May 27, 2007	Sunday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 10, 1428

PARIS, May 26: An isolated defeat on clay, albeit at the hands of the world's best player, will do nothing to quell Rafael Nadal's desire to preserve his 100 percent record at the French Open.

The Spaniard will stride through the gates at Roland Garros next week safe in the knowledge that he has never been beaten at the traditional home of claycourt tennis.

When action begins on Sunday, Nadal will be aiming to become the first man to win a hat-trick of French Open trophies in his first three visits to Paris.

Until last Sunday, it seemed as if no one would be able to stop the Nadal juggernaut from running away with the title in the French capital.

But Roger Federer is no ordinary player and the Swiss maestro reignited the most intriguing rivalry in the sport when he snapped Nadal's 81-match winning streak on clay in the Hamburg Masters final.

Despite being forced to digest his first defeat on the slow surface since April 2005, Nadal remained upbeat.

“My confidence is at 100 percent going into the French Open,” he said.

“I've played a lot of finals over the past months and I'm back playing better tennis than ever. I can't be sad about losing one match against the best player in the world.”

The levelling effect of tennis's most taxing surface means Roland Garros provides the perfect platform for the Spaniard and the Swiss to continue their duel for supremacy.

Federer has won every grand slam title except the French Open, defending champion Nadal has won nothing else.

Between the two they have stacked up the last eight majors.

Federer is undoubtedly the most complete all-round player around but on clay, where endurance rather than finesse is a key requirement, he is still cast in the role of pretender.

Not often does a world No 1 beating a world No 2 hold such shock value. But as Nadal held a 5-0 advantage over Federer on red dirt until last weekend, the Hamburg victory proved to be a monumental feat for the Swiss.

“It's absolutely a breakthrough,” Federer, the Wimbledon, US and Australian Open champion, told reporters.

“It will be interesting to see how we both react to it in the French Open. I'm feeling very good going into the French Open and I'm excited it's coming around now.”

Having ended his jinx against Nadal, Federer is now seeking to emulate American Don Budge and his hero Rod Laver by becoming only the third man to hold all four Grand Slam trophies at the same time.

With Nadal and Federer targeting a final showdown on June 10, the remaining 126 competitors will probably end up chasing semi-final spots.

American Andy Roddick may be in pole position to secure one of those berths with his world number three status but with just four wins in six appearances, he would do well to survive the first week.

That would leave world No 4 Nikolay Davydenko – the tour's Mr Consistent – fifth ranked Fernando Gonzalez and fast-rising Serbian Novak Djokovic to push the world's top two.

Gonzalez is enjoying his most rewarding season on the circuit with final appearances in Melbourne Park and Rome while 20-year-old Djokovic is ready to take centre stage in the sport's biggest arenas after capturing three titles in 2007.

On the women’s side, Justine Henin chases a third consecutive French Open crown but faces a challenge from familiar rivals and a handful of hungry young ones.

The resilient 24-year-old, back at the top of the game after overcoming the breakdown of her four-year marriage, goes for a feat only Monica Seles, with back-to-back wins from 1990 to 1992, has achieved since the start of the professional era.

Henin, who had a fantastic run in 2006, has had to fight personal turmoil with a split from husband Pierre-Yves Hardenne and a subsequent withdrawal from the Australian Open in January.

Having a shorter name did not, however, diminish her skills and the combative Belgian soon showed how mentally strong she was, recapturing the number one spot with back-to-back titles in Doha and Dubai.

Her claycourt season, with just one title so far in Warsaw, has been below par to her own standards but that does not mean she should be ruled out in Paris.

Standing in Henin's way will be a woman who has just produced her own comeback script when many felt her power-based game no longer held the same menace.

Serena Williams warned the world she was still a threat by crushing Maria Sharapova in this year's Australian Open final and certainly has what it takes to ruin Henin's plans.

A groin strain has since kept the former world No 1 out for weeks but her recent quarter-final appearance in Rome suggested the American could be at her devastating best in the French capital.

Russia's Sharapova, who enjoyed the view from the top while Henin was struggling, feels more at ease on faster surfaces and has never gone beyond the quarter-finals in Paris and her recent form has not suggested she might do any better this year.

Amelie Mauresmo also has a Paris problem, made even worse by the fact that the home crowd are always desperate to see her shine there.

Like Sharapova, the former world No 1 has never gone beyond the last eight there.

Added to that, she has only recently returned from two months out with appendicitis and is short of match practice.

The good side of it all, she said, was that she would not be expected to do well, which could take some of the pressure off.

“All eyes will not be on me this time and that could be a positive thing,” she said.

For Henin, the danger will not come chiefly from Williams, Sharapova or Mauresmo but from Russia's Svetlana Kuznetsova, her final opponent here last year.

Russia has more than just Kuznetsova to throw at Henin with newcomer Anna Chakvetadze and Nadia Petrova among those with the right to be ambitious.

Henin knows, however, that the geography of a slightly weakened women's game is rapidly changing and Serbia now looks just as threatening as Russia.

Teenager Ana Ivanovic sounded a clear warning by beating Kuznetsova in the Berlin final earlier this month and another competitor from Serbia, Jelena Jankovic, could also do damage.

Jankovic, 22, has won three titles this year, two of them on clay, in Charleston and notably Rome, where she beat Kuznetsova in the final to reach a career-high number four in the world and highlight her status as a top French Open contender.—Reuters