ESPN analysts Chris Evert and Patrick McEnroe tab Serena Williams as the favorite to win Roland Garros. Serena won her sole French Open title in 2002 and hasn't reached the final since. She's riding a 17-match winning streak on clay, although she pulled out of Rome last week before her semifinal against Li Na.
"I just have never seen Serena play this well on clay before, and she has never really come back with as much aggressiveness, and I think her fitness level is higher than we have seen it," Evert told reporters. "She’s moving better and she wants the French Open really badly. She’s talked about it all year because it is the one surface that eludes her at times, the clay. She’s brilliant on the hard court and the grass, but has not had as much success on the clay. So I think you’re going to see a triangle effect here with [Maria] Sharapova who has also played some great clay court tennis, and [Victoria] Azarenka. And the big question is, can [Azarenka] continue her dominance on the slower surface versus the hard court which she excelled on the last few months. It’s really interesting and it’s a tough one to call now."
McEnroe said that one of the primary reasons for Serena's excellence on dirt this season is her movement.
"I think some of my spies who were there at the Fed Cup when the U.S. played about a month ago, said that she seemed to be very, very determined to get herself in tiptop condition and that maybe she wasn’t quite where she needed to be fitness-wise in Australia, and that she was determined to not let that happen again," he said. "So obviously she’s playing great. I think the difficulty for her at this point being a little bit older is that I think there’s more of a chance, as we saw in Australia, that she can have an off day. And because there’s a lot more depth in the women’s game. I think the only really fear for her is that she has an off day, or it’s a heavy condition kind of day in Paris where it can get rainy and a little bit windy and cold; so that could be tough for her. She’s got to find a way to win those matches when she’s not going to be at her best. Obviously when she’s at her best, she’s the best player in women’s tennis. But what’s lacking is the consistency day-in, day-out. So if she can somehow get through that maybe one or two matches that she may have, she’s certainly got a great chance to win it."