Easy start for Justine

World number one Justine Henin will start the defence of her French Open title tomorrow, appearing on Centre Court on the opening day of the Paris...

World number one Justine Henin will start the defence of her French Open title tomorrow, appearing on Centre Court on the opening day of the Paris Grand Slam tournament.

Belgian Henin, chasing a third successive crown, will face Russia’s Elena Vesnina in the second match scheduled on the showcase Roland Garros court. Paris darling Marat Safin, seeded 13th, plays Spaniard Fernando Vicente in the opening match. There will be 24 matches on the various courts, twice as many as last year when the two-week tournament started on a Sunday for the first time.

Neither Roger Federer nor Rafael Nadal, the favourites for the men’s title, will be in action.

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Spain’s Juan Carlos Ferrero, the 2003 champion, will appear on Court One against unheralded American Amer Delic. The Williams sisters will also be on duty. Serena, the 2002 champion, back in Paris after missing the tournament for the last two years, will meet Bulgaria’s Tsvetana Pironkova while Venus takes on Frenchwoman Alize Cornet. The weather forecast for the first day is rather gloomy with rain expected to disrupt play.

Rafael Nadal will begin constructing a new winning streak on clay when he steps out for his first round tie here, but he doubts he will ever match the 81 straight wins that ended in the Hamburg Masters final against Roger Federer.

That loss almost came as a relief to the soon-to-be 21-year-old Spaniard who had strung together the longest-ever winning streak on any surface over two and a half years.

“Eighty-one victories consecutive on clay is a record that is difficult to improve, no?” he said as he finetuned his preparations for this year’s tournament at Roland Garros.

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“It’s difficult someway to improve that record. But, well well, I am going to start another one. But I think the chances is like this,” he said pinching his thumb and forefinger closely together.

Nadal is the defending champion at Roland Garros and a win in two weeks time would make him the first man since Bjorn Borg (1978-81) to win three in a row in Paris.

It would also for another year ruin Roger Federer’s hopes of carrying off the fabled Grand Slam of tennis just as he did last year.

Not that will in anyway upset Nadal who is all youthful charm and innocence off court but a programmed killer whenever he is in action.

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Federer, he says, is the player he gets on best with outside of the Spanish clan that is omnipresent on the ATP Tour.

He has even apparently joined the Federer court on ATP matters and talks on the future of the sport and happily adds that the two can discuss more freely because “my English is improving every year.”