The term “Manic Monday” would not sufficiently describe yesterday at the French Open.
– #Quiz360: Monday – WIN Vivitar Action Camera
With the rain wreaking havoc with Sunday’s schedule, matches were suspended and postponed which meant that all members of the ‘Big Four’ – Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer, Andy Murray and Rafael Nadal were all in action along with Serena Williams, Maria Sharapova, David Ferrer and Marin Cilic.
Before Sharapova suffered a shock exit, we had an breakfast event with three-time French Open champion Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, who has been announced as an ambassador for the WTA Finals in Singapore and will be playing the Legends’ Classic there alongside Martina Navratilova.
The Spaniard told us about how she turned pro at the age of 13, played her first overseas tournament – coincidentally in Singapore – when she was 14 and how she upset Steffi Graf to win Roland Garros for the first time when she was just 17. It’s hard imagining any teenager pulling that off right now with the older men and women being so solid.
In the evening, we had the media get-together with all the players taking part in the Perrier Legends’ tournament, which features the likes of Goran Ivanisevic, Sergi Bruguera, Navratilova, Mats Wilander, Conchita Martinez and many more.
The nicest surprise was seeing 2004 singles champions Gaston Gaudio and Anastasia Myskina, who along with Kim Clijsters are the youngest of the bunch playing the legends’ event.
Gaudio joked with Myskina about not returning his messages and the pair seemed to share a friendly bond having had their best moments of their career here in Paris in the same year.
Fashion forward
The ball girls at Roland Garros have been outfitted by adidas who have them dressed in pleated short skirts and knee-high socks – a style that has been trademarked by American player Bethanie Mattek-Sands. I spoke to Mattek-Sands about what she thought of her trademark going mainstream and she said laughing: “I need to sign up for being a ball kid too, doubles, mixed doubles and ball kid.
“I talked to Ana Ivanovic in Stuttgart because I was asking her if she was going to wear the knee-high socks, at first she was then obviously she ended up not doing it. I think the ball kids really cute, the best dressed ball kids I’ve seen so far.”
Unfortunately, Mattek-Sands didn’t receive any money from adidas for using her style.
