The results of the second Grand Slam tennis tournament of the year at the 2011 French Open matter in different ways for each of the top eight men.  So what’s at stake for each of the players?    

Rafael Nadal – His (clay court) invincibility has been dented by two consecutive final round losses to Novak Djokovic at Madrid and Rome, but (finally) rediscovering his dominating baseline game and winning the title would instantly place him as “king of the clay” again!

Novak Djokovic – His incredible winning streak is on the line and he really can’t play any better than he has in beating Nadal in the last four finals they’ve played, but what matters at the end of the day is who wins the Slams…

Roger Federer – No one will be expecting him to win given the focus that will be placed on Nadal and Djokovic, but he still wants more Slam titles and believes he can win them… no time like the present to erase his doubters with a strong finish!

Andy Murray – When/will he ever win a Slam is the lingering question and given his less than stellar form the past couple months and the incredible success of his peer, Djokovic, no one will expect him to win which perhaps might actually help him finally cross the threshold….

Robin Soderling – With back-to-back final round appearances, he has fond memories, but it may be a "tough ask" to defend all those points and reach a third straight final.

Tomas Berdych – He has had a solid year so far, but as he enters the French Open/Wimbledon double header, it will be interesting to see how he deals with the pressures and expectations associated with having reached the semis last year.

David Ferrer – He has reached two Grand Slam semifinals on hard courts, but most consider his game better suited to the clay courts and so one would expect him to at least uphold his seeding.

Jurgen Melzer – His results have been uneven since reaching the Australian Open quarters and a strong showing would illustrate that his late-career surge was not a temporary ranking rise.