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CNN Sunday Morning

An Inside Look at the French Open

Aired May 27, 2001 - 07:17   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: With the French Open set to begin in a matter of hours, we decided to get an inside look at the tennis major. So we went to Greg Rosedski of -- one of Britain's top pro players. He takes us behind the scenes.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GREG ROSEDSKI, TENNIS PLAYER: Hi, welcome to the French Open. This is my preview of behind the scenes, getting to see where the players eat, how they prepare for their matches and seeing the practice courts and everything that's involved. All right. Come on.

Bonjour. Oui, cest va? (SPEAKING IN FRENCH) Yes, I'm in the Major. My name is Greg Rosedski.

Just as simple as that.

This is the main locker room where all the players get ready for the matches. They have the TV screens here, which show the match scores and how the matches are going. The players will usually sit down here to relax with all the chairs and the sofas that are here. So there's a lot of tension going on here because you have a 128 players and about 50 coaches in this locker room. So this is the environment where the players really get ready and prepared for their matches. So let's have a look at the whole place.

Here we have the locker rooms as you can see coming down this way. You know, you've got your toilets and your showers on this side as well. This is the room most players go to when they get nervous, which is as you see a nice gents room.

Then you have the shower room on this side, which is all nice wood and very well done. You move down and then we're into the locker room where every player gets a locker. And the coaches get lockers as well.

Then to your left over here, we have a light gym where the players get warmed up on the bikes and on the stretching balls and stretching mats. Come on in. Let's have a look.

We have (UNINTELLIGIBLE) on action on the bike. We have Stan Sully (ph) using some stretching matches, and that's it.

This is where the serious stuff begins. This is where your heart starts beating, you get a little bit nervous, you're getting ready to walk on the center court with 11,500 people. You'll probably going to have a little bit of jumping up and down just to get rid of some of the nerves and the butterflies in the stomach and then you walk on onto this magnificent center court.

Here we are a few days before the French Open starts. We have great practice sessions going on here. You have Andre Agassi practicing with Hicham Arazi, who was the finalist at Monte Carlo. The guys get in some good practice here on the clay before the tournament starts so they used to the center court atmosphere, the way the courts are playing and as you can see getting some really good tennis out there.

Here's the spot that's left open for this year's champion. Hopefully, it could be me. You never know.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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