The torrential rains have been forcing the organizers to reschedule a lot of the matches at the 2008 French Open tennis championship. Svetlana Kuznetskova got the chance to showcase her brilliance at Roland Garros after a three hour rain delay and she came up with a spirited 6-2, 6-3 win over Japan’s Aiko Nakamura to earn a place in the second round. The 2006 French Open runner up will be either facing Vania King or French women Violette Huck for a place in the third round. Svetlana Kuznetskova is hoping to win the championships this year and said that she enjoyed the dark cloudy conditions during the match.

Richard Gasquet, French tennis extraordinaire, is certain that his move to skip the French Open is a wise one as he is doing all he can to prepare for the grand Wimbledom tournaments. Gasquet, who is also honored as France’s best tennis player as well as the eight seeded player in the world, was commended for showing true grit and determination even though he was discovered to have a cyst located in his knee.  He had earlier requested officials to postpone his match to Tuesday due to a weakening left knee but the organizers did not heed his request. Gasquet’s doctor assured everyone that he will be in top shape after they remove the cyst and treat him with cortisone.

The feud between India’s top doubles duo has still not subsided, but the All India Tennis Association (AITA) has announced that both Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi will be representing India in the men’s doubles tennis tournament at the Beijing Olympics. Mahesh has openly stated that he was tired of waiting for a long time to prepare for the Olympic Games and preferred to play with Rohan Bopanna instead of Paes. But, AITA General Secretary, Anil Khanna, has said that India’s hopes of winning a gold medal at the Beijing Olympics lies only in the hands of the former World number one pair of Paes and Mahesh and that he would convince Bhupathi to change his mind from the current stand. 

The Indian tennis sensation and Asian number one player Sania Mirza is currently undergoing a physical rehabilitation and is recovering from a capsule tear surgery in April on her right wrist. This is the reason why the world number 33 will not be competing at this year’s French Open which kick starts on May 25^th at Roland Garros. Sania will miss out on a Grand Slam after playing in 13 majors consecutively. She said that she is very much disappointed of not playing the French Open.  Sania, who has received good reviews from the tennis fraternity,  has given top priority to Olympics and wants to represent her country at the Beijing Olympics. 

The top ranked women’s tennis player Justine Henin has announced her retirement from professional tennis at the age of 25 years. The winner of seven Grand Slam tennis titles, Henin, said that it was a definitive decision and has been pondering upon the same since late last year. She was in supreme form last year as she had won 10 tournaments, but has been in one of the worst slump in form this season. Henin, who has won rare reviews for her stupendous play, said that she had thought long on deciding upon her retirement and said that people who know her closely will be able to justify her decision.

World number 3 Novak Djokovic rallied from behind to win the finals of the Rome Masters tennis championship title against lesser known and unseeded Swiss Stainislas Wawrinka 4-6, 6-3 and 6-3 yesterday.  Wawrinka played amazing tennis during the first set and broke the serve of Djokovic in the fifth game to take the set 6-4. Djokovic realized that he will have to hang in there to create a flutter in the game of his opponent and was able to attain a break mid way through the second set. Djokovic regained his lost touch pretty soon and broke the serve of Wawrinka in the first and the final game to win the third set convincingly and thereby lift the Rome Masters title.

The Russian tennis sensation and top seeded player of the Prague tournament Vera Zvonareva claimed her first WTA title after a gap of two years when she defeated third seeded Belarus player Victoria Azarenka 7-6(2), 6-2. This is the first title she has won since winning the Cincinnati Open in 2006. The 23 year old Russian had been runner up this year in three tournaments Charleston, Doha and Hobart and said that she was pretty relieved and happy to finally win a tournament.

Zvonareva had full knowledge of the play of her final opponent as she had beaten her in two previous occasions in tournaments like Luxembourg and Indiana Wells last year. The Russian got the better of lesser ranked Victoria quiet early in the game and in fact in the first two games of the first set itself. The Russian showcased some tremendous tennis skills to lift the title at the Stvanice Stadium.  

Roger Federer is back to being the top performer in the tennis world after recently suffering a victory drought. In Tuesday’s match against his main rival Guillermo Canas, he scored an easy 6-3, 6-3 to advance to the second leg of the Rome Masters. Earlier on, a relieved Federer revealed that he was glad to be back on track, and that the past two months was tough on him and his game play.

On related news, another tennis favorite Andy Roddick managed to subdue his arch nemesis Mardy Fish with the score 6-1, 6-4 in the All-American matchup. To note, this was his second match on a clay court, after beating Jurgen Meizer last February during the Davis Cup matches.

Rafael Nadal, the world number two men’s tennis player, showed who the master of clay court was, when he defeated world number one player Roger Federer in two breathtaking sets 7-5, 7-5 at the finals of the Monte Carlo Open last Sunday. This victory was Nadal’s fourth consecutive title win at Monte Carlo and this explains why he was so ecstatic after winning the tournament. Nadal has now become only second player in the world to win four Monte Carlo titles.  Nadal’s clay court record is very impressive as he has won 98 out of the 99 games he has played and his last defeat was at the hands of Federer in the Hamburg Open in 2007. This explains why Nadal has received rare reviews and appreciation for his clay court stuff and it is only fitting that Federer has called Nadal as a “hell of a clay court player”.