France Hails 15-year-old As Safin Eyes Clay Crown

The King of Clay crown is up for grabs and whoever wins the tournament here this week will lay first claim. With Gustavo Kuerten, three times winner of the French Open in the last five years, struggling to be fit for Paris at the end of May after a hip operation, there is no obvious pretender.

Of those ranked in the top 10 Russia's Marat Safin appears to have the best credentials, although in four attempts he has yet to get beyond the quarter-finals at Roland Garros.

Safin, having won the United States Open two years ago, pulverising Pete Sampras in the process, suffered a disappointing dip in form last year, compounded by a back injury, but remains the player most likely to challenge Lleyton Hewitt's hold on the world No1 spot. The two are seeded to meet in the quarter-finals here on Friday, a match that could set the tone for the rest of the clay-court season.

Both have tricky opening matches today, Safin against Tommy Robredo of Spain and Hewitt against another Spaniard, Carlos Moya, who won the French Open in 1998, the same year he captured the title here.

Tim Henman, who has no pretensions on clay and has never been beyond the third round in Paris, may count himself unfortunate to have plucked out Argentina's 20-year-old Guillermo Coria in the first round. Coria is a wild card, having recently completed a ban after testing positive for nandrolone and duly dropped down the rankings. But he was a semi-finalist here last year and is one of nine Argentinian players in the top 100.

The French, despite much individual and Davis Cup success in recent years, have not had a men's singles winner at Roland Garros since Yannick Noah in 1983, although there were many around the Monte Carlo club'scourt central yesterday ready to believe they were seeing a home-grown champion of the future in Richard Gasquet, a 15-year-old from rugby country in Béziers.

Gasquet, given a wild card into qualifying, duly defeated Russia's Nikolay Davydenko and Romania's Adrian Voinea, then yesterday pulled off a startling 7-6, 3-6, 7-5 first- round victory over Franco Squillari of Argentina, ranked No53 in the world.

It was a performance of maturity and promise and had the locals, not renowned for undivided enthusiasm and concentration, roaring with delight and stamping their feet. Gasquet looked to be waning in the third set, both emotionally and physically, but he responded to adversity with grit and aplomb.

He is exceptionally quick and even got to the net on occasions, although it was the depth, accuracy and venom of his ground shots that most caught the eye, notably his top-spin backhand. He plays Safin or Robredo tomorrow.

Whatever happens, he has made his mark, as the 15-year-old Hewitt announced himself in 1997 at the Australian Open. The road from junior to senior is notoriously tough but on yesterday's evidence Gasquet appears to have the temperament and ability to become at least a top-50 player.

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