!Picby Pete Bodo
One of the more intriguing subplots at this year's French Open involves Olympic qualification, with the 56 direct entrants selected based on the computer rankings following the end of the tournament. It's a particularly pressing issue in the United States, which has a logjam of potential candidates. No nation is allowed more than four players in the singles draw, and six in total. The fourth spot (behind Serena Williams, Venus Williams, and Christina McHale) is still undecided. Both Varvara Lepchenko and Sloane Stephens are in the hunt for it.
Lepchenko had a fine win over struggling Jelena Jankovic yesterday, and while she's trying not to think about the Olympics, the media and various other folks are not making that easier.
—Andy Murray's Olympic worries are centered on the back spasms that almost forced him to quit against Jarkko Nieminen. Surprisingly, Nieminen was unable to fully exploit Murray's struggles, and nobody was more surprised than Murray that he won a match he almost decided to stop playing. He explained about the back later, and boy, did he explain—three pages worth. It appears that his physio is of the "What's the worst that can happen?" school.
—Working one of the go-to themes at any clay-court tournament, a reporter asked Milos Raonic if he had a "different level of intimidation or concern" when it comes to playing a clay expert, now that he's gaining valuable experience.
You just play and invent new verbs (corrected from original) as you need them.
—Jo-Wilfried Tsonga is a big man, but he isn't one who lacks empathy. He was asked to comment on Arnaud Clement's swan song at the French Open. Now 34 and ranked No. 139, the 5'8" Clement went down with both guns blazing, a victim of Belgium's David Goffin. Tsonga replied:
Easy, big guy, you want to give Clement a complex about his height?
