Fed starts well in Paris

The media was building up Roger Federer's first round match to potentially be a challenge against futures star Carreno-Busta, a guy who has won titles in seven of the recent futures tournaments for players trying to build their ranking to be able to compete with the big guys in regular tour level events.  It soon became apparent that he wasn't yet up to the challenge of the greatest of all time.  It didn't take long for him to be down 0-5.  Though he did eventually break serve, the set still ended up at 6-2, as did the 2nd set, with the third at 6-3.  Roger played strong, always looking in complete control.  This will give him great confidence moving forward, with his next opponent being challenger Somdev Devvarman.

Basically almost no one is even putting Federer in the running as a favorite in this tournament, in spite of his very favorable draw and the fact that Djokovic and Nadal would meet in the semis, meaning he would only have to beat one of them.  My feeling is that he is always a contender for the title, regardless of the fact that he has only won in Roland Garros one time before.  As for me, I love the idea of him surprisingly hoisting the trophy two weeks from now.

A couple cute pictures of the Federer family from a trip to the zoo a couple weeks ago in Madrid: