who I don't like much, defending champion and a favourite to win this time around as well; Anna-Lena Groenefeld of Germany, a gutsy determined blonde; and Kim Clijsters of Belgium, number 2 in the world. The last remaining quarterfinalst will be decided today between Martina Hingis and Shahar Peer of Israel. I hope it's Hingis!

So complain all you like, but I will be writing about the progress of the players to the very end of the tournament! :P