Rafa Nadal to be featured on the cover of SI and Madden 2011

-Dinara Safina has made her 3rd career grand slam final. Considering the upsets of Nadal, Serena, Djokovic, and Ivanovic in the past week, a #1 seed actually making the final seems almost unexpected. Safina will be appearing in her second consecutive French Open final (she lost last year to Ana Ivanovic). Her opponent is Svetlana Kuznetsova, '04 US Open Champion, who was a finalist here in 2006. All-Russian Women's Final! Don't be fooled by the presence of only one "'ova."

-The Bryan Brothers lost earlier, but one American team has gone the distance - Bob Bryan and Liezel Huber are the 2009 French Open Mixed Doubles Champions. They defeated Vania King and Brazilian Marcelo Melo, the best named team of the tournament.

-Although we've been off for the past three days, there is no escaping the tennis.  Elsewhere in Paris, outside the Hotel de Ville, they have set up a full clay court experience, where people can come and actually play a bit - or they can hang out and watch tournament coverage, which is being streamed live to a giant projection screen.  It's very similar to the way the US Open overtakes New York during Labor Day Weekend - I speak about 5 words of french, all of which can be found on a menu, and I can still tell that everyone is talking about the tournament.

More info from the French Tennis Federation, and some photos can be found here: 
http://www.fft.fr/rolandgarros/rgdlv/en/PDF/concept.pdf

-The hottest topic in town is the loss of Rafa Nadal, but I'm guessing aside from the Spaniards, no one is more put off than Nike. Their flagship store in Paris, a prominent fixture on the Champs-Elysees, features a two-story billboard of the Champ, with the words, "V is for Victory." Yikes. He also has a giant "V" painted in clay on his bare chest. It's a great photo, just unfortunately timed.

Could this be the start of a new curse? I've been wondering what Federer will show up wearing at Wimbledon, considering his traditional one-of-a-kind Champion's gear might no longer be entirely appropriate. Maybe capri pants and something showing a little shoulder...

-Lena M. Glaser