Red clay isn't easy to master. Yet if one of the top three men's seeds wins the 2012 French Open, history will be made. The question is, who will it be?

On the women's side, things aren't clear at all. The top seed is struggling with injuries. No. 2 Maria Sharapova has never reached the final at Roland Garros, and No. 3 Serena Williams last won there in 2002.

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The Spurs and Thunder have been waiting all week to square off in possibly the most anticipated series of the NBA playoffs so far. The week-long break between rounds gave us a chance to check out the two teams from every angle. We even went to Hollywood for some hoops thoughts. For all of our other chats, check out our chat archive page.

If you missed some of these links earlier in the week, they might prove to be a good way to ease the clock toward quitting time.

The week's best polls ...
1. Will Jeremy Lin stay with the Knicks?
2. Are the Lakers done as contenders?
3. Can the 76ers complete their comeback?
4. Who will prevail at UFC 146?
5. Has Albert Pujols' slump finally ended?
6. Will Tim Tebow make it off the punt team?

The week's best rankers ...
1. Which is baseball's best team?
2. Which are the best 2012 college football matchups?
3. What are the top WCWS moments?

The state of New Jersey plans on defying a federal law prohibiting betting on sports. Currently, sports betting is limited to four states: Nevada, Delaware, Oregon and Montana. New Jersey missed out on becoming one by the thinnest of margins. Putting aside the rightness of New Jersey's claim, we'd like to get a handle on how often you're inclined to place a bet on sports.

 

The Clippers are saying there's no guarantee that Vinny Del Negro will return as their coach. Should they bring him back?

• jetman5312: "There are not many long term options available for coaching. I don't like SVG or d'antoni. SVG is a drama queen, and d'antoni doesn't know what defense is. I say hire sloan, and see what opens up for coaching options a few years from now."
• Croatia27: "Vinny Del Negro has been exposed by the Spurs. He had no answer for the Spurs. Average coach at best and average coaches don't win NBA titles."
• mgupo: "Fire him if clipp want any chance of keeping cp3 or criffin. Del Negro is average coach at best, the bull was a very average team under his watch but after he leave, the team become much better."
• Martin10231971 "I don't get it. Del Negro has been relatively successful with the Clippers, an he didn't fair that badly with the Bulls. The Clips won a series that there were not suppose to win against Memphis, and Del Negro coached an excellent game 7. He gets a bad rap for no good reason. If the Clips regress rather than progress, then fire him next year, but they progressed this year."
• plazapt: "I like VDN, but I think he made need to go back into the front office. He just has too much emotion for the bench."
• shared_gum: "If they keep Vinny, that will basically mean that a great player in his prime will not have a shot at winning the title. "



Join the conversation or respond by signing in or creating a profile and blogging.

Teams do some goofy things in OTAs, but it's rare that they'll stick an ostensible competitor for the starting QB job on the punt team. That's what the Jets did with Tim Tebow on Thursday, leading the bemused quarterback to comment that he'd never made a tackle on special teams. Tebow threw two interceptions in a seven-on-seven practice, a far cry from Mark Sanchez's crisp and efficient play in the same drill. Whichever quarterback the Jets settle on, it'll be a tough task to take them to the top of the AFC East.

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Albert Pujols hit his 450th career home run in a win over the Mariners on Thursday. Is he finally coming around?

• dollarbill8: "You knew Albert was going to get going. He'll still hit .300 with 30HRs and we'll call it an off year, that he is losing a step, hahahaha"
• shufelt: "Look out - his slugging percentage is almost .360! I like Pujols, but his season so far is incredibly bad......I didn't see this coming."
• skylers79: "Great accomplishment for him and their pitcher but as of right now he is considered a waste of money with his numbers. Sort of like Jose Reyes....waste of money with his numbers too. He needs to drastically up his game and fast"
• Shademan2: "So will the Angels end up paying Albert more or less than $1,000,000 per home run?"
• Teresa2992: "here is no way he is going to be able to perform up to the amount of that contract in my opinion. He is still a good players and has a few years left, but I think the Angels overpaid."
• pholtos: "I see Pujols is finally starting to see AL pitching all right now."



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Welcome to SportsNation! On Friday, actor Vince Vaughn stops by to chat about his new movie "The Watch" that hits theaters July 27.

Vaughn plays Bob, who, along with co-stars Ben Stiller (Evan), Jonah Hill (Franklin) and Richard Ayoade (Jamarcus), form a neighborhood watch group. Their plan is to use the group to get away from their families, however, they accidentally uncover an alien plot that threatens the world, and they are forced into action.

Send your questions now and join Vaughn Friday at 10 a.m. ET!

More Special Guests: Previous chats | SportsNation

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Heavyweights are the main attraction for UFC 146 in Las Vegas on Saturday night, where new UFC heavyweight champ Junior dos Santos will put his belt on the line for the first time against Frank Mir. The man dos Santos beat for the title, Cain Velasquez, is also on the card and faces a tough assignment in Antonio "Bigfoot" Silva.

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