Roland Garros: What's going to stop Nadal winning a 4th title in a row?

Well, the hopes of the scenario that I painted in my last post about Nadal playing average and winning Roland Garros is likely, so the take on this entry, will focus on who else can do well in this event and this is relative compared to their draws and rankings.

Federer got quite a comfortable draw, but that is to be expected. The 3rd round he will more than likely play the winner of Andy "South Tyrolean maestro" Seppi and Mario Ancic. Normally it would be that Ancic is the seeded player, but Seppi's excellent run in Hamburg and Ancic's recovery from glandular fever have changed that. Last time they met it was on a fast indoor surface that suited Ancic, this time on clay it will suit Seppi more, especially if there is the scheduled rain that has been forecast.

Pico Monaco got the Toad Söderling in the 1st round and as tough as this looks on paper. The Toad doesn't normally bring it in the Slams and whoever wins this match would have to fancy themselves a shot at making the 4th round. Monaco's better clay pedigree will get him over the line.

Stani Wawrinka newest member of the top 10 plays German Kohlschreiber. One thing for sure there will be some quality single hand backhands in this match. This one could go either way and Stani played a lot of tennis recently and had last week off from playing 4 weeks in a row, he should be refreshed and as long as he can keep relaxed with the foot movement. He'll get the W here.

Andreev and Starace, this will be a long one and now Andreev like Chucho is coachless and he has QF finals points to defend, but if he is able to defeat the tall Italian, then he is in a good position to defend those points and at the same time if Napoli's finest Starace can get the W, he'd fancy his chances in an open section as well.

Lucho Horna replaced Tsonga as a LL and has a good chance to make it through a few rounds as long as his calf injury holds up. At the same time he plays Jenkins who has a big serve and Lucho doesn't play those guys too well, just hope it's heavy and that will help him. The other seed is Ferrero, if fit he should be good enough to make the 3rd round, but this depends on his hip problem. Big Luczak is here as well and he has been having some issues with the hamstring, just hope he is healthy.

Calleri will never have a better chance to make a 3rd round here again than this time. He plays Fish out of clay and then he'd take on Hewitt or Mahut, that should be Hewitt, the only problem over Hewitt is his hip problem and he is probably using Paris as fitness for the grass season.

Berdych will be looking atone for his poor RG showing last year and will have a kind opening 2 rounds, but with the Berdman anything can happen. Good to see del Potro back on tour and the back seems fine so far and will play Baghdatis or ball bashing Bolelli in the next round, this one is tough for Baghdatis no form going into it.

The King and the protege (Marcel Granollers) are playing at the same time. Oscar Hernandez is playing Minar again and as long as his foot is alright, he should be able to win and get enough balls head high to Minar. Granollers plays the tank Berrer and like his 2nd round opponent Schwank, he has played a lot recently, but has had a bit of rest as well, big opportunity for both. Cañas and Odesnik definitely won't be one that will be a short match and one that Willy needs to win, to get his season back. Odesnik is the one American besides Russell that can actually play on this surface.

Nieminen and Marc Lopez, someone I like will at least make the 2nd round. Guccione is playing Devilder and it would be great if he won because he'd be playing Nadal in the 2nd round. Seeing the massive Guccione on a big serving day against Rafa on clay, will be different, though at the same time there is some comedy potential for sure, which is always good to see.