Jason Atherton

As the French Open Tennis Championships draws to a close all eyes now turn to Wimbledon and to the greatest and most long standing Grand Slam tournament of all Rafael Nadal the reigning Wimbledon Champion, who was so ruthlessly knocked off his perch at his beloved Roland Gaross by Swede, Robin Soderling, will be aiming to regain his status as world number one and to defend his Wimbledon crown

Just when critics were beginning to write him off, the mercurial Roger Federer bounced back to win the French Open Tennis Championships for the first time and in the process equalled the record of 14 Grand Slam victories, held by Pete Sampras It is an astonishing record and places Federer arguably as the greatest player the game has ever seen with only one man currently playing that could overhaul him, that of course is Rafael Nadal, who is the only man ever to beat Federer in a Grand Slam final

The soccer season might be over, but hey, what a time of year for sports fans in the UK Having already witnessed the French Open tennis championship, courtesy of Eurosport and the red button on BBC, attention will quickly turn to Royal Ascot and the five glorious days of racing held there

The men’s tennis circuit now heads for the clay courts of Europe with the next Masters event taking place in Monte Carlo The players who have been battling out on the hard courts since last August will certainly relish the change but how many of them believe that they have better chances to win on clay as opposed to hard courts