The third round of the 2011 French Open kicks off on Friday with live action from Roland Garros. Both draws will feature seeded players starting to face more seeded players. Through the first two rounds, seeded players generally were facing unseeded players. Friday will see Novak Djokovic put his unbeaten streak on the line against No. 25 Juan Martin Del Potro, while Roger Federer will face off against No. 29 Janko Tipsarevic. On the women's side, number one seed Caroline Wozniacki will face No. 28 seed Daniela Hantuchova and fifth seeded Francesca Schiavone will face No. 29 Shuai Peng. You can view the entire day six schedule at rolandgarros.com. Coverage will once again be featured on the Tennis Channel (on TV and online) and ESPN2 (on TV and online).
Friday third round television coverage will run on the same schedule as the last few days. It opens on the Tennis Channel beginning at 2:00am pacific and lasting until 9am pacific. Tennis Channel live coverage will be preceded by French Open Tonight starting at 10:30pm pacific, which will provide previews and updates heading into Wednesday's coverage. If you don't get the sports package that includes the Tennis Channel, or you'll be away from your TV during the coverage, tennischannel.com is kind enough to provide a free live online stream of their coverage.
ESPN2 will pick up coverage beginning at 9am pacific and lasting until 3:30pm pacific. If you're away from your TV or don't have cable, you can watch a live online stream of ESPN2's coverage. The Tennis Channel will follow ESPN2's live coverage with three and a half hours of French Open Tonight, wrapping up day five action.
We'll be providing wall-to-wall coverage of the 2011 French Open over the next two weeks. Check back in our French Open 2011 story stream for news, analysis and other details. For more detailed conversation, join the folks at The Daily Forehand.