French Open mid-week notebook

Iron Man

American Michael Yani was involved in an epic opening-round match, falling to Slovakian Lukas Lacko 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-7 (4), 7-6 (5), 12-10. The match lasted 4 hours and 56 minutes and had 71 games, tying the French Open record set in 1973 for most games in a match after the tie break was implemented.

Grand Slam Fitness

The Andys

Andy Murray dropped the first two sets of his opening-round match against uber-talented and embattled Frenchman Richard Gasquet. This is a good sign for Murray who early in his career was criticized for his conditioning, and it's a testament to the combination of skill, endurance, and mental toughness it takes to stick around in Slams. Murray didn't play badly when he dropped the first two sets. Gasquet's backhand was nearly unstoppable, and his forehand was consistent as well. But after two hard-fought sets, he started relying on drop shots to alleviate his growing fatigue. Meanwhile, Murray kept consistent and looked as though he could have kept up his play for several more sets.

Andy Roddick's gutsy second serves and clay-court defense allowed him to pull off a five-set, first-round win against Jarkko Nieminen on Court Phillippe Chatrier. When A-Rod faulted on his first serves on big points, he put some extra muscle into his second, acing Nieminen several times instead of going for safety serves. Roddick took the first set 6-2 before dropping the next two, both 6-4. The two players held serve in the fourth set for 12 games, forcing a tie break. Roddick won that, 7-4, then proceeded to get an early break in the fifth. The American No. 1 broke Niemenin a final time to take the set and the match 6-3 in the fifth. Serving wasn't the only thing Roddick was doing well under pressure. He approached the net 50 times and won 74 percent of those points. Though his game wasn't always pretty, the American adjusted well to the clay. He'll have to improve his game to go much deeper, especially if he wants to compete with the likes of Rafael Nadal or Roger Federer.

American Success

Last year, Roddick was the lone male Yank to win a first-round match. This year, four more are through to the second round (Taylor Dent, John Isner, Robby Ginepri and Mardy Fish). Five women (Serena Williams, Venus Williams, Varvara Lepchenko, Jill Craybas and Bethanie Mattek-Sands) also earned second-round berths this year. Last year, four women won their first round matches.

Team Williams

The only pairing on the women's tour that might come close to Venus playing against Serena is Venus playing with Serena in doubles. The sisters began their campaign for a second Roland Garros doubles title Tuesday (their only previous championship was in 1999).

The No. 1 seeded Williams sisters were delivering such a beat down that when Kirsten Flipkens and Tamarine Tanasugarn won their first game after they were losing 6-0, 3-0, they celebrated like they had won the match. The 6-0, 6-1 match took only 53 minutes.

Days 3 and 4

Maria Sharapova is currently playing with a new look. No, she didn't borrow Venus Williams' outfit, but she has indeed made notable changes to her attire. Gone are the shoulder bandages on her serving shoulder that seemed to act as a symbol of her recent health struggles. Gone too is her trademark Prince-labeled racquet. Noted by the announcers, Sharapova has been playing with an all-black stick that bares no sponsor label. Her official Web site still lists Prince as a sponsor. The French is the only Slam she has not won. Right now she is playing well and is on track to play Justine Henin in the third round — a match that if it is played up to the level of star power on the court should be a doozy.

Robin Soderling and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga looked very strong. The two of them lost a combined seven games in their first-round matches, both finishing in an hour and change.

Don't let the outfit distract you. Well OK that's probably impossible, but Venus Williams is ranked second for the first time in seven years and is playing amazing tennis right now. The French is her worst surface, but she made it to the finals of Madrid and looks locked in.

Speaking of Madrid....

The winner at Madrid and French hopeful Aravane Rezai won in the first round and impressed. In the second round after winning her first set convincingly, 6-2, with an impressive display of power and shotmaking, the ability was nowhere to be found in the second, which she dropped to German Angelique Kerber 6-2. When it looked like Rezai was falling apart she just simply blew by Kerber in the third set 6-3. Rezai's power at times had commentator Pam Shriver simply laughing at how a player of this stature can generate such punishing and unrelenting power. If Rezai's boom-or-bust style is on, watch for her to make a deep run with great French fanfare. While Rezai's game is really on full display this week, one person who will not be seeing it is her father. An Iranian immigrant, he was inspired to make his kids tennis champs after watching Yannick Noah win at the French in 1983. While he is still involved in Rezai's training and on site for all her tournaments, he cannot bare to watch her compete. A colorful character known for being outspoken and his fued with the French Tennis Federation, he has been rumored to have gotten into a fist fight in the parking lot of Roland Garros Tuesday night.

The Legend Grows: Fabio Fognini vs. Gael Monfils

This match has already been an epic. Tied 4-4 in the fifth set, an official walked on the court and gave both players the option to stop play because of darkness, Monfils with a racous Kids Day crowd behind him immediately voted to play on and began getting the crowd riled up. In a strange scene Fogini,whose whole box was motioning 'no' as much as possible, chose to play on. So after a bizzare six-minute stoppage in play, the match continued with Fogini being penalized a point for delay of game. Fognini had wild time holding serve to go up 5-4 and legitimately in pitch-darkness Monfils, cramping, fought back from three match points to win his game. In almost complete darkness the match was then postponed at 5-5 in the fifth set and will be continued tomorrow. Monfils was up 2 breaks in the fourth set and began showing off for the crowd, totally lost his rhythm and the set.

Do we need to mention that Nadal and Federer advanced?