WTA: May 23-Jun 6   French Open Roland Garros, FRA Grand Slam Prize$: €7,226,040 (women's total) 128 players - outdoor: red clay matches: statistics Live Scores - OOP - results draws: W sing, pdf - mix doub women's: qualif. - singles - doub men's: qualif. - singles - doub Live Video Links - photos: Y! sports     Y! news - Y! France | WTA videos: mp4 downloads - embedded Radio Roland Garros - TV: ESPN2-TC text: news - interviews tourney schedule - venue map     website map Paris: radar - forecast     Paris map - news: Paris - France # , # # , # information site for players 2009 RG Players Guide, .pdf

Air France US to Europe bookings         French Open: 2009 - 2008 - 2007 - 2006 - 2005 - 2004 - 2003 previous other tourney pages next Roland Garros: #7 Svetlana Kuznetsova 5' 8½" 161lb RH 2H-BH Roland Garros: #1 Dinara Safina 5'11½" 154½lb RH 2H-BH Roland Garros: 2nd Grand Slam Title 11th WTA Singles Title

    If the recent pattern is followed, the women's qualifying draw for the 2010 French Open will be posted on Tuesday, May 18, and women's qualifying at Roland Garros will begin on Wednesday, May 19. Qualifying finals will be on Friday, May 21.

    The 2010 French Open main draw will be held on Friday, May 21 at 11:30am.

    The top half of the draw played first in 2009. The bottom half of the draw played first in 2008, instead of the more usual top half first.

    Main draw play at Roland Garros will begin on Sunday, May 23, 2009.

From the 2009 Roland Garros Players' Guide     15% of players' prize money is witheld from their checks for French taxes. US taxes are also witheld from the checks of players who reside in the US. Racquet stringing and personal match video costs can be deducted from prize money.     Main draw players receive €240 per diem for accomodations (ending 2 days after elimination). Rates at recommended hotels range from €155/day to €365/day (as of May 14, 2009, 1 euro (€) is $1.36 US; €240 is $326.18). Qualifiers per diem: €120.     Players in main draw singles receive a maximum of 3 guest badges, one for their official coach, and two for family or friends (permanent, nominally non-tranferable; if in doubles only, only 1 badge for family/friends). Those playing on Court Philippe Chatrier are entitled to 14 reserved seat invitations for that match; on Court Suzanne Lenglen 12 reserved seat invitations. Invites include access to players lounges and restaurants.     There are 3 players’ lounges reserved for competitors, their family and coaches. The main players’ lounge at Court Philippe-Chatrier is reserved for main draw and "legends" players, and their families. The lounge upstairs at Court Philippe Chatrier is also accessible to badges with the letter "Y". The lounge at Court Suzanne Lenglen is accessible to all players, including qualifying, junior, and wheelchair events, and to their guests and badges with the letter "Y".     Each player has €31 "credited to their badge" for meals each day, until 2 days after their elimination from the draw. This can be spent at the restaurants located at Court Philippe Chatrier and Court Suzanne Lenglen.     For some strange reason, "a large number of towels get lost."     Sunday start: In 2007, 6 matches in the French Open women's draw were moved from the usual Monday schedule to Sunday, with 3 matches from the 2nd half of the draw to be shifted from Tuesday to Monday. Then rain made a mess of everything.     The plan for 2009 was the same as in 2008: 16 matches, half of the normal Monday schedule, were moved to Sunday, and 12 "Tuesday matches" were moved to Monday, leaving only 20 women's singles matches for Tuesday(—in 2008 rain then made a mess of everything again).

    The top half of the draw played first in 2009. The bottom half of the draw played first in 2008, instead of the more usual top half first.

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  Roland Garros, 2009:

On Saturday at Roland Garros, in the final of the 2009 French Open, the 2004 US Open champion, 23-year-old 7th-seeded # 7 Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia (residence: Monte Carlo, Monaco), won her second Grand Slam singles title by defeating last year's French Open finalist, 23-year-old top-seeded # 1 Dinara Safina of Russia (who also resides in Monte Carlo), 6-4, 6-2 (photos shown).     Svetlana's prize is €1,060,000 (US $1,443,827); Dinara's is €530,000 (US $721,913).

    Svetlana struck 12 winners; Dinara 11, and both players hit 22 unforced errors. But Svetlana outserved Dinara, putting 78% of her 1st serves in the box (Dinara 61%) and winning 67% of her 1st serve points (Dinara 53%) with only 1 double fault (Dinara: 7 DFs). Sveta also scored on 6 of 6 net approaches (Dinara: 3 of 6) and converted 5 of 7 break point opportunities (Dinara: 2 of 4). match stats - BBC as it happened - Eurosport comments

    Svetlana said: "I came on the court and I just played the match. It was just one more match. If it was first match, it was last match, I just did my best. Definitely it was a lot of emotions inside of me, but I control it. I still cannot open it yet to go out.

    "But the most important thing happened, and finally I won here. My favorite tournament is New York [the US Open] and here. It's very big for me...

    "[Dinara is an] amazing athlete. She works very hard. One day she'll make it here. I respect her a lot, and she plays with too much pressure... she work hard, and she's No. 1 because she deserve to be there." postmatch interview

    Dinara said: "Pressure I put on myself because I really wanted to win. I just didn't handle it... I was a little bit desperate on the court, and didn't do the things that I I had to do." postmatch interview

    Both Svetlana and Dinara received their basic tennis training on red clay courts in Spain. Dinara still leads Svetlana 8-6 in career matches, and has won 5 of their last 7 meetings. In their previous match, last month on red clay in the Rome final, Dinara won 6-3, 6-2. Svetlana defeated Dinara a week earlier, on red clay in the Stuttgart final, 6-4, 6-3. Svetlana now leads Dinara 5-4 in career matches on clay courts.

    Barcelona-trained 2004 US Open champion Svetlana is now 11-18 in WTA singles finals; she won this year at Stuttgart, and reached the final at Rome. Svetlana is 28-7 in matches this year; her 2009 record on red clay is 16-3.

    Valencia-trained 2009 Australian Open and 2008 French Open finalist Dinara is now 11-11 in WTA singles finals; she won big titles this year in Rome and Madrid, and reached the final in Stuttgart, all on red clay. Dinara has a 34-7 match record this season, and has won 18 of her last 20 matches on red clay.

2009 Major Skirmishes, Top Half 4th Round: # 1 Dinara Safina d # 79 Aravane Rezai 6-1, 6-0 # 9 Victoria Azarenka d # 8 Ana Ivanovic 6-2, 6-3 # 20 Dominika Cibulkova d #30 Agnes Szavay 6-2, 6-4 # 126 Maria Sharapova d # 26 Na Li 6-4, 0-6, 6-4 Quarterfinals: # 1 Dinara Safina d # 9 Victoria Azarenka 1-6, 6-4, 6-2 # 20 Dominika Cibulkova d # 126 M Sharapova 6-0, 6-2 Semifinal: # 1 Dinara Safina d # 20 Dominika Cibulkova 6-3, 6-3   2009 Major Skirmishes, Bottom Half 4th Round: # 2 Serena Williams d # 24 A Wozniak CAN 6-1, 6-2 # 40 Sorana Cirstea d # 5 Jelena Jankovic 3-6, 6-0, 9-7 # 7 S Kuznetsova d # 12 A Radwanska 6-4, 1-6, 6-1 # 31 Samantha Stosur d # 34 Virginie Razzano 6-1, 6-2 Quarterfinals: # 7 S Kuznetsova d # 2 S Williams 7-6(3), 5-7, 7-5 # 31 Samantha Stosur d # 40 Sorana Cirstea 6-1, 6-3 Semifinal: # 7 S Kuznetsova d # 31 S Stosur 6-4, 6(5)-7, 6-3

  Top 10 Players 2009 Match Records through May 23, 2009

Men's Final: s2 Roger Federer SUI d s23 Robin Soderling SWE 6-1, 7-6(1), 6-4

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WTA SCOREBOARD: French Open, Roland Garros s=seed, #=rank, *=upset, LL=lucky loser ranks are for the previous week How do players get into the "draw"? prizes in US $ are at May 14 conversion rate French Open,  Roland Garros, Boulogne-Billancourt, Paris, France   tourney time:        = GMT +2 hours        = US EDT +6 hours        = US PDT +9 hours Paris News - France News Weather Forecast | Weather Maps | Weather Radar     Roland Garros: The 128-player main draw for the French Open has 32 seeds, with no 1st-round byes. There are 12 qualifiers and 8 wild cards in the main draw. Qualifying finals are on Friday.     Main draw play begins on Sunday. Early round play at Roland Garros begins at 11am local time.     Roland Garros, Boulogne-Billancourt - click for broader view venue map - Court Phillipe Chatrier panorama Latitude: 48.846975 Longitude: 2.248002 goto link for World Wind France Geoportail plugin for World Wind (maps & aerial photos) 2009: Players practicing at Roland Garros on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, May 21-23, included the 2008 finalist, top-seeded # 1 Dinara Safina, recently returned from injury Maria Sharapova, and 2008 champion Ana Ivanovic... row 2: On Friday, Ana took part in the main draw ceremony, and players including Serena Williams, Dinara & Ana alerted the media...

French Open, 1st Round Sun-Tue May 24-26 11am loser's prize: €15,000 = US $20,432; points: 5

French Open, 2nd Rd Wed-Thu May 27-28 11am loser's prize: €24,500 = US $33,371; points: 100

French Open, 3rd Rd Fri-Sat May 29-30 11am loser's prize: €40,600 = US $55,301; points: 160

French Open, 4th Rd Sun-Mon May 31-Jun 1 11am loser's prize: €68,400 = US $93,168; points: 280

French Open, QFs, Tue-Wed Jun 2-3 2pm loser's prize: €132,500 = US $180,478; points: 500

French Open, SFs, Thu Jun 4 2pm loser's prize: €265,000 = US $360,956; points: 900

French Open, Final, Sat Jun 6 3pm (9am EDT 6am PDT NBC-TV) loser's prize: €530,000 = US $721,913; points: 1400 winner's prize: €1,060,000 = US $1,443,827; pts: 2000

French Open, Doubles Final, Fri Jun 5 losers' prize: €156,000 = US $212,488 winners' prize: €312,000 = US $424,975 French Open, Mixed Doubles Final, Thu Jun 4 losers' prize: €50,000 = US $68,105 winners' prize: €100,000 = US $136,210 French Open, Girls Singles Final, Sun Jun 7 c2 m2 French Open, Girls Doubles Final, Sat Jun 6 11am c2 French Open, Qualifying Finals Fri May 22 11am Q-1st losers: €2,080 = US $2,833 ; 2 points     Q-2nd losers: €3,950 = US $5,380; 40 points     Q-Final losers: €7,350 = US $10,011; 50 points;     qualifier: 60 points French Open, Withdrawals

    2009 prize money is listed above; although the prize money in Euros has increased, in dollars it is less than in 2008. In May, 2008, one Euro was worth about $1.56 US; this year €1 is worth about $1.36.

    All sets in doubles at Roland Garros are tiebreak sets (unlike singles where a final set—3rd for women, 5th for men—must be won by two games).
    The no-ad rule was applied to mixed doubles competition at Roland Garros in 2009: the first point won after 40-40 wins the game. Also, the 10-point tiebreaker is used in mixed doubles instead of a third set.

See also: QuickShop: Sporting Goods - Martina Hingis - Anna Kournikova

Current WTA Results & Tennis News (tennis home page) - 2010 WTA Schedule with links & photos

Link to many postmatch interview & match highlight videos of WTA players at the 2009 WTA Player Videos page.

WTA PhotoRankings: the current top 20 Women's Tennis rankings with player photos, links, and bio info.