In an interview, world No.4 Svetlana Kuznetsova, known for being a fun and positive person, straightforwardly said that nobody has a chance against Serbia's Ana Ivanovic and Jelena Jankovic at this year's Roland Garros. Haha, look at the way she expressed that.

Interviewer: There are three players from Serbia here, you know. Can you see any of them as a winner of Roland Garros?

Kuznetsova: Yes, definitely. Ivanovic or Jankovic going to win. We are losers.

(via Women Who Serve, photo via BBC)

Ninth-seed Marion Bartoli exited her home Grand Slam in the first round as Australian Casey Dellacqua defeated her 6-7 6-3 6-2.

Wimbledon finalist Bartoli, who last year reached the fourth round at Roland Garros, was 6-5 up when rain ended play on Tuesday but she could not find her pace on Wednesday, losing after two hours and two minutes.

In the second round, world No.51 Dellacqua will face another Frenchwoman, Nathalie Dechy, ranked 88th. (source: Reuters, photo: Getty Images)

Maria Sharapova’s first appearance at 2008 Roland Garros was postponed from Tuesday to Wednesday due to rain, and that change of plans apparently did her no good since her today's performance was far from satisfactory. Sharapova advanced to the second round with a 6-1 3-6 8-6 win over fellow Russian Evgeniya Rodina, ranked 103 in the world, on a windswept Centre Court.

Top-seeded Sharapova almost became the first women’s tennis player ranked No.1 in the world to lose in the first round of Roland Garros, and on top of all that, it was Rodina's first Grand Slam appearance. However, it’s very difficult to beat fighter Sharapova, even when she makes 17 double faults and 68 unforced errors, which was the case today.

The Russian, who is hoping to complete a career grand slam by winning the Roland Garros crown, next faces Bethanie Mattek. (photo via Getty Images)

The New York Times' Play magazine has a great article by TENNIS magazine's Peter Bodo that explains why world No.2 Ana Ivanovic has such a good serve.

Peter Bodo interviewed Ivanovic's coach Sven Groeneveld and Brenda Schultz-McCarthy, who holds the record for the fastest serve in qualifying rounds in the WTA tour, about Ivanovic’s strengths and the aspects of developing a consistent service motion.

There is also this video of Ivanovic serving, followed by an interesting animated analysis of her serve. (via Down the Line)

Third seed Jelena Jankovic of Serbia moved into the second round of Roland Garros with a 7-6 (7-3) 6-2 victory over Romania's Monica Niculescu.

It was not that easy win for Jankovic. Despite taking a 3-0 lead in the first set, she in the end had to play a tiebreak. The Serb finally won the first set after one hour of play. World number 86 Niculescu, who was making her Roland Garros debut, confused world No.3 Jankovic with a series of superfine drop shots. In the second set, however, Jankovic got used to Niculescu’s game and finished the set in just 32 minutes.

In the second round Jankovic will meet either Italian Tathiana Garbin or New Zealand's Marina Erakovic. (via BBC)

World No.61 Ashley Harkleroad who yesterday lost to Serena Williams 6-2 6-1 in the first round of Roland Garros, revealed that she posed for the August edition of Playboy magazine.

"I'm proud of my body. I was representing a female athlete's body," Harkleroad said after the match.

"I'll be the first tennis player ever. That's kind of cool." Read more »

Nicole Vaidisova became the first seed to fall at the 2008 French Open when fellow Czech Iveta Benesova defeated her 7-6 6-1 in the opening round.

"It's always hard to play your best friend. I have to give her credit, she played a great match," said 15th-seeded Vaidisova, who finally lost the match by producing a double fault on match point.

Two years ago Vaidisova was semifinalist at Roland Garros, but today's defeat is just a continuation of her bad results. It is her sixth successive defeat dating back to March, plus, she has won only one match on tour since reaching the Australian Open fourth round in January.

World No.70 Benesova will be aiming to progress beyond the second round for the first time in seven attempts when she faces either Russia's Anastasia Rodionova or Peng Shuai of China next. (source: Reuters, photo: Getty Images)

Last year’s finalist Ana Ivanovic of Serbia advanced to the second round of Roland Garros with a 6-2 7-5 win over world No.45 Sofia Arvidsson of Sweden.

In the first set world No.2 Ivanovic established a 5-1 lead and despite losing serve for the first time, she victoriously finished the set. However, the second set was a much more undecided affair. The 24-year-old Arvidsson took a 3-1 lead and held three break points, but then Ivanovic woke her best game up. Ivanovic saved those break points, broke back and then again saved two break points to win a crucial game for a 4-3 lead. However, she was still lacking consistency, and she had to save another break point at 4-4. Ivanovic earned a crucial break of serve in the 12th game to finally win the match.

Ivanovic, seeded second, will next face Czech Lucie Safarova. They have played only once so far and the Serb scored a victory in straight sets. (via Ana Ivanovic's website)

Spain’s Anabel Medina Garrigues won her third title at the Internationaux de Strasbourg beating Slovenia’s Katarina Srebotnik 4-6 7-6 (4) 6-0.

Sixth-seeded Medina Garrigues faced eight break points in the first set, and fifth-seeded Srebotnik broke her twice to take early control. In the second set, both players lost serve three times, but Medina Garrigues was better in the tiebreaker. The Spaniard then absolutely dominated in the deciding set.

Medina Garrigues has eight career titles. The one she won on Saturday in Strasbourg is her first since winning that same tournament last year. (source: ESPN, photo via Yahoo)

I've written a guest post for On the Baseline Tennis News on the topic that perplexes many people – What's the Secret behind the Rise of Serbian Tennis?. The article, which is part of On the Baseline’s Tennis 101 series, is my attempt at solving the mystery behind the enormous success of Serbian tennis. I hope I’ve succeeded in my task, at least to some extent. Of course, in the comments section I would like to hear your view on the topic.