Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal

The most likely scenario this week is that Nadal will reach the semi-finals and beyond, and so hang on to the No 1 ranking. Even so, there is a strong possibility it will be Djokovic who will subsequently leave Roland Garros, and arrive at Queen’s Club next month for the start of the grass-court season, as the alpha male of the circuit. While Nadal will at Roland Garros be defending the points he won as last year’s champion, Djokovic was a mere quarter-finalist.

Roger Federer ran off 13 straight games to beat French wild card Maxime Teixeira 6-3, 6-0, 6-2 Wednesday in the second round of the French Open.

When Roger was up, Rafa was down, and when Roger was down, Rafa was up. Just to get this close to Nadal, Djokovic has had to put together the best start to a season for almost 30 years, with his undefeated sequence trailing only behind John McEnroe’s record of opening 1984 with 42 consecutive victories.