Rafael Nadal: Superstar Should Be Overwhelming Favorite at French Open

The French Open has been Rafael Nadal's own personal playground for seven years, and there is nothing about his performance this year that should change that. In fact, things have gone so well for Rafa lately that he should be an overwhelming favorite to take the title for the seventh time. 

Things did not start off on a high note for Nadal, as he lost in his first four events of the year. He wasn't under-performing, per se—he made it to at least the semi-finals each time, and got to the finals of the Australian Open before losing to Novak Djokovic. 

Since losing to Andy Murray in the semifinals of the Sony Ericsson Open at the end of March, Nadal has been steamrolling the competition en route to two consecutive championships and 11 straight match wins. 

Nadal did suffer a setback against Fernando Verdasco in the third round of the Madrid Open on Thursday, but that was just a tune-up event for the big show beginning on May 27. Plus, the blue surface at that event did not agree with Nadal from the start. 

Now that Nadal can shift his focus to Roland Garros, everyone else must be put on high alert. He has won this tournament in six of the last seven years; the only time he didn't win was in 2009, when he lost to Robin Soderling—who lost to Roger Federer—in the semifinals.

Federer and Novak Djokovic are going to be his main competition at the French Open, as they seem to be every year. However, Federer is having problems defeating mid-level players right now. Djokovic has come close to conquering Roland Garros three times in the semifinals, but he has lost to Nadal twice to squash his momentum. 

Nothing that Nadal does prior to the French Open gets in the way of what he does when he steps on the clay of Roland Garros. He is going to get right back into his comfort zone and dominate the event. 

While Federer and Djokovic will get all the headlines for being perhaps the best players of this generation, and the best players in the sport right now, Nadal will show the world why the French Open is his domain. 

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