Serena Williams photobombing sister Venus Williams while she was trying on hats.

On Wednesday, Andy Murray dropped out of his match against Marcel Granollers with back pain on his 26th birthday after splitting the first two sets 3-6. 7-6(5), dropping his record on the season to 3-3 on clay courts.

After the match, Murray shocked the tennis world saying, “I’d be very surprised if I were playing in Paris. I need to make a plan as to what I do. I’ll chat with the guys tonight and make a plan for the next few days then make a decision on Paris after the next five days. I want to make sure it goes away. It’s been a problem since the end of 2011 but it got bad during last year’s clay season.”

Not many expected a title out of Murray at Roland Garros , considering his disappointing clay court record over the last 14 months. However, his potential absence at the second slam of the year will have a considerable impact on the fortnight. So here is a look at the overall impact of a slam without Murray is and how it affects each player in the top 10.

Overall: Without Murray in the draw everyone besides Novak Djokovic and possibly Roger Federer will be seeded one spot higher than they would have been. That means Rafael Nadal slides right back in to the top four, and Richard Gasquet will likely move into the top eight. Murray only reached the quarterfinals, so that doesn’t leave a huge amount of ranking points available for the taking, but 360 points would be a great result for a player outside the top 10 potentially. Finally, this means Murray will be fresh and ready when he arrives for Wimbledon, giving odds makers another reason to make him the favorite in his home county’s slam.

Stanislas Wawrinka: The Swiss No. 2 just had a big result on the clay in Madrid and Roland Garros is a big opportunity for him to back up that result and prove he belongs in the top 10. Wawrinka reached the round of 16 last year and without Murray, he has a good chance to go one round farther.

Richard Gasquet: The switch from being the No. 9 seed and the No. 8 seed may not seem like a big change, but it will drastically change the way Gasquet’s draw looks in Paris. Gasquet is now guaranteed not to face any higher-ranked player until the quarterfinals instead of the round of 16. The Frenchman has now reached the round of 16 at five grand slam tournaments in a row, but has failed to reach the quarterfinals each time. In four of those five matches, Gasquet faced a higher-ranked player. In fact, Gasquet has reached the round of 16 on 15 different occasions in a grand slam and has lost 14 of those; 11 to higher-ranked players. So now that he is guaranteed not to face a higher-ranked player until the quarterfinals, his chances improve significantly to reach the quarterfinals of a slam for the first time since Wimbledon 2007.

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Tomas Berdych and Juan Martin Del Potro: All three players will be attempting to erase bad memories from Paris last year when they return in 2013. Tsonga squandered four match points in his quarterfinal against Djokovic. Del Potro let a two-set lead over Roger Federer slip away. Berdych lost a four-set match against Del Potro in the round of 16. The possibility of Murray skipping the French Open is actually bad news for the players currently ranked between six and eight. If the seeds go through, each player seeded five through eight plays against a player in the top four at the quarterfinals. Since Murray’s spot in the top four will be taken by Nadal, the opportunity to the Scot will be substituted with a much tougher task in Nadal. All three of these players are more than capable of defeating Murray on clay, but facing Nadal on clay is a proposition that gives most tennis players nightmares.

Rafael Nadal: As mentioned before, this means Nadal will be the No. 4 seed. He could even be the No. 3 seed with a win in Rome. In the short-term, this is great news for Nadal, but there is one slight downside. The upside is obvious. He won’t face any of the players in the top four until the semifinals, which will improve his chances to win the title for a fourth consecutive time.  However, there is a very slight downside for Nadal in terms of ranking. At Wimbledon last year, Federer defeated Djokovic in the semifinals, which allowed him to become the world No. 1 for a third time. If Federer defeated Djokovic in the final, Djokovic would have remained the world No. 1. Even thought the No. 1 ranking isn’t immediately at stake in Paris, Nadal has the same scenario. The sooner he faces Djokovic in the event, the more points he can prevent Djokovic from accumulating. Now Nadal can’t face Djokovic any sooner than the semifinals.

David Ferrer: It is impossible to know what the draw would look like if Murray does compete, but if Murray does skip Roland Garros, that will get rid of one possibility that would make Ferrer a favorite to reach the finals. If Murray does not withdraw, there is a possibility that Nadal, Federer, and Djokovic could all be on the top half of the draw, leaving just Ferrer and Murray on the bottom half. On clay, Ferrer is undefeated against Murray, which would make Ferrer the favorite on the bottom half in that scenario.  Without Murray, that scenario is no longer possibility. There is still plenty of good news for Ferrer. He would be guaranteed that Nadal won’t be in his quarter and he could avoid both Djokovic and Nadal until the final.

Roger Federer: Federer might be the biggest winner if Murray skips out on Roland Garros. Federer would be the No. 2 seed, meaning he doesn’t have to worry about facing Djokovic in the semifinals for a third consecutive year. Also, if Nadal is on the top half of the draw that would obviously improve Federer’s chances to reach another final in Paris.

Novak Djokovic: For the Serb, the news about Murray will not have much of an effect on him. His focus is clearly on achieving the career slam and anything short of that would be a disappointment. At this point it seems unavoidable that Djokovic will have to go through Nadal if he wants to win Roland Garros, so which round he faces Nadal in doesn’t matter. However, Djokovic is undefeated in semifinals and finals so far this year. With no Murray, Djokovic won’t have to face Nadal until one of the final two rounds. Hopefully for the fans, they will be meeting on final Sunday.

Even if Murray isn’t a favorite to win in Paris, whether the world No. 2 decides to play or not will have an effect on the matches throughout the second week of play at the French Open.

Cristiano Ronaldo decided to take a day off and visit the tennis in Madrid. Its great to see other athlete enjoy a day out at the tennis.

Sexy picture of the day.. Who doesnt want to see Maria Sharapova in a Swimsuit?

Golden HEAD Ball 2013 with Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic.

Great Player to Player Interview with Andy Murray all provided by Head Tennis.

Luxilon Big Banger Original String Review. Luxilon Big Banger has long been a string used by many pro players.

The achievements that Rafael Nadal has had in the last four months have been incredible. The Spaniard has reached the final in all seven events he has played and has won five titles after being out for seven months. He has been the best player on tour since he began his comeback. However, the world No. 5 has a long way to go before he is back to the form he was at when he defeated Novak Djokovic in the 2012 Roland Garros final.

Nadal may have a record of 31-2 on the year, but Nadal still hasn’t been able to overcome any major challenges. His biggest challenge this year was facing Djokovic in the Monte Carlo final.  It was his first rematch with his rival since 2012, so it was the first chance to see how far along Nadal was in his path back to his 2012 form. It was a disappointing match for Nadal, losing in straight sets to the world No. 1. Aside from the match against Djokovic, Nadal has had very weak opponents. For the most part, Nadal couldn’t have asked for an easier list of opponents.

In the six other finals Nadal competed in, the average ranking of his opponent was 34. Even some of his semifinal matchups were against shockingly low-ranked opponents. Both Pablo Andujar and Martin Alund were ranked outside of the top 100 when Nadal defeated them.

Also, six of the tournaments that Nadal played on were on clay, which does not test his knee the same way a hard court does. Nadal did play in one hard court tournament in Indian Wells, but he had to skip the hard court tournament in Miami the following week. In order to return to No. 1 in the world, Nadal can afford to skip every other hard court tournament from August to November. When Nadal competes in two hard court tournaments in two weeks without showing signs of problems with his knees will be a huge sign that he has come back.

During the last four months, the Spaniard has been able to dodge the other players in the “Big Four.” His only win against a player in the top three in the world was against a slumping Roger Federer in Indian Wells. Over the past three years, the requirement to win a major is to beat two of the players in the “Big Four.” Defeated two of the top players in one week will be another milestone that Nadal has to achieve en route to a complete comeback.

Nadal is still one of the greatest players in the world and deserves credit for immediately finding success after being out of the sport for seven months. However, it is still too soon to start making Nadal a favorite at one of the slams. ATP Masters Series 1000 Rome will be a good challenge for Nadal as he is expected to face both David Ferrer and Djokovic before the final. If Nadal can reach the final in Rome, then it will be okay to start calling him the favorite for Roland Garros.

Maria Sharapova is still holding her durability in the headlines.  She recently ended her engagement and is now dating Grigor Dimitrov, and her outfits for competition continue to draw attention to her as a fashion icon in addition to (and sometimes, without regard for) her performance on the court.

In time, of course, Maria will lose enough topspin and foot speed to justify a permanent exit from competitive tennis.  Issues with her shoulder may yet put her racket into storage, but as long as her arm is capable of lifting a Tag Heuer watch or a Canon camera to her face, she’ll likely maintain endorsement deals that have her on the list of Forbes’ highest earning tennis players.

Maria earned the #3 spot on that list, behind Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.  Her $27.1 million in earnings for 2012 are impressive indeed, but what’s most impressive is how little of that is actually from tennis.

Maria’s on-court success has never been nearly as important to sponsors as her ability to sell a product.  Her looks and style brought in $22 million in endorsement deals.  And oh yeah, she earned $5.1 million in a little sport called tennis.

And Sharapova’s revenue is well in bounds relative to the other big names on the list.  Right behind her is Novak Djokovic, socking away a cool $19.8 million.  What’s interesting about his place on the list is the distribution of his income.

While Sharapova gets roughly 1/5 of her daily bread from the sport, Djokovic earned twice as much in tennis but less than half as much in endorsement deals.  Maybe a photograph would help explain why, but as long as pretty ladies are good at selling products, they’ll continue to command bigger money from advertisements.

Even the bottom of the list is no financial slouch.  Andy Roddick netted $8.8 million, of which $8 million was endorsement deals.  His value is sliding with his career (cautionary tale, anyone?  Ms. Sharapova, are you getting this?), but it’s still solid enough to log in with Forbes.

Tennis is well-documented as a high viewership sport, and its fans are more likely to be higher-income earners themselves.  Add a strong international fan base, and you’ve got a very lucrative advertising market to the flagship sponsors of the game.

How lucrative? Strong enough that Corona Extra is aboard for a five-and-a-half year deal that was worth a reported $70 million when it was inked in early 2008.  Shipping giant FedEx, office tech firm Ricoh, and champagne magnate Moet are other marquee sponsors of the ATP Tour.

As big as they are, though, those endorsements equate to just three average years for Sharapova.  So there’s no question that the players drive the bus when it comes to endorsements, relative to the tour itself.

Of course, Maria’s earning potential is heavily front-loaded.  She is piling it up right now, but endorsements figure to wane when she retires.

So while you’re planning for your financial future online, you may be asking yourself what is term vs whole life insurance? She’s potentially in position for a big drop in income.  From the beginning, Sharapova hit the headlines for beauty first and her tennis power second, and she’s been pretty savvy in parlaying both into an effective means of income.

Here is the post match interview with Grigor Dimitrov right after probably the biggest win of his career over Novak Djokovic.