Can anyone stop the King of Clay at Roland Garros?

After his blue clay horror show, it was business as usual for Rafael Nadal on his return to the red stuff at the Rome Masters.

The Spaniard took his clay court record for the season to 16 wins in 17 matches with victory over Novak Djokovic in Monday’s delayed final in the Italian capital.

His only failure in this sequence came in Madrid, although given this was on a much-criticised blue surface it is safe to assume that Nadal couldn’t be in better shape ahead of the defence of his French Open title, which starts next week.

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With the benefit of hindsight, there is an inevitability about Nadal’s return to dominance given the switch from hard courts to his favoured clay surface.

But going into the clay court season, legitimate questions were being asked about whether Nadal would emerge as the dominant force he has proved to be in the past.

Back then, the form shown by Roger Federer on hard courts in the previous few months showed that the Swiss maestro – and former French Open champion – should not be discounted from the reckoning.

So it all points to a Nadal win – and luckily, bwin is offering industry-leading odds on just that.

Then there is the fact that Nadal’s powers appeared to be on the wane – he had slipped to number three in the world rankings, was apparently affected by the knee problems that have dogged him throughout his career and had not won a title all season.

But the biggest reason to doubt the Spaniard was the form of Novak Djokovic. For it is not only on hard courts that the Serb had proved to hold the upper hand over the rest of the tennis world over the preceding 18 months.

His win at the Australian Open in January, where he beat two of the big four in Andy Murray and Nadal, meant he had won the last three grand slam events – at Wimbledon, the US Open and then in Melbourne.

And while he missed out at the 2011 French Open, when Federer brought an end to his remarkable unbeaten run, he had arguably already proved that he was the world’s best on all three surfaces.

For in the lead-up to proceedings at Roland Garros, Djokovic won the three clay court tournaments he entered.

Crucially, two of these tournament success came at Masters 1000 level – in Madrid and Rome – and he beat King of Clay Nadal in both of the finals, and in straight sets at that.

According to this narrative, it should have been Djokovic and not Nadal who went on to dominate the 2012 clay court season.

Instead, the Spaniard has once again come to the fore, beating the Serb in the finals at Monte Carlo and Rome and going into the French Open as odds-on favourite to win a seventh title.

Can anyone stop him? Predictably, Djokovic is the nearest challenger in bwin’s tennis betting market at 9/4.

But given Nadal has proven his superior on clay so far in 2012, it is unlikely he will be able to match the Spaniard over five sets at Roland Garros, where Nadal has lost just once in his career.

And while Federer won in Madrid on blue clay, four defeats in French Open finals to Nadal shows just who the dominant player is on that surface. Federer’s odds of 9/2 will therefore surely come into play only if Nadal suffers a shock early defeat.

As for the rest of the field, Andy Murray (25/1) looks like he could struggle to replicate his 2011 semi-final place, let alone win the tournament, while Tomas Berdych (25/1) and David Ferrer (28/1) have been performing well on clay this season, but only until they come up against a certain left-hander from Mallorca.

So it all points to a Nadal win – and luckily, bwin is offering industry-leading odds on just that.

At 17/20, a successful £25 free bet on Nadal to win the French Open is set to return £46.25.

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