For the next two weeks, tennis lovers will have their eyes firmly fixed on Paris and in particular the clay courts of Roland Garros. Many believe that the men's tournament already has Rafael Nadal's name written on the trophy and you would be easily forgiven for sharing that opinion.
The Spaniard has a remarkable record at the French Open, having only lost one match since making his debut in 2005. That came in 2009 against Robin Soderling, but on that day he was suffering badly with his troublesome knees whilst his parents were also going through a divorce. He won four consecutive titles before then and is currently on a run of three successive wins at Roland Garros, having secured a hard-fought win over Novak Djokovic last year.
Nadal quickly earned the title 'King of Clay' after his exploits as a 18 year old in 2005 and there is very little doubt that he is the greatest clay court player of all time. He has won 41 of his 56 career singles titles on his favoured surface and these include a record eight consecutive wins at the Monte Carlo Masters and seven victories in the Rome Masters both of which are always played in the run-up to the French Open.
Worryingly for his opponents wanting to challenge him, Nadal has been in blistering form since returning from a knee injury in February which kept him out of the second half of last years tennis season as well as this years Australian Open. He has already won six titles since February and last week he destroyed Roger Federer 6-1, 6-3 in the final of the Rome Masters.
However, Nadal can be beaten but it will take some effort. World Number One Djokovic achieved that when he beat Nadal in Monte Carlo in April this year to stop Nadal's run of never losing there since 2005. Djokovic is certainly the most likely man to beat the Spaniard at Roland Garros, but with the way the draw has worked out, it looks as though he will have to do it at the semi-final stage. The Serb did give Nadal a real scare in last years final and he has also beat him on clay in the past at the Madrid and the Rome Masters. He also has the added incentive of knowing that if he wins he will complete the set of winning all the Grand Slams at least once.
And what of Nadal's fellow Spaniard David Ferrer? With Andy Murray ruled out through a back injury, he is the number four seed and is on line to meet Roger Federer in the semi-finals. He will never get a better chance to finally reach a first grand-slam final at the age of 31. Federer may have won the French Open before and reached four other finals (losing to Nadal on all of those occasions), but Ferrer shares many of his fellow Spaniard's qualities on the clay-courts and nowadays I would predict Ferrer to have the edge over Federer. He has won ten career titles on the surface over the years and it can be argued that he is currently the best player without a slam to his name. However, his record at the French Open is rather patchy despite reaching the semi-finals last year. On his day, he is a match for everyone in the draw and he will relish the route to the semi-finals he has over the first ten days.
The real outside bet for this tournament is Stanislas Wawrinka. He has lived in the shadow of his countryman Federer for most of his career, but his clay-court form this season has been superb. He beat Ferrer in Portugal to win his first title in two years whilst he also beat Jo Wilfried Tsonga and Tomas Berdych in Madrid before succumbing to Nadal in the final. Wawrinka possesses an incredible one-handed backhand and is a real danger to all of the top players if his mind is fully focused.
Come the 9th of June, Rafael Nadal should be lifting an eighth French Open title and with the form he is in, it is very hard to see who can stop him over the next fortnight. Tennis is a curious game though and major upsets have happened before. You only need to mention Lukas Rosol to Nadal to confirm that.
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