This season's European football transfer market will be busier than ever before. With no major footballing event scheduled for this summer except for the FIFA Confederations Cup, which would be a dry run for the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, club owners will be checking their deep pockets to sign world class players for their teams for the next season.

The summer transfer market provides managers the chance to build their teams to compete in the next season. It is a test of a manager's persuasion skills and his ability to attract potential signings. It's an off the field battle between club managements, especially if a world class player becomes available.

This year's transfer market will be interesting for various reasons. But, there are three very obvious reasons why some of the best players in the world could be playing their football in a club other than the one they played for in the 2008-09 season.

First of all, the extraordinary rich owners of Manchester City, the Abu Dhabi Group will have the first opportunity to make their money do the talking in the transfer market. The Abu Dhabi Group acquired Manchester City on the transfer day deadline last year and the scarcity of time allowed them to purchase only one Robinho of Brazil from Real Madrid -- for a British record transfer fee of 32.5 million pounds of course. This year, however, time won't be problem and money... it never was!

Secondly, after a poor 2008-09 season, Real Madrid would look to bounce back stronger than ever. Florentino Perez, the man who signed players like Zidane, Figo, Ronaldo, Roberto Carlos and Beckham during his time as president of Real has returned to the Bernabeu. And, he is in no mood to allow arch-rivals Barcelona to repeat their treble winning feat again next season.

And, finally Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich, who has managed to bring Carlo Ancelotti to Stamford Bridge as the new manager of the Blues, would allow the Italian to revamp the London club. Chelsea have seen Manchester United claiming three successive Premier League titles and even in the Champions League they had to suffer heartbreaking defeat at the hands of eventual winners Barcelona.

Abramovich wants European glory and this is one reason why he has signed Carlo Ancelotti. Ancelotti guided AC Milan to Champions League glory twice in his time at San Siro and the Russian billionaire would want his new manager to repeat that feat with Chelsea.

Surprisingly, there are more top players available for clubs this summer than in previous transfer windows. Brazil's Kaka looks almost certain to be playing for Real next season; Real reportedly made a 56 million pound bid for the former World Player of the Year. And, Perez won't definitely stop here; his next target is inevitably Cristiano Ronaldo of Manchester United.

Real chased Ronaldo all summer last year, but, Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson some how convinced his main man to stay at Old Trafford. Ronaldo is of course the current World Player of the Year, and he has in the past expressed his desire to play for Real sometime in the future.

Another player of the same pedigree is the French wizard Franck Ribery of Bayern Munich. Media reports suggest both Chelsea and Real are interested in signing the flamboyant Frenchman. But, Bayern have quashed all such speculations by saying they won't let Ribery go, not for anything less than 100 million euros at least!

Ribery's name was also linked with Manchester United, in case Ronaldo fulfils his childhood dream of playing for Real.

Meanwhile, Barcelona would probably be off loading Samuel Eto'o this time around. The Cameroonian is one of the fiercest strikers in the world, but, is apparently unsettled at the Catalan club. With Kaka leaving Milan, Eto'o could be the one filling his boots at the San Siro.

Barcelona themselves are chasing Diego Forlan of Atletico Madrid. Forlan, a former Manchester United striker, was the top scorer in La Liga this season with 32 goals. Another player who football pundits see as a possible replacement of Eto'o at Barca is Zlatan Ibrahimovic of Inter Milan.

But, if Ibrahimovic leaves Inter, Real would fight to the last penny for his signature, no matter who they are up against. Also, it would be hard for Valencia to keep David Villa in their ranks this year. The Spaniard's attacking prowess would interest Manchester City, Real Madrid and Barcelona.

In Germany Bayern Munich have managed to bolster their attack by recruiting Mario Gomez, but, it remains to be seen whether they will be able to keep Ribery at the Allainz Arena.

Back in England, Manchester United will again be involved in a war to keep Real hands off Ronaldo. Meanwhile, Carlos Tevez's fairy tale also seems to end here with the English Champions. Tevez's two-year loan deal ends this summer and Manchester United are in no mood to meet the high asking price set for Tevez by MSI -- the company that holds the economic rights to the Argentine. Karim Benzema could join United as Tevez's replacement.

Arsenal could also lose Emmanuel Adebayor with AC Milan as his preferred destination. Wigan's Antonio Valencia is also among United's targets for this summer and Nani is expected to be shown the door. Chelsea's Didier Drogba could join his former manager Jose Mourinho at Inter Milan, if Ibrahimovic moves to Madrid.

With so many high profile signings expected, this year's transfer market could see the football world turned upside down. However, all eyes are on Manchester City and the world expects them to break transfer records; and it won't surprise me if the Blue side of Manchester becomes home to one the finest players in the world before the next season kicks-off in August.

It's that time of the year again for Federer when he feels the butterflies in his stomach as he vies for his maiden French Open title. There is still a match left between him and glory as he takes on the winner of the other semifinal between Robin Soderling and Fernando Gonzalez -- if he wins his semifinal match of course.

At least this time around he can have a sigh of relief as his conqueror in the French Open for past three years is out of the picture. The other threat for Federer after Rafa -- Andy Murray, who won last four matches that he played against the Swiss -- is also out of the tournament thanks to an overwhelming performance by 'forehand' Gonzalez.

Roger Federer played his 20th successive Grand Slam semifinal against Argentina's Juan Martin Del Potro on Friday.

A win in the final of Roland Garros, would give the world number two a first Roland Garros trophy to add to his five Wimbledon, five US Open and three Australian Open triumphs.

With the win in Paris the Swiss super star will level the record of 14 Grand Slam titles with his great American friend Pete Sampras.

The 27-year-old Federer has been here before of course having been defeated in the last three finals by Rafael Nadal. But now as the Spanish claycourt demon was a shock last 16 casualty, while fellow rivals Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic have also departed Paris.

Leaving Federer the only among the top four seeds in the tournament. Everybody at the Roland Garros, including the drivers and motorcyclists who pull up at red lights to grab a photo or an autograph of the Swiss great as he travels through Paris or goes out for dinner, are confident that 2009 will be the year of Federer.

It was only last month, when the speculation of most of the tennis gurus was that Federer would have to struggle very hard to get this far in Paris.

Many saw his tearful defeat to Nadal at the Australian Open, and then his early struggles in the claycourt season, as damning evidence that the game was up for the 27-year-old, but being the great that he is, he has silenced all the opposition forwarded at him by his critics.

He never lost faith in his ability to mount another charge at a title in Paris -- as this is the only Grand Slam that has eluded him -- a mission that proved beyond even Sampras.

The Swiss star's win over his rival Rafael Nadal in the Madrid final on the eve of Roland Garros gave him renewed hope and confidence that completing his career Grand Slam and equaling the record of Sampras at Roland Garros is not an impossible feet.

If you compare Federer with all the men that are left in the field the stats favour Federer and he holds an impressive record against all of them.

Fernando Gonzalez of Chile, who tackled Robin 'giant killer' Soderling in Friday's other semifinal, has one win in 13 matches against the Swiss master while Soderling is 0-9 and Del Potro, 0-5.

20-year-old Del Potro, admits that Swiss super star is his favourite for Sunday's final.

"Everybody wants Roger to win this tournament. I want to see Roger with the trophy," said the fifth seed.

This could be the best chance that Federer can have if he wants to win his first French Open, to tie Pete Sampras' record of 14 Slam titles, to end the debate over who, at last, should be considered the greatest of all time.

Anyone who has seen Nadal dominate Federer the last few years, learning how to beat him on grass and hardcourt as well as clay, will be tempted to place an asterisk on a Federer victory here because he didn't go through his Spanish tormentor in the process.

Federer himself paid lip-service to this conceit on Monday -- "of course, my dream scenario is to beat Rafa here in the finals."

But when asked, in French, about that dream final against Rafa, Federer said, "Never mind who you beat -- as long as you win."

A decade ago, Andre Agassi won in Paris to complete the career Grand Slam and transform his reputation forever. If Federer can capture the French title?

His resume would then be better than Sampras', better than Rod Laver's, better than Bjorn Borg's.

History won't care who he beat, or how he plays -- as long as he wins.

But all this along with all the dreams of Federer and his millions of fans around the world will come to a screeching halt if the Swiss failed to make it to the final -- which looking at the stats seems highly impossible.

More than stats what count is the motivation and eagerness to win which Federer has more than Del Porto, as this may or can be his last and most promising time to win on the biggest 'dirt' event.

Russia's Dinara Safina will seek to confirm her status as women's world number one by winning her first Grand Slam after two unsuccessful attempts. A beaten finalist in Paris against Ana Ivanovic last year, Safina was out-classed by Williams in this year's Australian Open final.

The womenís final was penciled in between Dinara Safina of Russia and compatriot Svetlana Kuznetsova. Safina lead the head to head with 7-4 with Safina winning the last time they faced each other in the final of Rome.

This time around Safina was desperate to prove her No 1 ranking by winning her first Grand Slam.

Even her rivals like Serena Williams termed her as the favourite to win the title. "I already think she's definitely authenticated as the world number one," Williams said. "I definitely see her as a favourite."

For the top seed Russian a win at Roland Garros was important to come out of the shadow of her brother, former World No 1, Marat Safin -- who has announced his retirement after the 2009 season.

But whatsoever happens we'll all (fans of Federer) be back behind him cheering for him when he'll start his campaign on grass at the Wimbledon starting June 22.

In London Federer will be eyeing a sixth title.

Australian Ducati rider Casey Stoner clinched his first ever MotoGP race in Mugello last Sunday (May 31), defeating Italian Valentino Rossi on his home soil.

Undefeated in Mugello since the 2002 season, Rossi could only finish third on the rain-hit and soggy tracks, with a famous victory for Ducati recorded by Stoner.

Earlier on the rainy tracks, Stoner made a brilliant start on his factory GP9 machine. But with a dry line quickly appearing, the 23-year-old quickly ran into major grip issues with his wet Bridgestone tyres deteriorating rapidly on the drying surface.

The 2007 world champion plummeted to sixth place on lap and his victory hopes looked dead and buried as he failed to match the pace of title rivals Jorge Lorenzo and Valentino Rossi.

"Honestly, this is as good as a win for me and I can't really believe the race today, it was like a movie" joked Lorenzo. "In warm-up I was quite worried because I was slow in the rain, then on the sighting lap I slid off into the gravel pit.

"All I could think about was making it back to the pits as quickly as possible in case there was still a chance to make the grid and luckily I made it just in time. My team had the second bike ready and I was able to still start from the pole position," he said.

Stoner though followed Rossi and Lorenzo into the pits on lap 10 to switch to his GP9 fitted with slick tyres and his fortunes were immediately transformed.

Running the softer compound Bridgestone front and rear slicks, Stoner immediately found a quick pace and overturned a five second deficit on Rossi on lap nine to be over two seconds in front of the Italian hero just three laps later.

He passed Andrea Dovizioso for the lead on lap 14 and while he came under threat from a hard charging Loris Capirossi on the factory Suzuki GSV-R, though his biggest worry was a clutch problem.

"When the track was really wet the bike was working great but as soon as it started drying out I struggled so much. The tyres turned to shreds and I couldnít get any traction whatsoever. I was just trying to stay with the leaders as close as I could," the Aussie said.

"I thought when we do go to slicks I want to be as close as possible so I pushed a bit harder than what I would normally have felt comfortable at. It worked because I was close enough when it went to slick tyres. I made a good pit stop and exited really well. I got a really good feeling with the slicks immediately and I was able to start chasing down Dovi. He was holding a pretty good pace and I could catch him a little bit and once we got by I felt comfortable with a good pace," he said.

"Then I started to have a big problem with the clutch. It started to spin and burnout and the rpm was going everywhere but I wasn't actually driving forward. I was really afraid coming onto the straight when Loris came by and I thought that my race was over. It was spinning so much that I was going nowhere. I adjusted the clutch one way and it didn't work and then adjusted back the other way as far as I could and it started to hook up a bit more."

Stoner's 18th MotoGP victory moved him back to the top of the world championship points, but he was playing down the significance of another 25-point haul.

Rossi was gracious in defeat, but the fact that he was beaten in front of his home fans for the first time in eight years was a bitter pill to swallow.

Not least because he was leading the race on laps eight and nine, much to the delight of a wet but partisan crowd of just over 81,000 fans.

Rossi's hopes of an eighth successive win in Mugello were dashed by his pit stop. Although he came out of the pits in front of Stoner, he slipped down to sixth place, struggling to get confident with his choice of a hard front Bridgestone tyre.

He eventually clawed his way back into third place, passing the fading Capirossi on the penultimate lap.

Meanwhile, Spain's Repsol Honda rider and Andrea Dovizioso's teammate -- who finished in fourth place with only two seconds adrift of Stoner -- Dani Pedrosa, dogged by injuries from practice session a day earlier, suffered another fall and was taken away to the hospital.

However bad and good luck continued chasing Pedrosa because earlier he had set a new landmark top speed for 800cc bikes, breaking for the first time the record set by the previous-generation 990s and clocking a top-speed higher than the "Formula One" cars manage on their fastest straight 215mph at Monza, Italy.

The speed was set by Pedrosa on the Repsol Honda on Friday afternoon -- two days earlier -- a towering 349.3km/h (217.1 mph), which was 1.1mph faster than the previous record, set by Loris Capirossi on a 990 Ducati at pre-season tests in 2003.

In each case the riders had a strong following winds, Pedrosa also had the benefit of slipstreaming Rossi.

"Top speed is not the most important thing. The lap time is more critical," he said.

Pesrosa's top speed has been officially confirmed, making it a new MotoGP record, the official MotoGP website stated.