FRENCH OPEN Will clay stand in the way of Federer's Grand Slam?

Spain's Rafael Nadal is the oddsmakers' pick to win the event.
PARIS (AP) -- Year after bedeviling year, the thick red clay at the French Open buried the career Grand Slam aspirations of Pete Sampras. Is that to be the fate, too, of his heir as king of the game, Roger Federer?
Federer doesn't think so.
After six early exits at Roland Garros, Federer now has reason to believe he can master the grueling surface and join Andre Agassi as the only active men to win all four majors. Standing most prominently in Federer's way are two 18-year-olds, Spain's Rafael Nadal and France's Richard Gasquet, defending champion Gaston Gaudio of Argentina and the countryman Gaudio beat last year in the final, Guillermo Coria.
Along with his No. 1 seeding, the 23-year-old Federer comes into the French with his confidence high following his title on similar red clay courts in Hamburg last week, where he beat Gasquet 6-3, 7-5, 7-6 (4) in the final. Low key by nature, a realist from experience, Federer does not suffer from low expectations.
"Honestly, I don't see it being such an unbelievably tough draw," he said Saturday. "I'm not worried playing anybody.
"I'm confident I can do it. If I won't ever do it, this will only show at the end of the career. You have to be a little patient."
Talent and versatility
A career Grand Slam, especially in this era of deep fields, is a testament not only to extraordinary tennis talent but extreme versatility -- winning on grass, hard courts and clay. Each surface requires different skills: power, quickness, creativity and net play on grass; all-court offensive and defensive abilities on hard courts; patience, durability, grace and finesse on clay.
Only five players have accomplished the feat: Agassi on all three of those surfaces; Fred Perry, Don Budge, Rod Laver, and Roy Emerson in the days when the Australian, Wimbledon and U.S. Nationals were on grass and the French was the lone major on clay.
Sampras, Arthur Ashe, Boris Becker, Jimmy Connors and Stefan Edberg all won three of the majors but failed to take the French. Of those, the only real surprise was Connors, who played well on clay elsewhere and had a baseline game well suited to Roland Garros. Sampras, Ashe, Becker and Edberg never quite adjusted their serve-and-volley styles to the baseline demands of the red clay.
Federer, who won the Australian, Wimbledon and U.S. Open last year and Wimbledon the year before that, has lost in the first round of the French three times -- 1999, 2002 and 2003. He reached the fourth round in 2000, the quarters the next year and the third round last year.
Not favored
Perhaps that is why, despite Federer's top seeding and his 155-16 match record while winning 21 of his last 36 tournaments, he is only the 5-2 second choice among the oddsmakers. The No. 4-seeded Nadal, making his debut in the French main draw, is the 2-1 favorite after winning five clay tournaments so far this year, including the Italian Open.
Not since Mats Wilander in 1982 has a player won the French in his debut.
If they play according to their seedings, Nadal could celebrate his 19th birthday on June 3 by playing Federer in the semifinals. They could have met in the quarters, but No. 2 Lleyton Hewitt's withdrawal allowed Nadal to move up behind No. 3 Marat Safin, the Australian Open winner this year.
Nadal has impressed everyone on the tour, even those he hasn't played against, such as the 35-year-old Agassi.
"I think you see the game take big steps every five years or so," Agassi said. "It's almost in hindsight you can look back at five-year marks and see that there's been a transition in not just who the players are but also the way the game's being played. There are a few guys out there that play the game in a way that pushes the game forward. Obviously Roger's been one of these guys for a while. I think Nadal has also shown that there's a way of playing this game that people haven't done yet, especially on the clay.
"It's time. It happens sooner or later when the real special ones start coming around. I think over the next five years, there's going to be a lot of titles decided by these guys."