Federer keen to renew clay duel with Nadal

Plus ça change plus c'est la même chose. One year ago Rafael Nadal arrived here as the French Open's defending champion, while Roger Federer came in search of the only title missing from his Grand Slam collection. Enough water has flowed under the Pont Neuf in the intervening 12 months to sweep away a year of memories, but when the tournament gets under way here tomorrow there will be a strong sense of déjà vu.

The domination of the world's top two players is such that it would be a major surprise if they do not contest the final. Only a fortnight ago a Nadal triumph would have been equally predictable, but Federer's victory in their final at the Hamburg Masters tournament last Sunday, ending the Spaniard's extraordinary 81-match winning run on clay, has changed the landscape.

Not only did it prove to Federer that he could beat his greatest rival on the Spaniard's favourite surface - he had lost all five of their previous meetings on clay - but it also put behind him a miserable two months in which he had gone four tournaments without winning a title for the first time since becoming world No 1 three years ago. The run ended with Federer parting company with his coach, Tony Roche.

The win in Hamburg has done wonders for Federer's confidence. "I've never entered Roland Garros feeling so strong mentally," he said yesterday. "I'm no longer afraid of this tournament. I'm not afraid of having to play five sets, I'm not afraid of being the favourite and I want to win here more than ever.

"Obviously, I'm feeling better now about my chances than I was two weeks ago," Federer added, "though I realise that I'm not going to beat him [Nadal] every time. To beat him on clay, you have to beat him from the baseline, play aggressively and serve well. That's not easy to do."

Although Nadal admitted he had been mentally tired in Hamburg, where he was pushed hard by Lleyton Hewitt in the semi-finals, the world No 2 rejected any suggestion that he had played too much in the build up to Paris. Having returned this week to his home in Majorca, he said he had been playing golf in an attempt to "forget tennis for a few hours".

While Nadal believes he has arrived at Roland Garros in better shape than ever after winning the tournaments in Monte Carlo, Barcelona and Rome, and reaching the final in Hamburg, it may just be that he has pushed himself too hard at a time when Federer believes he is ready to fill the biggest gap on his CV.

Federer appears to have a comfortable draw in the early stages - America's Michael Russell is his first opponent - but the Swiss could then run up against Juan Carlos Ferrero, the champion here four years ago, Ivan Ljubicic and Fernando Gonzalez or Nikolay Davydenko.

Nadal, who starts against Juan Martin del Potro, has James Blake, Hewitt and Tomas Berdych in his quarter, while Novak Djokovic, who has won more matches than any other player this year, is potentially his last barrier to the final.

Nadal's third-round opponent could be Tim Henman, Britain's lone representative in either singles. In the first round Henman meets Ernests Gulbis, an 18-year-old Latvian ranked No 84 in the world, with the winner to play Sweden's Robin Soderling or Spain's Albert Montanes.

Although Gulbis has won only three of his eight matches on clay this year, that is three more than Henman, who lost in the first round in both Monte Carlo and Rome. The former British No 1, who practised for two hours with Federer yesterday, has won only once on the tour in the last seven months and while Gulbis has generally played at a lower level, he has been winning, having taken two Challenger titles this year.

Like Nadal, Justine Henin is attempting to win her third successive Roland Garros singles title. However, the Belgian is in much the tougher half of the draw, with Serena Williams looming large on her quarter-final horizon. The American is playing here for the first time in three years and has reached the final only once, in 2002, but her stunning Australian Open triumph in January proved her determination to recapture former glories and she has already beaten Henin this year, in the final in Miami.

Jelena Jankovic, who has won clay-court tournaments this year in Charleston and Rome and climbed to No 4 in the world rankings, is seeded to meet Henin in the semi-finals, though Venus Williams and Nicole Vaidisova could block her path.