I thought it was going to be impossible to follow the French Open this year when I pitched a daily blog to Newsweek.Com. I'm still waiting to hear back from them by the way. Tennis has been on a steady popularity decline in the U.S. In its heyday in the mid-80s, you could catch all the major clay court events leading up to the French. This year no one even televised the final of the German Open at Hamburg, when Federer beat Nadal to end his clay-court match streak. Meanwhile, you can watch college golf, bass fishing, and unlimited quantities of ultimate fighting, none of which were available in the 80s. On Monday morning, though, I flicked on the TV and lo and behold there was something called The Tennis Channel , and it was free!