chocos

The 2007 Roland Garros edition has just finished. The most important tournament played on clay courts originally started as a national tournament in 1891. In 1925, the French Championships became international. Everyone who enjoys tennis is a fan of this competition. The stadiums are beautiful and there is always plenty of people watching the matches. The atmosphere at the Suzanne Lenglen and Philippe Chartrier courts is always amazing.

This year, the winner of the competition was Rafael Nadal, the ”king” of clay courts and the main favorite in the beginning. He has nice strokes from the baseline and can run for many hours without being tired. He already won the French Open twice before, in 2005 and in 2006. But the Spanish player faced some difficult challenges during the contest. In the final, he beat Roger Federer. The Swiss, who is probably the best tennis player in history, didn’t manage to overcome the consistency and the determination of ”Rafa” (that’s the way he’s called by the Spanish). Novak Djokovic was also one of the guys that performed well during the tournament. He achieved the semi-finals, and lost to Nadal after three straight sets. The twenty-year-old Serbian is having a great season this year, and has already beaten Nadal in Miami.

During the past two weeks, we were able to watch high quality tennis. Now, the clay season is over, and the players are preparing themselves to face the most traditional Grand Slam of the year: Wimbledon. Federer already won this tournament for four times (2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006). He is no doubt the man to be beaten in the English grass courts and will try to equalize the mark of Pete Sampras, who won it five times in a row.

The photo was taken from: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bip/18416556/