Slamming it in French style!

The second tennis Grand Slam of the year is so on in Paris - the city of love.
The French Open, popularly known as Roland Garros, is the one slam that has eluded a good number of great players. I'm not entirely sure what exactly it is that makes this particular slam so elusive.
Is it because it takes place on clay where it's slippery and players found it diffult to manoeuvre? Or perhaps the balls don't bounce that effectively there? Well, I don't know. Maybe the whole slam is just elusive:)

First week is going just as I had dreamt it would go. Except for Rafa Nadal who almost succumbed to defeat this afternoon in his match against John Isner of United States. For the first time the king of clay was taken into a fifth set in the first round at Roland Garros. I could not believe what my eyes were seeing. Nadal took the first set with an easy 6 - 4 score. He was 5 -3 ahead in the second set when the American broke his serve and forced Nadal into a tense tie break. Third set pretty went the same way with Isner claiming yet another tie break win. But Nadal realised the potential of first round casualty and woke up in the fourth set. He was invincible from there on till the last point.
Maria Sharapova had a smooth first round winning 6 - 2, 6 - 0. Kim Clijsters, Francesca Schiovone (the defending champion) and Caroline Wozniack all cruised into the second round.

Let's watch on...