There is no reason why Nadal should not be the clear favorite for this years French Open. Nadal hasn't lost one match on clay this year and only gave up 1 set I believe to Almagro. Keep in mind Almagro was playing like a machine and slapping backhand cross court winners like no one was on the other side. Even then Nadal was able to intimidate and break down his opponent. They just don't believe they can beat Nadal on the clay. Im sure Robin Soderling didn't believe he was going to win last year when he stepped on the court at the French and beat the king of clay.

All this said there still is a high chance that Nadal doesn't win this years French. Yes he is the favorite but winning a major is harder then Federer and Nadal have made it look in the past few years. 7 matches all 3 out of 5 sets over a 2 week time frame. Having to keep your focus and not run into a red hot player as Almagro was last week in Madrid. If Almagro keeps that up for 2 sets he wins that match over Nadal. Last year Nadal ran into Soderling who was crushing the ball for the entire match. Then we have Federer, not a great clay court season until Madrid last week. He seemed to get his grove back and could have won his match against Nadal in the Finals. He had many missed break point opportunities and missing the easy drop shot in the 2nd set tie breaker broke his spirit. If that shot goes over then they would have played a third set.

My pick to win is Nadal, betting against him would just be dumb!