Federer in France - the champions' verdict

By Piers Newbery

Roger Federer will try to complete the set of Grand Slam titles at this year's French Open.

BBC Sport asked former champions Thomas Muster (1995) and Sergi Bruguera (1993, 1994) how they think the world number one will fare at Roland Garros.

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Muster and Bruguera tasted victory at Roland Garros

Thomas Muster: There was always the question about why Ivan Lendl couldn't win Wimbledon, why couldn't Pete Sampras win in Paris?

Here we are again talking about Roger Federer - one of the outstanding number ones in the last however many years.

And the French will definitely be the toughest for him because of the way he plays.

Does he have a better chance than Pete Sampras had?

Sergi Bruguera: He is like Pete but better suited to clay. He has better shots, he moves better on clay than Pete and he believes in himself more.

You have to suffer Bruguera on clay

So far he hasn't found the right way to play on clay, and to play five sets all the time when you are used to winning easily on the other courts, it's tough. That's what happened to Sampras.

He was winning easily without suffering, and then on clay you can't. You have to suffer. It's difficult to change your mentality to adapt.

TM: He's similar to Pete, but I think Roger has better endurance than Pete ever had.

How would you have played him on clay?

SB: On clay I would go to the court sure that I was going to win, but on the other surfaces I would go to the court sure that I was going to lose. I would just play my game.

Federer heads to Paris after victory in the Hamburg Masters

On clay, I used to think I was going to win for sure. Roger is only going to have trouble with the guys that play well on clay.

Against the ones that are not so good on clay he will win easily. He may have trouble against Ferrero, Moya, Nadal, Coria, Nalbandian because they play so much on clay with a lot of top-spin.

TM: Well, you're not going to play a serve and volley against him or look for short points.

You're trying to get the ball in the air, make him play as many balls as possible, play angled balls, try to tire him out.

That's tough against one player, but over the two-week period you will probably have that kind of game against you three or four times.

If it's raining and there are heavy conditions, and the balls are not flying that much, then it's going to be difficult because he'll have to hit an awful lot of balls which keep coming back.

At some stage he's going to overhit balls and that's when the unforced errors come into play.

So, can Federer win this year's French Open?

SB: Of course he can win, he's on another level to everyone. To only lose two matches since last August is, for me, unbelievable.

It's a question of how many mistakes and unforced errors he makes Muster on Federer

Everything you do has to be 10 times better than the other players to do that - your mentality, your game, and everything has to be much better to achieve this.

If he is so much better than everyone else, I think for sure he can win the French Open, but whether he will do it is a very different thing!

TM: Roger can win it, but he's not my pick for the French Open for a few reasons. But he can win if everything comes together and if the weather suits him.

The Argentine and Spanish players will make him run a lot and it's just a question of how many mistakes and unforced errors he makes.

He's capable - a player of his quality with the strokes and serves he has - but it's the toughest one for him to win.

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Thomas Muster and Sergi Bruguera now play on the Delta Tour of Champions, which culminates in the Masters Tennis at the Royal Albert Hall in London (29 November - 4 December).