While Wimbledon has been the personal playground of my favorite tennis playing siblings, the French Open and the clay courts of Stade Roland Garros have been more problematic. The Williams sisters combined have won the French Open singles title once over their careers, with Serena's 2002 win coming at the expense of Big Sis.
The French Open started on May 24 and Venus' lousy luck at the French Open continued. Her quest for that elusive first French Open singles title is on hold until next year. She was knocked out in the third round after losing in straight sets 0-6, 4-6 at the hands of Hungary's Agnes Szavay.
The Williams sisters are playing doubles in this tournament as well and are attempting to win their first doubles crown here since 1999. They have captured the 2008 Wimbledon, Olympic, US Open and 2009 Australian Open doubles titles, and are attempting to win all the Grand Slam events in the same year.
Little Sis is still alive in her quest to capture her second French Open title and 11th Grand slam title overall. Serena had a tough first round match with the Czech Republic's Klara Zakopalova that she eventually won 6-3, 6-7, 6-4.
She won her second round match with Spain's Virginia Ruano Pascual of Spain 6-2, 6-0 and got through a sloppy third round three set 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 win over Spain's Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez. The match was marred by a first set blown call when a ball hit by Serena struck her opponent at a critical point in the game. Little Sis also had 25 unforced errors and four double faults, but moves on to the fourth round. The French Open is running through June 7, and here's hoping my fave tennis playing sisters finally break through and take home from Paris the singles and doubles championship trophies.
