Hi folks, here's what happened to me when I went to Roland Garros for 2 days on Sunday and Monday.

Sunday - well, the forecast was awful, but we'd already got tickets for Suzanne Lenglen court. Watched Serena Williams vs Pironkova of Bulgaria. All in all, it was a pretty entertaining match. Serena started slow and looked a little rusty and lethargic - whilst her opponent was striking the ball really well early on, and deserved the 1st set.

2nd set Serena really upped it, 3rd set Pironkova raised her game again, and there were some fantastic rallies. Was sat not too far from Richard Williams - every time Serena wins a point he waves his towel in the air. Pam Shriver was due to do an interview with him for ESPN after the match but went off in a huff for some reason and refused to do the interview.

Then went over to watch Tipsarevic against another Serbian - Demic I think his name was. Tipsarevic won in 4 sets - some good tennis in this match, his opponent was a big server, and liked to come to the net - ultimately Tipsarevic won because of his more accomplished groundstrokes - he looks a tidy player and I'm not surprised he won the 1st set against Safin in their match today.

All in all, on Sunday, saw 3 hours of tennis - which considering the weather, wasn't too bad.

Monday - the forecast wasn't so bad, but only saw 1 hour of tennis, despite there being over 3 hours of dry, and mostly sunny weather - they kept the covers on courts for far too long! I watched Volandri against Capdeville - I really like Volandri - he's a real classic stylish claycourter - single-handed backhand (which is his main weapon), tasty dropshots, and accomplished on the volley - his serve is not great though, and his forehand is not as strong as the backhand.

Capdeville hits it fairly flat and likes to go for his shots - kind of like Gonzalez, but not as good. Capdeville seems a fairly unpleasant individual - perhaps from the Marcelo Rios school of manners - made Volandri wait for over 10 minutes while he came out to start the match.

Volandri comes across as a pleasant honest chap, with a stylish flair game and I think will have the crowd on his side during this tournament.

That was all we saw on Monday. As far as wet weather is concerned at Roland Garros:

1. If you leave, they don't let you come back - this is really unfair I find - I would have gone back to my hotel to dry out, and come back invigorated for watching the rest of the day's play.

2. Roland Garros is quite small, and feels pretty cramped when there's crowds of people walking around in the wet weather.

3. You see more tennis than at Wimbledon during the wet weather - however they make some funny decisions there - covers didn't come off until after 2 hours of dry mostly sunny weather, and when the rain comes down they take their time before making a firm decision on abandoning play - they made Volandri and Capdeville play for 5 minutes in some quite heavy rain before making the inevitable decision.

4. The Tenniseum is excellent, and free (unlike Wimbledon's museum!) - especially good is the interactive room, where you can choose from a comprehensive library of match highlights at Roland Garros over the years to watch - I had a great half hour keeping dry watching Henman v Coria from 2004, and a classic quarter-final from 2000 featuring Kuerten and Ferrero.

5. The security guys are friendly enough at Roland Garros, and the atmosphere is nice and relaxed, less snooty than Wimbledon, but some of the customer service people are none too helpful.

Oh, just to clarify about the Williams v Pironkova match, it was Shriver who went off in a huff, not Richard Williams. However, Richard Williams was being awkward earlier trying to get the match called off before they were due to come on.

Heyyup Mr I :)

Glad you enjoyed your trip, but how unlucky you were weatherwise. :( Seems stingy that you cant; leave and come back, especially considering that the place is hardly packed in wet weather. That's one thing i notice from watching on TV - the crowd give up much more easily than the Wimbers one where everyone sits around in kagools waiting in anticipation for play. I can onyl assume that it is much easier to get into Roland Garros (and cheaper) so people dont; feel so inclined to make the most fo their experience there coem rain or shine.

Did you fidn it easy getting tickets etc, and once you have them is it easy to get on show courts?

Thanks for that MrI, very interesting, so jealous you got to see Serena live :P