Federer Aims to Complete Set

While the majority of the pre-French Open discussion has, understandably, centred on whether Spain's teenager Rafael Nadal can win the title on his debut, the more intriguing question is whether Roger Federer, who has won on just about every other court in the world, can transfer that supremacy to the red clay of Roland Garros.

It is not that Federer cannot play on the surface. He was brought up on clay and for three of the last four years has won the Tennis Masters Series tournament in Hamburg, albeit that the German clay is much heavier and slower. Simply, it is the only grand slam title that has eluded him and therein lies the pressure, such as it is.

"Everybody keeps asking me about it now, probably because I managed to win three of the four slams last year. But you have to be patient and I'm confident that one day I will win here." Of course his many admirers do not have that patience. They want him to do it now and thus join the elite club of five - Fred Perry, Andre Agassi and Don Budge of the United States and Rod Laver and Roy Emerson of Australia - who have won all four majors.

When he won his first grand slam quarter-final here in 2001 there seemed no reason to suppose that winning the French would be a problem for Federer. But he has since won only two more matches on the Paris clay in three attempts, although obviously he has concentrated his efforts elsewhere, notably on the grass of Wimbledon.

It would be wonderful to see him win here, even though it is the way of the world that no sooner should he do it than everybody will be clamouring for the calendar slam - something only Laver (twice) and Budge have achieved. But Federer knows full well that many great attacking players, notably Pete Sampras in recent years, have left Roland Garros unfulfilled and bitterly frustrated.

The French Open needs a big name winner. Over the last decade only Russia's Yevgeny Kafelnikov and Agassi of the eight winners have also won a major outside Roland Garros while two of the champions in the last three years, Spain's Albert Costa and the reigning champion, Gaston Gaudio of Argentina, have been little more than journeymen clay- court players who happened to get lucky. Federer is less brutal. "Gaudio was a good player before he won here and the same applied to Costa. They just got it together over two weeks. Guys dream of that happening to them."

Last year, after twice losing in the opening round, Federer went down in the third against Gustavo Kuerten, the three- times former champion and an immense favourite with the French crowds: "It was strange. I felt great at the beginning and was really confident. But Guga began playing better and better and I simply could not get into the game."

Federer opens up today against Dudi Sela of Israel, a qualifier, with his first big test likely to come on Friday when he could face the huge-hitting but frequently erratic Chilean Fernando Gonzalez.

There was a groan when Nadal was drawn in the same half as Federer, with the two seeded to meet in the semi-final. The hope had been that they would play the final, a repeat of the Nasdaq-100 final in Key Biscayne earlier this year when Nadal was two points away from victory in the third-set tie-break against the world No1, only to lose in five sets. Nadal's first match, against Lars Burgsmuller of Germany, is on the No1 court, an intimate, circular stadium with the atmosphere of a bullring.

Much as everybody will be looking at the top half of the draw, which also includes Britain's Tim Henman, last year's shock semi-finalist, the champion may yet come from the bottom half which contains Argentina's Guillermo Coria, last year's beaten final ist, and Marat Safin, the reigning Australian Open champion who defeated Federer in the semi-finals in Melbourne, one of only two defeats for the Swiss this year.

Safin spent his formative years in Spain and certainly has the game to win the title. Whether he has the patience is a different matter. Spain's Juan Carlos Ferrero, the 2003 champion, is also in this section and an obvious danger to everybody despite the illness and injury that have hampered him over the past year and seen him drop out of the top 10.

Henman's awkward looking start against Potito Starace vanished yesterday morning when the 6ft 4in Italian pulled out with an ankle sprain. He was replaced by Juan Pablo Brzezicki of Argentina about whom Henman found it as difficult to find any information as to pronounce his name.

Henman had practised with Starace in Monte Carlo and was feeling relatively secure. Instead he was left seeking information from James Blake of the US, who played the 23-year-old in a Challenger recently.

Greg Rusedski, who has won only one match here in his last four attempts, will open up tomorrow, also against a lucky loser, Flavio Serrate of Brazil.