John G Mabanglo/EPA, via Shutterstock
The main clay-court season is officially underway, and this time around it is particularly unclear how the dust might settle.
If Rafael Nadal is truly healthy after aggravating a right knee injury three weeks ago — he has been training at home to prepare for the Monte Carlo Open — he remains the man to beat on the game’s grittiest surface. No one else has won 11 French Open singles titles, and the rational assumption is that no one else ever will.
But the women’s game is in a wondrous state of flux, with 14 different champions in the season’s first 14 tournaments.