TENNIS: It may be good for player confidence to have won a tour event at some stage since the season began at the end of December in Australia. But for those seeking a guide to the French Open, the weeks from April 4th until last week have been the most telling period.

The clay season, which began with the Bausch & Lomb Championships on Amelia Island, Florida, in early April, kicked off the most gruelling phase of the calendar. While Lindsay Davenport won that event, the tall American is not the player most are looking at as a potential winner over the next two weeks.

In all there have been 11 tournaments of note, and the Belgian Justine Henin-Hardenne and the French number one, Amelie Mauresmo, have made the biggest impact.

The Russians? Why, apart from a recent Prague Open win by Dinara Safina, sister of Marat Safin, they have not been mapped. The Prague championship was also earned while most of the top names were simultaneously competing in the Italia Masters, a much bigger event, which was won by Mauresmo.

Henin-Hardenne has been far the most successful player since her first win of the year, in Charleston, South Carolina, in mid-April. The former Wimbledon and Roland Garros champion followed that with another championship in Warsaw in the J&S Cup and followed on the next week in Germany with her third title of the year at the Berlin Open in Germany.

She is, however, now just recovering her best form after fighting a virus - yes, another one - and is seeded 10th. Her fitness test arrives early with a first-round match against former Wimbledon champion Conchita Martinez of Spain, who reached the final in Paris in 2000.

Henin-Hardenne's compatriot Kim Clijsters the runner-up in 2001 and 2003, continues to be a doubtful starter because of a knee injury. She has won twice on hard court this year and has been included in the draw as the 14th seed. She plays a qualifier first round and if her fitness holds will get to the second week.

While the world number one, Davenport, who tops the women's draw, will start her campaign against Katarina Srebotnik of Slovenia, her game simply isn't clay-friendly in the same way as that of last year's beaten finalist and fourth seed, Russia's Elena Dementieva. While Dementieva has not won a title this season she has, like Nadia Petrova, been to a clay court final, where she lost to Henin-Hardenne.

As for the other Russians Maria Sharapova and Anastasia Myskina, last year's surprise winner, neither has figured much in recent months. Sharapova is a better hard-court competitor and indicated that when she won the Quatar Open in February. Her best result on clay came when she got to the Italian Open final before being beaten by Patty Schnyder.

Myskina has been a bigger mystery and contributed to the doubt currently hanging over her when she withdrew from the Italian Open in Rome for personal reasons. This came in the wake of her loss in the second round to a wild card in the Berlin Open.

Still, there are a hatful of other Russians swamping the draw, but since arriving in Paris, Mauresmo has been training discreetly at the Yvelines Centre in Feucherolles with her coach, Loïc Courteau, and mentor Yannick Noah. She has all the talent but can she successfully fight the nerves and expectations of the bullish Parisian crowd? That has always been her defining problem. Again she faces Roland Garros as Tim Henman would another Wimbledon.