The red clay of Roland Garros Stadium in Paris is rolled and ready to welcome players as the French Open gets set to begin.

As this year’s second Grand Slam tennis event is primed for the first serve, tennis fans are bothered by two nagging questions.

First, how will the American men players do? Chances for success are slim given the bleak state of affairs in this country’s men’s game.

Andy Roddick has withdrawn because of a shoulder injury and James Blake never gets too far in the draw even when he’s healthy. Thus, the answer to the first question is not very encouraging as the ranks of top American men players are desperately thin.

The second question has been around since the beginning of the year and has to do with the world’s top-ranked player. Is Roger Federer in a permanent career-ending slide, or is he simply in a temporary funk?

My money, and that of a local tennis pro I consulted with, is on the latter. While Federer has never won the French Open, he’s coming off an impressive showing at the recent Hamburg Masters tournament in Germany until he lost in the finals.

Over the course of his career, Federer has won 12 Grand Slam singles titles (three Australian Open, five Wimbledon, four U.S. Open), four Tennis Masters Cup titles, and 14 ATP Masters Series titles. In addition, he holds many records, including having appeared in 10 consecutive Grand Slam men’s singles finals (2005 Wimbledon Championships through to 2007 U.S. Open).

This year, though, the tennis gods haven’t looked quite as favorably on the champ, who has gone down to tournament defeats at a surprising rate for someone considered the best men’s tennis player of all time.

His biggest nemeses have been Rafael Nadal, who owns Federer on clay surfaces, and Novak Djokovic, who stands poised to replace Federer if and when the 27-year old Swiss-born champ really begins to falter.

But is that likely to happen any time soon?

According to Oliver Stenger, head pro at the Park Meadow Tennis Center in Fort Myers, Federer’s career is still in bloom.

“I don’t think he’s done,” Stenger said. “He’s been sick for a good portion of this year and that’s weakened him, but he has so much more talent than the other players and he’s such a hard worker that he’s still got at least four good years ahead of him.”

Stenger goes on to laud Federer’s work ethic and influence on tennis.

“He’s a student of the history of the game and his dream is to win all four of the Grand Slam tournaments in one year, something that Rod Laver has done twice,” Stenger said. “If he were an American, he’d be glorified in this country the same as Tiger Woods is in golf.”

But what about his vulnerability on clay? There’s no question that this surface is more demanding than grass or hard courts, where speed and power are the keys to success. Clay is more about stamina and court strategy, borne out in the interesting statistic that shows that the average rally on grass is two shots per point, four shots per point on hard courts, and seven shots per point on clay.

The longer rallies on clay require mastering a variety of shots and that’s what separates champions from the also-rans.

“Tennis players age more quickly than athletes in other sports, given the game’s impact on the player’s joints from doing so many quick turns, stops and twists,” says Stenger. “Roger Federer is only 27 years old and I give him at least another four years at a top competitive and championship level. Ten or 15 years from now he’ll be honored in a way that will dwarf the accolades that have been heaped on Pete Sampras, Andre Agassis and a few other tennis greats. He’s been one of the great ambassadors for the game.”



Cape Coral resident Norman Marcus is a dedicated couch potato and author of “Inside Big Time Sports: Television, Money and the Fans.”