Federer faces new French clay court trial

PARIS: Roger Federer next week launches his ninth attempt to crack the French Open riddle which has continued to confound his dream of being crowned the greatest player of all time.

The 26-year-old Swiss has made a habit of monopolising the other three Grand Slam tournaments on the calendar, routinely waltzing to four Wimbledons, three US Opens and three Australian Open titles.

But come Paris in the spring and Federer has suffered the same demoralising fate as similar gifted predecessors -McEnroe, Becker, Sampras - who all came up short on the unforgiving red clay of the French capital.

Adding to the mystery is that Federer is no clay court rookie.

Amongst his 48 career titles are four Hamburg Masters wins, all achieved on the slowest surface in the sport and all clinched in the run-up to Roland Garros.

It's his misfortune, however, that his hopes of winning the French Open, and so becoming only the sixth man in history to lift all four Grand Slam trophies, has coincided with the clay court mastery of world number two Rafael Nadal.

The muscular Spaniard, who has won the last two tournaments here, beating Federer in the semi-final in 2005 and the final in 2006, has yet to lose at Roland Garros.

But Federer senses that 2007 is his big chance.

Having split with coach Tony Roche, the world number one defeated Nadal for the first time on clay in last week's Hamburg final, ending the Spaniard's 81-match winning streak on his favourite surface.

It was Federer's first win in six career clay court meetings with his nemesis and also avenged his brutally one-sided 6-4, 6-4 defeat in the Monte Carlo final in April.

Federer has now won three of the pair's past four meetings, although he still trails 7-4 overall.

"He had 81 wins in a row on clay, that's phenomenal," said Federer whose win in Hamburg was a timely boost after an uncharacteristic first round loss in Rome the week before which prompted the split with Roche.

"If you know how physical it is you could think that once you got the upper hand over the guys on clay you never lose again and that's how it looked like. But eventually it's going to get you.

"The win in Hamburg is great. I got him. Now it will be interesting going into the French Open to see both reactions."

Federer knows deep down that a win here on June 10 would secure his position as the best player of all time.

It would also make him just the third man, after Don Budge (1938) and Rod Laver (1962 and 1969) to hold all four Grand Slams at the same time, although the American and Australian achieved theirs in the same year.

Andre Agassi, the last man to complete a career Grand Slam when he triumphed here in 1999, believes Laver has the edge because of his French Open wins.

"Laver has a big claim with a Grand Slam in the same year and he did it twice," said the now-retired Agassi.

"Federer has the French Open to win and he will be on the verge if he wins in Paris this year."

However, Laver is convinced that Federer's place in history is already assured. "People often ask me if Roger is the greatest player of all time," Laver wrote in Time magazine recently.

"Let's wait until the end of his career before making the 'best ever' judgment.

"One thing is for sure: He's the best player of his time and one of the most admirable champions on the planet," Laver wrote.

Despite the plaudits and the readiness of history books to be rewritten, it's Nadal who remains the favourite to win a third straight French Open title, a record achieved only by Bjorn Borg (1978-1981) in the open era.

The 20-year-old left-hander may have had his 81-match streak broken by Federer but he has looked in impressive form on European clay this year winning titles in Monte Carlo, Barcelona and Rome before coming unstuck in Germany.

"I have played a lot of finals in the last two months. I'm playing my best tennis, better than ever,"explained the Spaniard. "I'll be 100 percent for the French Open."

Such is the dominance of Federer and Nadal, who have shared the last eight Grand Slam events between them, that it's almost impossible to see another challenge.

Andy Roddick, whose career has been condemned to the shadows in recent years, is still the world number three but has never made it beyond the third round here.

World number four Nikolay Davydenko is solid, not spectacular, and was a semi-finalist two years ago while number five Fernando Gonzalez has a best performance of a quarter-final in 2003.

Serbia's Novak Djokovic, who has just turned 20 and is now the world number six, is a potential dark horse with the game to suit all surfaces.

He won the Estoril clay title this year and was a quarter-finalist in Rome and Hamburg.