PARIS: “Jeu, set et match Rafa Nadal.” The words are likely to be heard seven times at the French Open as the Spanish juggernaut guns for a record-extending 11th title at Roland Garros.

Nadal, who has a 79-2 win-loss record on the Parisian clay, enters his title defence after a stellar season on his favourite surface.

He won at Monte Carlo and Barcelona, claimed a record 50 consecutive sets, then bounced back from defeat in Madrid to take the title in Rome.

His last defeat at Roland Garros came in 2015 when he lost to Novak Djokovic in the quarter-finals.

While upset by Dominic Thiem in Madrid earlier this month, he will be harder to beat in the best-of-five sets.

“Nadal is always the favourite, then I come behind with four or five other players,” said Thiem, who ended Nadal’s 50-set winning streak.

The 24-year-old Austrian is the only player to beat Nadal on clay in the last two years but he was thrashed in straight sets by the Spaniard in last year’s French Open semi-finals.

Still, Henri Leconte, the 1988 runner-up, feels Nadal could be vulnerable.

“For the moment Dominic Thiem beat him in Madrid but still Rafa is the number one,” he said. “But there’s still an opportunity for someone to beat him at the French. It’s difficult because it’s five sets. I don’t know why but there could be an opportunity. He is the best player of all time on clay.”

If Thiem cannot deliver, the 21-year-old Alexander Zverev might be the man in the absence of Roger Federer, who is skipping the claycourt season.

“Zverev is way more mature now in the last two or three months, even since Australia,” three-time French Open champion Mats Wilander said. “He is more certain of how he needs to play.”

Zverev lost to Nadal in the Rome final but showed the full potential of his game when he took the second set 6-1 before fading away.

“Nadal doesn’t really have a weakness,” added Wilander. “The only thing is that the next generation, the 19-23 year-olds, they don’t have the fear factor against him like the likes of Nishikori, Dimitrov, Raonic have.

“They have less baggage. Zverev, his game-plan against Nadal is pretty clear.

“He has the kind of game-plan that Soderling and Djokovic had when they beat Rafa at the French, which is, don’t stay away from his forehand but hit hard on his forehand to open up the backhand side.”

Although ranked outside the top 20, the 2016 champion Djokovic will also be closely watched, having shown signs that he is emerging from the toughest spell of his career.

The 12-tims Grand Slam champion was beaten 7-6(4) 6-3 by Nadal at the Rome semi-finals but produced a level of tennis that should leave potential opponents in the draw nervous.

Meanwhile, even Agatha Christie would have struggled to hatch a plot as thick as this year’s women’s singles with world number one Simona Halep attempting to finally win a Grand Slam with danger lurking everywhere.

The Romanian twice Roland Garros runner-up may be the number one seed but predicting who will be last woman standing in a wide-open draw is akin to Russian Roulette.

Right from the off the drama will unfold with a first-round clash between 2016 champion and third seed Garbine Muguruza and 2009 winner Svetlana Kuznetsova — a match that will set the tone for what promises to be a compelling women’s tournament.

Experienced duo Petra Kvitova, twice a Wimbledon champion, and second seed Caroline Wozniacki, who claimed her maiden grand slam in Australia at the start of the year, will both see this as an opportunity to make a mark on clay.

Then there is in-form Rome champion Elina Svitolina, big-hitting Karolina Pliskova and fearless young Russian Daria Kasatkina, not forgetting reigning champion Jelena Ostapenko who blazed to a shock title a year ago and is in menacing form.

But that is just part of the story.

What of Russian former champion Maria Sharapova, playing at her first French Open since returning from a doping ban.

And, of course, there is 23-times grand slam champion Serena Williams lurking unseeded in the draw with a ranking of 453 and playing her first slam tournament since returning from giving birth to her daughter last September.

She has not played a competitive match since March so victory for the 36-year-old American would surely crown anything she has achieved so far in her incredible career.

“You wouldn’t think (she can win title) with no claycourt matches, you wouldn’t think so on paper, what with giving birth and not playing many matches,” seven-time Roland Garros champion Chris Evert told Reuters in an interview.

“But she has those intangibles that a champion has. Once a champion always a champion. She has the mentality and the head. It’s just a matter of can she get the body back. It would be miraculous but if anybody can pull it off it’s her.”

Sharapova has endured a rocky road since coming back a year ago. The French Open declined to give her a wildcard, she missed Wimbledon with injury and made the last 16 at the US Open and this year’s Australian Open.

She failed to win a match between January and May but after a run to the Rome semi-finals the 31-year-old arrives in Paris looking a little more like her old self.

“She has a shot for sure,” said Evert. “She knows she can win it and knows she is mentally tougher than most.”

A Halep triumph would be the popular choice for many.

She looked poised to get her hands on the Suzanne Lenglen Cup a year ago when she led Latvian firebrand Ostapenko by a set and 3-0 but her dream faded under a barrage of winners.

This year the 26-year-old slogged her way to the Australian Open final but ran out of gas on a steamy Melbourne night — losing to Wozniacki.

Evert fears their might be more heartache in store.

“I think if she can keep it together mentally she would be my favourite but the problem with Halep is that because of her build and style she has to work so hard for every point,” Evert said. “She needs to have some easy matches for her to be able to win the tournament I think.”

Published in Dawn, May 27th, 2018