Kids' Day at Roland Garros

It's Roland Garros Kids' Day today. As usual there are quite a lot of events happening on the eve of the French Open.

Here are some pictures to summarize the events.

Novak Djokovic becomes an umbrella boy during his exhibition match with Ryan Harrison.

 Caroline Wozniacki, Sabine Lisicki, Na Li and French Pauline Parmentier play an exhibition match on the Philippe Chatrier-central court.

  Juan Martín del Potro becomes the umpire for an exhibition match where Roger Federer and Sebastien Grosjean against French Nicolas Escude and Fabrice Santoro.

Serena Williams joins DJ Big Ali and DJ Bob Sinclar at the turntables on the Philippe Chatrier-central court.

Retirees Grosjean and Santoro make a special appearance at the Kids' Day.

Local hero Jo-Wilfried Tsonga meets the fans.

Xavier Malisse enjoys beach tennis at Roland Garros.

(Images via Yahoo! Sports and French Open official website)

TENNIS WATCH: What's up Down Under?

• Earlier this week, Andy Roddick and wife Brooklyn Decker visited the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary in Brisbane.

But guess who steal the show?

Roddick tweeted about two koalas making love that stole the limelight during his visit.

• The protest at Israeli Shahar Peer's match ended with an arrest today. The demonstrators belonged to local activist groups opposed to Israel's treatment of Palestinians.
  

Peer said the noise was disruptive but only increased her determination to win. She won 6-0, 6-1 against Magdalena Rybarikova.

More protests are planned for tomorrow. I guess this will continue until the Australian Open later this month.

• The recently retired Fabrice "The Magician" Santoro may play in Australian Open. If he does, he'll be the only player to have played Grand Slam events across four decades. He first made his Slam debut at the French Open in 1989.

• Now all top players want to participate in the Kooyong exhibition, including Robin Soderling who confirmed his presence after losing in the first round of Chennai.

Novak Djokovic, Juan Martin del Potro, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Fernando Verdasco, Fernando Gonzalez, Tommy Haas are also booked for the eight-player round robin event.

One last spot is currently being held for Roger Federer who's in taking part in the Qatar Open this week.

Andy Murray and Andy Roddick also have indicated that they may want to play at Kooyong if they do not get sufficient preparation this week.

US Open Day 3 Wrap-up: Rafael Nadal sails through without knee problem, bye-bye Safin, Santoro

Those who are curious about Rafael Nadal's knee probably have the answer now.

He's indeed okay and he can play well too!

Kicking off his US Open campaign, Nadal encountered no apparent trouble in winning the first round 6-2, 6-2, 6-3 over Richard Gasquet.

Maybe you might say Gasquest wasn't a fit opponent...

It's probably too early to predict Nadal's road to final but one thing for sure, Nadal said he has never felt so fresh.

Nadal's rival, Roger Federer, who is bidding for a 6th consecutive US Open championship—and 3rd Grand Slam title in a row this year— has no problem in overcoming Simon Greul with a 6-3, 7-5, 7-5 victory.

Waiting for Federer next is two-time Grand Slam winner Lleyton Hewitt, who defeated Juan Ignacio Chela 6-3, 6-3, 6-4.

Venus Williams may have a wide patches of white tape on her left knee but still, she can easily overcome Bethanie Mattek-Sands 6-4, 6-2.

Kim Clijsters continues to play by knocking off no. 14-seeded Marion Bartoli 5-7, 6-1, 6-2.

With over a billion Indians following her every move on the tour, Sania Mirza displayed horrible tennis after being bageled twice by Flavia Pennetta.

Other seeded women sent home included Samantha Stosur, in a shocking defeat to Vania King, who won 7-5, 6-4; former world no.1 Amelie Mauresmo, who lost to Aleksandra Wozniak; Agnieszka Radwanska, who was defeated by Maria Kirilenko; and Anabel Medina Garrigues.

There were no men's seeded losers today.

Marat Safin and Fabrice Santoro said goodbye to Grand Slam tennis with first round exits.

Both of them are retiring at the end of the season.

Safin, the 2000 US Open champion, lost to Jurgen Melzer 1-6, 6-4, 6-3, 6-4 while Santoro, appearing in his record 69th major tournament, was beaten by Juan Carlos Ferrero 6-4, 6-3, 6-3.

US Open men's singles results from New York on Thursday (prefix denotes seeding)

1-Roger Federer (Switzerland) beat Simon Greul (Germany) 6-3 7-5 7-5
9-Gilles Simon (France) beat Daniel Gimeno (Spain) 6-4 7-6(3) 6-3
18-David Ferrer (Spain) beat Alberto Martin (Spain) 7-5 5-7 6-3 6-3
Philipp Petzschner (Germany) beat Sergiy Stakhovsky (Ukraine) 7-6(3) 6-7(6) 6-4 4-6 6-3
6-Juan Martin Del Potro (Argentina) beat Juan Monaco (Argentina) 6-3 6-3 6-1
Robby Ginepri (US) beat Andrei Pavel (Romania) 5-7 6-2 6-4 6-0
Daniel Koellerer (Austria) beat Rui Machado (Portugal) 6-2 6-4 2-6 6-2
32-Nicolas Almagro (Spain) beat Steve Darcis (Belgium) 6-2 6-4 2-6 7-6(8)
Jose Acasuso (Argentina) beat Marcos Daniel (Brazil) 6-2 6-4 6-3
3-Rafael Nadal (Spain) beat Richard Gasquet (France) 6-2 6-2 6-3
Thomaz Bellucci (Brazil) beat Lu Yen-Hsun (Taiwan) 6-4 6-2 6-3
Pablo Cuevas (Uruguay) beat Chris Guccione (Australia) 6-4 7-6(4) 6-0
24-Juan Carlos Ferrero (Spain) beat Fabrice Santoro (France) 6-4 6-3 6-3
Nicolas Kiefer (Germany) beat Michael Llodra (France) 6-3 6-4 6-4
Juergen Melzer (Austria) beat Marat Safin (Russia) 1-6 6-4 6-3 6-4
Andreas Beck (Germany) beat Evgeny Korolev (Russia) 6-3 6-4 2-6 2-6 6-4
13-Gael Monfils (France) beat Jeremy Chardy (France) 6-1 6-4 6-3

US Open women's singles second round results from New York on Thursday (prefix denotes seeding)

2-Serena Williams (USA) beat Melinda Czink (Hungary) 6-1 6-1
Vania King (US) beat 15-Samantha Stosur (Australia) 7-5 6-4
Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez (Spain) beat Angelique Kerber (Germany)
Kim Clijsters (Belgium) beat 14-Marion Bartoli (France) 5-7 6-1 6-2
26-Francesca Schiavone (Italy) beat Stefanie Voegele (Switzerland) 6-4 6-4
8-Victoria Azarenka (Belarus) beat Barbora Zahlavova Strycova (Czech Republic) 6-2 6-1
Maria Kirilenko (Russia) beat 12-Agnieszka Radwanska (Poland) 6-4 2-6 6-4
3-Venus Williams (US) beat Bethanie Mattek-Sands (US) 6-4 6-2
Kirsten Flipkens (Belgium) beat 20-Anabel Medina Garrigues (Spain) 6-1 6-3
7-Vera Zvonareva (Russia) beat Anna Chakvetadze (Russia) 3-6 6-1 6-1
Magdalena Rybarikova (Slovakia) beat Chang Kai-Chen (Taiwan) 4-6 6-2 6-2
31-Elena Vesnina (Russia) beat Jill Craybas (US) 7-6(6) 6-1
18-Li Na (China) beat Michelle Larcher de Brito (Portugal) 6-1 6-3
Aleksandra Wozniak (Canada) beat 17-Amelie Mauresmo (France) 6-4 6-0
10-Flavia Pennetta (Italy) beat Sania Mirza (India) 6-0 6-0

(Via AP, TVNZ, US Open website)

REMINDER: Rafael Nadal is the world no. 1 and he bites

Finally Rafael Nadal accepted his 2008 year-end no. 1 trophy.

He received the award right after the match against Fabrice 'The Magician, No More' Santoro at the Exxon Mobil Qatar Open Tennis in Doha.

Nadal sent Santoro packing after handed him a bagel and a stick in just 48 minutes.

Andy Murray's presence is alarming, but you know what, RAFA BITES, okay? :P


(Images by Julian Finney/Getty Images)

US Open: What the tennis players' faces tell you?

Kinda busy with stuff yesterday and not able to blog much about the U.S. Open.

However I'm looking forward to this weekend (and I'm having a holiday on Monday 'cause it's my country's Independence Day). Hope to catch up with more matches and blogging too.

In the meanwhile I've found some interesting photos which I would like to share here.

Andy Roddick, the 'big brother' of the United States, received a big boost at the opening round by beating the Magician, Fabrice Santoro 6-2, 6-2, 6-2.

Most of the time, you look at the player's face and you are able to tell who's winning and who's not. Take a look at this:

But you know what kind of look that really scares their opponent? I would say this look:

Perhaps Andy Murray will make it to the final and take his first Grand Slam?

(Images by AP Photo/Elise Amendola/DON EMMERT/AFP/Andy Lyons/Getty Images)