Ever wondered how Maria Sharapova is always so competitive? In a recent interview with Reuters, former world number one Sharapova talked about how she stays competitive and what she thinks about her chances in Roland Garros in Paris.

“It is tough to have really good friends on the tour,” she said. “I find it difficult to be having dinner with someone one night and then having to play them two days later because it is at the end of the day an individual sport and we are all very competitive.

It’s typical in sport to try to beat each other. You know we are not on a team and as far as really close friends goes I have my family who come with me on the road. I don’t hang around in the locker room - it’s my least favorite place in the world. I do my job at the site, I play matches do what I have to do and live my world away from the site and don’t talk tennis all day. It’s not in my best interests.” Read more »

Roland Garros 2011 is coming up. The 2011 tournament will take place from May 17th to June 5th 2011. I had an opportunity to visit the tournament two years ago. Usually on TV we don’t see what happens outside the stadiums, but the atmosphere on the grounds is as much fun as sitting and watching the top tennis players from the stands. I am presenting below some of the photos that I took there:

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According to In Touch magazine, world tennis number 1 Serena Williams and her boyfriend rapper Common have broken up. Everything seemed to be going great for the couple. Common talked about Serena as recently as last week. Whatever is happening between them, we hope that it will not affect Serena’s performance in Paris, where she has managed to advance to the third round of the French Open.

Venus Williams’s outfit draws a lot of attention at this year’s French Open. One headline cracked me up: Venus Williams (and her outfit) advance. The lacy, see-through black dress that she designed has also made it to The New York Times.  The paper also runs a slide show called Tennis Fashion: Oxymoron where they showcase several of controversial outfits worn by tennis stars throughout the sport’s history, including Maria Sharapova’s tuxido-inspired get-up.

In an interview with sovsport.ru, Svetlana Kuzentsova, the recent winner of Roland Garros, shares with the Russian readers about her plans on spending her French Open Prize money–1,060,000 Euros.

“I am planning to buy an accommodation in Moscow, I am still renting an apartment. Also, I have promised to myself to buy a good expensive watch. The majority of the money I am going to donate to my church. There the director of orthodox temple is my spiritual father. I try to to be there as often as possible, to think about something personal, something eternal. But I have a very busy schedule. Occasionally, the father himself visits me. … No matter how strange it sounds, I am a very religious person and try to attend church even in other countries.”

Roger Federer’s long-time girlfriend-now-wife Mirka Vavrinec hasn’t been famous for her expressive support of her man from the stands during his tennis matches. However, I don’t know if the pregnancy has made her more emotional or more expressive, but she has been showing a lot more verbal and gestural support for his husband who is trying to secure his 14th Grand Slam title at French Open.  Yes, pregnancy can do wonders:-) Now, I am curious to see if Mirka will tear up today along with Roger after he wins or looses that ever elusive Roland Garros crown. One thing is guaranteed, he is going to CRY!

See more photos after the cut… Read more »

I have blogged some time ago about how Svetlana Kuznetsova had felt somewhat left out and offended, when then-President Vladimir Putin didn’t call her to congratulate on her win at the U.S. Open. (Putin had managed to call Maria Sharapova (for her Wimbledon win and Anastasia Myskina for her Roland Garros win the same year). Yesterday, Sveta was able to securing her second grand slam title with a convincing French Open victory 6-4 6-2 against another Russian Dinara Safina. I was curoious to see if she was going to get a call from the Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.  Now the wait is over. Sveta got a telegram this time. Better than nothing:-) It says:

“You have confirmed you are world class in the difficult fight for this honour, you demonstrated a strong character and will. Your stunning and emotionally tense playing became a brilliant continuation of the ‘Russian finals’ on the planet’s major tournaments, and proved again the supremacy of our country’s women tennis school.”

Getty Images has a beautiful photo of Sveta’s in front of the Eiffel tower with a trophy celebrating her win. Check it out here.

No. 1 Dinara Safina and No. 7 Svetlana Kuznetsova meet today in the French Open’s women’s final, a matchup of 23-year-old Russians. Here is what they said about each other:

Svetlana Kuznetsova about Dinara Safina (via Sovetski Sport):

“We have a really good relationship with each other. Our tennis rivalry doesn’t allow us to become closer friends. Nevertheless, we talk to each other about various life topics, give each other advice. I have much closer ties with Nadia Petrova. Before her, Likhovtseva was a good friend of mine, when she was on the tour. I know Dinara since we were 12-13. I remember, she was a year younger than me, but would beat me always 6:1, 6:0 - something like that. I had no chance of winning her.  Thus, I was looking at her always differently. After all I was a girl from St. Petersburg. She was a Moscovite. Her mom was one of the chief tennis coaches of the country. Her brother–a superstar. I remember running and shouting after him to get an autograph: “Marat, Marat, give me an autograph, please. I know your sister.” By the way, Dinara’s mom, greatly helped my parents, when they decided to send me into the Spanish academy. Safina was also being trained in Spain at that time. But even then we were first and foremost tennis rivals.”

Dinara Safina about Svetlana Kuznetsova (via RIA Novosti)

“Svetlana is a very open and honest person. She will never do anything behind your back. I think it is a very valuable quality. Whether she is right or wrong, it is another issue, but she will say whatever is on her mind. But there are people who smile at you and then stab your back. I know that Sveta will never do that.”

Sovetski Sport has published an interesting interview conducted at Roland Garros with Shamil Tarpischev, the head of the Russian Tennis Federation.  I have translated some of the interesting points below:

About Maria Sharapova:

“The shoulder pain has gone. But the psychological fear of getting an injury is still there. No plans to talk to her about her Fed Cup participation in 2010. I am sure she would like to concentrate on improving her ranking.”

About Anna Chakvetadze and Maria Kirilenko:

“Both of them are “mind”-players. But in today’s tennis it will not take you far. They need to add power to their game. I am not saying that they have to add  a lot of muscles, but it is a weak area that they need to work on. I can’t force them to do it, they need to understand it themselves.

About Svetlana Kuznetsova:

I was a little bit disappointed that the partnership between Sveta and Olga Morozova didn’t work out. But what can you do, their characters didn’t click. From psychological perspective, Svetlana is quite happy with her recent move to Russia. But she still has some gaps in her technical game, and she needs a coach to address those problems. (Her current coach is Larisa Savchenko, also recommended by Tarischev.)

As I promised, here are some more photos from Roland Garros. The atmosphere was terrific! I also visited the Roland Garros museum (aka Tenniseum) where Venus Williams’s photos by the famous fashion photographer Koto Bolofo were on display.

More photos after the cut. Read more »