Former Roland Garros champion Serena Williams will begin her pursuit of an eleventh Grand Slam title on Tuesday in Paris.
Elena Dementieva, Jelena Jankovic and Svetlana Kuznetsova are also scheduled to play their opening round matches at the French Open.
OTB’s Can’t Miss Match of the Day
Klara Zakopalova (CZE) vs. Serena Williams (USA)[2]
Serena Williams has probably never faced this much pressure before heading into a Grand Slam. For the first time in her career, Williams is riding a four-match losing streak including three opening round matches.
Statistically, history is on Serena’s side as she has never dropped her first match at a major tournament. Still, there is always a first for everything and one of these days that record will fall. But I don’t think it will be Tuesday. Serena’s opponent, Klara Zakopalova (formerly Koukalova), has had far better years on the WTA Tour. She barely made the Roland Garros main draw cutoff and is arriving in Paris with a ranking of No. 100 and a 13-13 match record for 2009.
Prediction: Serena Williams in 2 sets
Sometimes You Just Have to Laugh
Anne Keothavong found herself on the receiving end of a double bagel from the world number one tennis player on Monday. Dinara Safina, the top seed, crushed the British No. 1 6-0, 6-0 in sixty-one minutes, despite hitting more errors and four unforced faults.
Afterwards Keothavong admitted that although the loss hurt, she just had to keep going. “I’m not going to walk out and slit my wrists or anything,” said Keothavong in comments published by the AFP.
“You just have to find ways to laugh about it. What else is there to do? I’m sure there will be a few jokes about it, but I can take it.”
Enter OTB’s Pick the Winner’s Contest
How well do you know tennis? Do you think you can pick the winner of Tuesday’s featured match? Guess correctly and you might be one of the five lucky people chosen to win a free live streaming tournament pass from TennisTV.com!
To enter, simply select your pick for the winner of Tuesday’s match between No. 30 Samantha Stosur and Francesca Schiavone. All entries for Tuesday must be received by start of play (11 AM in Paris or 5:00 AM ET in USA). Only one entry per person.
Entry for today’s match has been closed.
Doubles Duty for Venus and Serena
The Williams sisters are back and reprising their gold medal winning partnership in doubles.
After playing her first round match on Suzanne Lenglen, Serena will team up with Venus for their opening doubles match against the Czech team of Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka. Venus and Serena Williams are seeded fifth in the doubles draw, just behind Samantha Stosur and Rennae Stubbs.
