PARIS—This year’s men’s event at Roland Garros feels like the culmination of seven clay-court seasons past. Not the culmination, perhaps, but a peak moment nonetheless. Since spring 2005, when Rafael Nadal emerged to challenge Roger Federer, what was once a relatively sleepy two-month stretch has been transformed into the most tension-filled part of the year. A former dirtballers' paradise, the clay swing is now the time when the tour’s top-ranked players—first Nadal and Federer, today Nadal and Novak Djokovic—chase each other around Europe jockeying for position in Paris. Maybe it’s the eight weeks of staring at blazing red clay that puts everyone on edge, or maybe it’s the suspense of seeing whether anyone can finally knock off the much-loved and much-hated Nadal, but everything comes to a head at Roland Garros. By comparison, Wimbledon feels like a green meadow of calm after the storm has passed.
The 2012 French Open, where two of the best players of this generation have a chance to make history, could be the most vicious yet. Nadal is after a men’s-record seventh title, which would break his tie with Bjorn Borg, while Djokovic is trying to become the first man since Rod Laver in 1969 to hold all four majors at once. Beating Borg, matching Laver: That’s heady stuff.
The draw is out. Let’s see who has a better chance of making their history happen, and who might stand in the way.