RG Preview: Rubik's Reality?

For much of 2008, the ATP tour has been a puzzle waiting to be solved.

After so many years of riding the wave of the twin successes of Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, the tour saw the field began to elbow into position to steal the "untouchables'" glory.  Novak Djokovic won the Australian Open.  Federer was beaten by players who'd have previously been lucky to grab a set off him, while Nadal was nothing special during the "no man's land" period of the schedule.   When the clay season began, neither of the world's top two players had won a singles title.

In recent weeks, the dust has settled.  Just a bit, at least.  Federer, now apparently nearly back to health after a battle with mono at the start of the year (likely not helped by his never-ending season of a year ago, which included those exhibitions with Pete Sampras), won one a title.  Nadal won three (and stretched his recent clay record to 108-2).  #1 and #2 met twice in finals with, of course, Nadal maintaining his mastery of the Swiss Mister on the red stuff

So, has the tour finally been solved by the world's top two players?

Maybe.  But don't forget the Serb lurking in the shadows, for while Federer and Nadal might have regained most of their puzzle-breaking skills in recent weeks, Djokovic pushed Nadal on clay and won his own red dirt Masters title in Rome.  Could he be about to climb the mountain again in Paris and stake a real-and-imagined claim to the #1 ranking in the world (Federer's formerly huge lead is down to about 1000 over Nadal, and around 1400 over Djokovic)?

With that possibility lingering in the air, and Federer's record consecutive weeks reign as the world #1 potentially one bad afternoon from coming to an abrupt end, here are my Roland Garros picks:

=4th Round=
#1 Federer d. #13 Monaco
#24 Gonzalez d. #27 Andreev
#4 Davydenko d. #23 Ferrero
#5 Ferrer d. #21 Stepanek
#11 Berdych d. #32 Tipsarevic
#3 Djokovic d. #16 Moya
#6 Nalbandian d. #19 Almagro
#2 Nadal d. #22 Verdasco

=QF=
#1 Federer d. #24 Gonzalez
#5 Ferrer d. #4 Davydenko
#3 Djokovic d. #11 Berdych
#2 Nadal d. #6 Nalbandian

=SF=
#1 Federer d. #5 Ferrer
#2 Nadal d. #3 Djokovic

=FINAL=
#2 Nadal d. #1 Federer

...Federer has had commanding leads in both his clay losses to Nadal in recent weeks, but couldn't close out the Spaniard.  Sounds familiar, huh?  While Federer might not yet be quite up to his former level, he's getting closer (just in time for SW19, who'd have guessed?).  If the familiar results of recent weeks are indeed a sign that things are "getting back to normal," then yet another Roger-Rafa final could very well be in the cards.  And if we get that, well, it'd be a surprise if Nadal didn't walk off with RG title #4.

All for now.

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