Rain dripped off the leaves of the chestnut trees along the Bois de Boulogne earlier this week as many of the leading players, scurrying on and off court between the showers, fine-tuned their games in preparation for the start of six hectic weeks that will encompass the French Open and Wimbledon, which begins in four weeks.
It is 23 years since Sweden’s Bjorn Borg completed the last men’s clay and grass double, an achievement that, in these days of the fiercest competition the sport has ever known, has taken on almost mythical proportions.
Tennis, at least on the men’s side, may lack the big names but nobody can take anybody for granted, and it seems inconceivable that any one player would have the strength or will power to win both majors back to back.
Australia’s Lleyton Hewitt, the world number one, is a possible exception, although Albert Costa, the defending champion here, is unconvinced, as are many of his fellow Spaniards.
”He does not win enough points on his serve on clay and most of us can pin him back behind the baseline where he cannot hit winners,” said Costa, who in last year’s French Open final defeated his fellow Spaniard Juan Carlos Ferrero.
The simple answer as to which man will win the title this year is either a Spaniard or an Argentinian, unless Brazil’s Gustavo Kuerten, the champion in 1997, 2000 and 2001, suddenly rediscovers the samba running through his veins and sets the drums beating.
But Roland Garros’s beloved Guga, who drew a heart in the clay on the Philippe Chatrier court after he had defeated Alex Corretja in the final two years ago, is currently a pale shadow of his old self.
The Brazilian has struggled since a hip operation last year and, although he started the European clay-court season with high optimism, his confidence has gradually dropped lower and lower. Maybe being back in Paris will rekindle the fires.
There have been two all-Spanish finals in the last five, with four champions from Spain in the past decade — Costa, Carlos Moya (1998) and Sergi Bruguera (1993-4).
Moya, currently ranked number four in the world, has been pacing himself carefully over the past few weeks and looks extremely dangerous, even though the main Spanish challenge is expected to come from Ferrero who, besides losing last year’s final, was a semifinalist the two previous years, giving him a 16-3 record at Roland Garros.
The one doubt hovering over the 22-year-old Ferrero is his big match temperament. He should have beaten Costa in last year’s final but choked.
”I think that this time I have greater experience and I’m much stronger,” said Ferrero, but his critics accuse him of playing too much tennis this year after he had won the Monte Carlo Open in April, a schedule that caught up with him at the Italian Open earlier this month when he was forced to retire with an arm injury.
He has not played since and a couple of weeks’ rest may work wonders but this is not a French Open where the winner sticks out.
Obviously Andre Agassi cannot be ignored. The American had a wonderful start to the year, winning the Australian Open for a fourth time, although he has not gone beyond the quarterfinals here since his remarkable triumph in 1999, a victory that launched his second coming. But Agassi was 33 last month and he is not Cleopatra.
The rise of the Argentinians has been remarkable, with both Guillermo Coria and David Nalbandian, last year’s unexpected Wimbledon finalist, currently in the top 10.
The 21-year-old Coria won the clay-court title in Hamburg recently and also reached the final in Monte Carlo. Guillermo Vilas was the last Argentinian French Open champion in 1977 and Moya is not convinced any of the current crop can replicate that win, at least not yet.
”Coria has done exceptionally well this year, although I don’t think he can last the full fortnight,” said Moya.
”The same is true of Nalbandian. I think their most talented player is Gaston Gaudio but he probably is not strong enough mentally. We shall see.”
And so we shall. One thing is certain: neither Tim Henman nor Greg Rusedski will trouble the umpires in the second week unless a blue moon rises over the Eiffel Tower. Nevertheless it is good to see them back in a grand slam event, injuries having ruled them out of the Australian Open.
Henman, who practised with Belgium’s Xavier Malisse, was in a jovial mood recently, with his sights now firmly set on Wimbledon, while Rusedski, out since last September, played a first-to-nine-games set against Vince Spadea, lost 9-3 but was equally cheerful. —