One of the distinguishing features of the international tennis circuit is the incredible global diversity of both the nationalities of the players and the locations of the tournaments.  It’s not surprising that certain current tennis powerhouse countries such as Argentina (on the men’s side) had 15 players entered in the singles main draw at the 2008 French Open.  However, none reached the round of 16.   Conversely, Russia which had 24 players entered in the men’s and women’s singles draws, and Spain which had 22 entered, have only 5 players left in the round of 16.  More surprising and especially gratifying for the hometown French fans is that 5 French men reached the round of 16 and none play each other!  Serbia continues its impressive run with Novak Djokovic, Ana Ivanovic and Jelena Jankovic all alive in the round of 16.  Meanwhile, the Czech Republic is having a strong showing with 3 players still in the hunt.  At the same time, lesser-known “tennis countries” such as Slovenia, Estonia, Latvia, Poland and Belarus still have one player remaining in the main draw.  The chart below lists the number of players entered in the main draw singles:

Country                             Men                 Women

Argentina                           15                      2
Australia                              4                      2
China                                  0                      4
Croatia                                5                      3
Czech Republic                     4                      6
France                               18                      16
Germany                              8                      4
Israel                                  1                       2
Italy                                    4                      7
Japan                                  0                      4
Romania                               2                      4
Russia                                  6                      18
Serbia                                  4                      2
Spain                                  17                      5
Sweden                               3                       1
UK                                      1                       0
US                                      10                      9
Ukraine                                0                       7