Live from Roland Garros (III)

Monfils struggling for fitness At a press conference held at Disneyland Europe on Wednesday morning, Gaël Monfils was far from confident about being able to take part in the 79th French Open. Last year's semi-finalist is suffering from inflammation of the patella tendons and has yet to take part in a tournament on European clay this year. If he does play, then his preparation will consist of nothing more than practice this week and an exhibition match at the nearby town of Rueil-Malmaison. "Sliderman" is a Parisian himself and makes no secret of his love of Roland Garros – a feeling that is mutual as far as the fans are concerned – but he suffered a reaction from his training session on Tuesday with Marcos Baghdatis and may well have to miss out on his favourite tournament. Safina on centre court It was a balmy 24°C at Roland Garros on Wednesday and the sun certainly brought the stars out of their hotels and onto the practice courts. Roger Federer had his second session of the week, spending some time on Philippe Chatrier court in the afternoon. Like Federer, women's world No1 Dinara Safina chose centre court for her practice session, while Amélie Mauresmo, who once occupied Safina's spot at the top of the rankings, was on No1 court. Grosjean enters the doubles Sébastien Grosjean has created quite a stir by entering the doubles along side Ecuador's Nicolas Lapentti. The former French No1 had an operation on his right shoulder on 15 December 2008 and was not expected back on court before the grass season. The 2001 French Open semi-finalist did not want to miss out on his "home" tournament however, particularly with his 31st birthday approaching. Sharapova goes from strength to strength After a hard-fought victory in the first round in Warsaw, Maria Sharapova looked on sparkling form on Wednesday as she made it through to the quarter-finals with a 6-2 6-0 thrashing of Belarusian Daria Kustova. This is the former world No1's first singles tournament back after a painful right shoulder forced her off the courts back in August last year. She has slipped to No126 in the WTA rankings but will definitely be a name that the other players will be looking to avoid in the early rounds. Zvonareva named UNESCO ambassador As part of the partnership between the WTA Tour and UNESCO, Russia's Vera Zvonareva has been named ambassador for gender equality, the fourth player to receive such an honour after Venus Williams, Tatiana Golovin and Jie Zheng. The world No6 promised to "work hard to help girls and young women throughout the world succeed in whatever they hope to achieve. I firmly believe that it is of the utmost importance to fight for women to have the same opportunities as men." The Russian comes to Roland Garros having been out of action since mid-April after injuring her ankle at Charleston.