Always colourful American Bethanie Mattek-Sands is eyeing some additional body art, with plans afoot to get another tattoo.
She already has an unfinished tat on her inside right arm, which she has said in the past was so painful to complete that she left it undone for the immediate future.
She also has a lily on her biceps and a “ring” on her finger to remind her of her husband.
But the lure of additional ink has Mattek-Sands leaning towards adding a thigh band in the style of British pop star Cheryl Cole. But then there are also doubts creeping in.
“I told a couple of the girls in the locker room that I was going to get maybe a band around my upper think,” said the American.
“Nobody liked it in the locker room. But I still might do it, I kind of like it. It's still up for debate what I'm going to do,” she said of the ink which she hopes to squeeze in before Wimbledon starting in less than a month.
Retired Grand Slam winner Amelie Mauresmo has been ruled out of the mixed doubles at the French Open thanks to her former federation, which said the 31-year-old cannot compete due to her not currently participating in an anti-doping programme.
The draconian procedure requires current players on the ATP and WTA to report daily on their whereabouts to be available any time for out of competition tests.
Geneva-based Mauresmo most assuredly gave up on that lifestyle-crimping intrusion the moment she quit the game in late 2009. As a result, the French federation knocked back the entry of former Australian and US Open winner Mauresmo and intended partner Michael Llodra.
Too crowded
Roger Federer is finding the crowded Week one scene at the French Open a bit close for his comfort zone, with the third seed taking a training session at a secluded nearby private club for his third-round match with Janko Tipsarevic.
Swiss tabloid Blick reported that Federer trained behind tall trees and fences at the Club Jean Bouin, and apparently can't wait for the 2016 completion of the renovation project which will expand the grounds and ease pedestrian traffic flow.
“It's much too small for this — it's time for them to do something here,” he said of the smallest of the four major which draws around 460,000 through the gates for a 15-day run. When he does travel by necessity around the grounds, Federer is surrounded by a posse of up to ten bodyguards including a woman trained in martial arts that Blick says is detailed as his shadow throughout the event.
Nadal disappointed
Rafael Nadal has enough on his plate just trying to polish his own slacking tennis as he bids for a sixth title at the French Open. But the top-seeded Spaniard cannot help but pity the fate of Novak Djokovic and Juan del Potro as the pair play a third-round match courtesy of the cruelty of the draw.
