Quote of the week

"There was more variety, players with different games, stronger minds, more character. I played with three generations and they evolved. I had to adapt."

Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, on playing in the 90s

Fed Cup miscellany

USA captain Mary Joe Fernandez says that Bethanie Mattek-Sands could play both doubles and singles in the USA's matches against France. Mattek-Sands is an accomplished doubles player.

Arantxa Sanchez Vicario will sit on this year's Fed Cup BNP Paribas Heart Award panel. The award was created last year and was won by Melanie Oudin.

Sony Ericsson WTA Tour chairwoman (I just can't bring myself to call her a man) and CEO Stacey Allaster says she would like to combine Fed Cup with Davis Cup. This idea follows the crackpot idea some ATP players recently had that would have replaced Davis Cup with a tennis World Cup.

This weekend will mark the first time that Belgium and Poland have ever met in Fed Cup competition. Yanina Wickmayer will compete for Belgium; she is certainly playing a lot of tennis lately.

Fed Cup Radio will present features, interviews, and live coverage of the competition all weekend.

French Open miscellany

Tennis Channel did a slow motion display of Jelena Jankovic's service motion today. Martina Navratilova commented on the over-rotation of both her shoulder and her hip. One of Jankovic's goals in putting herself through a strenuous off-season training was to be strong enough to put more behind her serve. Navratilova's assessment is that her new-found strength won't help her if she doesn't stop rotating her shoulders and hips so much. That makes sense, but why didn't her coach help her with this problem? And if he did, why didn't she listen?

I'm still undecided about Venus Williams' dress. I haven't seen enough of it to know whether I like it. I know I don't like Sharapova's. Li Na and Lucie Safarova, however, look very nice in the Nike outfit (it's the same one for both) they selected. And I like the new Jankovic dress. I haven't really paid enough attention to clothing to comment on any other outfits.

JJ is in danger of losing her crown. Tennis.com's headline for Serena Williams' first round win is "Drama Queen."

Marion Bartoli would like for Marion Cotillard to play Marion Bartoli in a theoretical biopic (the translation of this interview does leave something to be desired, I should warn you).

Three-time French Open champion Arantza Sanchez Vicario has some ideas about Andy Murray's chances in Paris.

Peter Bodo reminds us that Svetlana Kuznetsova is the only woman in the Open Era to hold match points against two eventual French Open champions (Anastasia Myskina and Justine Henin).

Tennis Channel's Classic Matches best viewing on TV

If you live in the U.S. and you have Tennis Channel, then you have recently been treated to some of the greatest Wimbledon matches of the Open Era. Last night, the featured match was the 1995 final between Steffi Graf and Arantxa Sanchez Vicario. When the ninth game of the third set has thirteen deuces, you know you have a classic match.

Tonight's feature, to be shown at 10:00 EST, is the 1978 final between Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova.