The three top-ranked men's tennis players are safely through to the third round of the French Open in Paris - and simply seem unstoppable on the clay of Roland Garros.

Rafael Nadal faced a tricky encounter in the first round against up and coming Brazilian Thomaz Belluchi, who has been enjoying the sort of form on the Challenger circuit that Rafa has been achieving on the main ATP tour. After a tight first set, Nadal gradually broke down his opponent to claim a straight-sets win and in the second round the world No.2 thrashed Nicolas Devilder of France with the loss of only five games.

Nadal is clinging on to hisNo.2 spot in the rankings and needs to go further than Novak Djokovic in this tournament to stay there. That's what makes this battle so fascinating and tense. Nadal is three times defending champion, though, and will be tough to break at Roland Garros, so Djokovic may have to wait until the grass courts of England before he can move ahead of Rafa and closer to Roger Federer.

'For me, Djokovic is going to keep on winning, winning, winning for the rest of the year'


The Serbian youngster has had to completely different couple of matches in Paris. In his first contest, he came back from a slow start and a set down to defeat Denis Gremelmayr of Germany in four close sets before showing his true form in destroying Spanish qualifier Miguel Lopez Jaen 6-1, 6-1, 6-3. He showed enough in this match to make him one of the few players that could actually test Nadal in the next week.

Djokovic won in Rome and is as close to Nadal as he has ever been in the rankings - and his motivation is higher than anyone's at the moment. Can Novak take out Nadal in the semis? I think he actually could and win his second Grand Slam title of the year after his terrific win against Jo-Wilfred Tsonga in Australia.

The rankings are so close at the moment between Novak and Rafa that literally one match can decide the players' positions in the ATP rankings and also the 2008 ATP race. Both players are so young that I think this rivalry will become the biggest in tennis recent history - once Federer decides to retire, of course.

Federer lost his first set of this year's tournament on Thursday in a four-set win over Albert Montanes of Spain, a clay-court specialist. Federer roared back though in the next three sets, hardly losing any more games and showing he is still a key contender in the tournament. However, he has a very tough draw to contend with before he even thinks of a final place.

Stanislas Wawrinka, David Ferrer and Nikolay Davydenko all stand in the way of Federer and the final and all three are in great form and love the clay surfaces. Does Federer have the energy to make it through? He certainly has the motivation - this is basically the only tournament of any significance that the Swiss master hasn't won. Again, if Federer fails to equal his final place of 2007, then his rivals could again chip away at his rankings lead and with Wimbledon only weeks away, things could just get even more interesting at the top.

For me, Djokovic is going to keep on winning, winning, winning for the rest of the year and with fewer points to defend than his two rivals over the coming weeks I cannot see anything less than the Serbian moving up to at least No.2 in the ATP tour rankings. And he could well be numero uno by the time of the Olympics in China.

He is capable of winning both the French Open and Wimbledon and you would be a fool to bet against him. Nadal and Federer will make a good fight of it, I'm sure, but ultimately it will be Novak's year.