Nothing orderly about French Open

PARIS – Everything about tennis is topsy-turvy heading into the French Open.

Roger Federer, seemingly invincible against anyone but Rafael Nadal, is off to his worst start to a season since 2001. Nadal, meanwhile, recently lost a match on clay – for only the second time in three years.

Justine Henin, the three-time reigning champion in Paris, suddenly retired this month at the age of 25, the first woman to walk away from the sport while ranked No. 1.

There’s more: Andy Roddick, the highest-ranked American man, is sidelined by a bum shoulder; new No. 1 Maria Sharapova and Serena Williams also pulled out of recent matches because of injuries; high-profile players are openly complaining about tour calendars and commitments; and the subject of gambling won’t go away.

It’s enough to make one wonder which way is up as the tennis world gathers at Roland Garros for the season’s second Grand Slam tournament, which begins today.

Start with Federer, whose 12 major singles championships put him two shy of Pete Sampras’ career record. Each of the past six years, Federer arrived at the French Open with at least two – and as many as six – tournament titles to his credit. The past three seasons, he was a combined 103-9 with 13 trophies entering the French Open.

In 2008, he is 26-7 with only one title. He was upset by eventual champion Novak Djokovic in the Australian Open semifinals in January, ending Federer’s streak of reaching 10 consecutive Slam finals.

“For the first time, I get on a plane to leave Australia, and I have some doubt about who’s going to be No. 1 in the world at the end of the year,” U.S. Davis Cup captain Patrick McEnroe said. “Whereas in years past, there was no doubt that Federer was going to be No. 1 – it was just a question of how many majors he was going to win. This year, it’s very much in question.”

Federer reached the final last weekend at the Hamburg Masters, but he lost to Nadal.

That dropped Federer’s career marks against the Spaniard to 6-10 overall and 1-8 on clay, including losses to Nadal in the past two French Open finals. The clay-court major remains the only Grand Slam title missing from Federer’s resume.

“For Rafa, on clay, nothing is impossible,” Federer said of Nadal.

That always seemed to apply to Henin, too. But she says she’s done for good, an out-of-nowhere announcement that leaves Williams as the only past Roland Garros champion in the women’s field.

It also gives more hope to someone such as Sharapova, trying to complete a career Grand Slam, or Ana Ivanovic and Jelena Jankovic, attempting to claim a first major championship.

“It just completely opens up the whole draw,” said Michael Chang, elected this year to the International Tennis Hall of Fame. “I’m actually a little bit surprised that she maybe didn’t wait ‘til maybe after one more French, because it’s a surface that she loves so much and a tournament that means a lot to her.”

That tournament had a record five withdrawals, and both semifinals ended with players quitting for health reasons, the first time that happened at any Masters Series event. One of the players who stopped was Roddick, and he later pulled out of the French Open, where he’s won a total of two matches since 2002.

Both tours also have their hands full with another delicate topic: betting on tennis and concerns about attempts to influence matches. The ATP is still investigating suspicious betting patterns on an August 2007 match involving No. 4-ranked Nikolay Davydenko.

A report released this week by the sport’s governing bodies warned that while “professional tennis is neither institutionally nor systematically corrupt, it is potentially at a crossroads. There is sufficient cause for concern about the integrity of some players and those outside tennis who seek to corrupt them.”