THE FRENCH OPEN!

Guess not.

I fancy a shock winner in both ladies and gents this year. I'll study the form and get back to you.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/media/images/38042000/jpg/_38042596_serena1 50.jpg

In other French Open news: Kournikova goes out in the first round! Who could have predicted that! (A: Everyone.) Also, Mary Pierce advances past the first round: good for her! (I have a soft spot for all the players who are in Sega Tennis 2K2.)

Federer, I'm hoping, will now go and practice on grass for four weeks and storm through Wimbledon. No Goran to defend, you'll have noticed. Shame.

In that kit, I can see no further than Serena for the women's. How come I don't like her sister?

I LOVE WOMEN'S TENNIS.

Sticking my neck out before I have to here but - winner of (projected, natch) Agassi v Arazi QF wins the tournament. Hewitt will struggle v Schalken, Ferrero and Kuerten not at their best. Haas is yr man in the top half.

1) Schnyder vs. Capriati. Will we see a repeat of their recent semifinal at the Family Circle Cup? I think this match is in Schnyder's hands, if not her head. If she's on, she should be able to outsmart Capriati, who's basically going to play the same game no matter what. If she's off, she'll fall like a sack of wet potatoes. I hope she's on, as their last match was one of the best claycourt matches I've ever seen in women's tennis.

2) Mauresmo is in an excellent position to make the semis: neither of her pending opponents -- Suarez, then probably Dementieva -- are likely to hold her off. Whoever she plays in the semis, they'll have had a much tougher draw; even if it's Venus Williams, she'll have had to beat an in-form Rubin -- who probably won't make three sets, but she will fight hard -- then Hantuchova or Seles, both of whom have a reasonable shot at beating her. Indeed, I wonder if Mauresmo might have better odds against Venus Williams than against Seles.

Wrong about Haas (what happened?) and Arazi (retired). Mauresmo gone surprisingly...

With Haas, it's his shoulder injury, I'd imagine. That's part of why I picked Pavel as my dark horse -- he's a very dangerous player, and I had a feeling he'd have little trouble with Haas, especially on clay.

As for Arazi, he makes Ivanisevic look consistent...he can beat anyone on a good day, and lose to anyone on a bad day.

I'm pleased to see Mary Pierce in the quarters. I hope she doesn't receive the same treatment from Serena that she got from Capriati recently (6-0 6-0). Speaking of Capriati, Schnyder fell to her, 6-4 6-4, which is a shame -- she's so much more fun to watch than most of the power hitters on the women's side.

I like Mary Pierce, but I really want Serena to win it all.

I watched that epic second set tiebreak on Saturday. Canas obviously wanted the win more than Hewitt. (Other weird thing about the Beeb coverage: seemed to be three games behind the live feed on RTBF2)

Agassi was a double-break down to Ferrero (who he's never played before, can that be true?) in the first set, Pav'n'Corrie to finish after that.

I didn't see any of the women's quarters - was Serena as awesome as the scoreline suggests or did Pierce bottle it?

Agassi struck back in second set v Ferrero but trails by a break in set three. Women's semis appear to be scheduled on Chatrier *after* Agassi-Ferrero and Safin-Grosjean; I guess this is down to the rain delay (and a good forecast today?), as the women usually get exclusive use of Court Lenglen on quarters and semis day.

I WISH I HAD A TV FOR SERENA/JENNIFER.

Sigh. I suppose I'll watch it, but I can't say I'll be too excited about it. But who knows, maybe the Williams match will actually be a good one -- since it's being played on clay, at least the rallies will be a little longer. I just don't want to watch another match where practically three-quarters of the points are decided by unforced errors...

I think I want Costa to win, but I'm not sure.

Nadal Zverev
Murray Wawrinka

Djoko's form is poor. Others coming back from injuries. Most open French in a long time

Women's you'd say Swiatek is a heavy favourite. This is really her surface but maybe Gauff might say something about that.

Very exciting tournament.