!MarieJ Howdy, everyone. I'm going to get this Your Call up quickly so that you can start calling matches and chit-chatting. I'll be back a little later with a special contribution that came to me via Marie Jo, a Parisian (and former TennisWorld Poster-of-the-Year) and her journalist/boyfriend, Guillaume Willecoq. They've launched their own French-language weblog, and I think it's terrific-looking. If my French were anything better than tres horrible, I'd comment on the content as well. But knowing Marie Jo pretty well and having met Guillaume, I'm sure there's plenty of good stuff in there. They know their tennis.
BTW, our own Tennis.com website is in the late stages of re-design, and from the templates I've seen, the site in general - and this page - are going to have a much cleaner, more appealing look. I'm not all that interested in a lot of that design-aesthetics stuff. In fact, I think of TW as our old beater pick-up truck; we just pile into the bed, start pulling the pop-tops and hammering the chips, and away we go.
But I'm fired up about the new look and am pretty sure you'll love it, too. I'm hoping that our Typepad interface will function normally, and will be advising you about that, and any related issues, as we get closer to the roll-out date.
Anyway, Marie J and Guillaume recently spent a pleasant week at "the Little French Open," a non-ATP Tour event on the French national circuit. The event has slowly grown to attract many players in the sub-100 category (rankings-wise), but some familiar names also play, mostly as a way to keep in shape and prepare for upcoming events. I know how much many of you love Roland Garros, and France in general, and I was glad when my friends offered to write a guest post that might give you a flavor for a little French country tournament. Just check out the look on the faces of our two French combatants in the photo and you'll see the difference between this event and Roland Garros, and get an inkling about why small, casual events can be so much fun.
There are other things besides majors, right? And I worry sometimes that TW doesn't go far enough afield to explore all the nooks and crannies in this remarkable world game. The guest post will be up shortly, so that's all for now.
-- Pete