French Open, men’s singles

• Roland Garros, Paris, France (outdoor clay)

So far this claycourt season, the cream has risen to the top.

Reigning French Open champion Carlo Alcaraz beat Lorenzo Musetti to win the Monte Carlo Masters.

Casper Ruud, a two-time finalist in Paris, captured the Madrid Masters, a tournament Alcaraz missed due to injury.

And when Jannik Sinner returned to action in Rome, he and Alcaraz met in the final, the Spaniard claiming the trophy and, with it, firm favouritism for Roland Garros.

Sinner and Alcaraz are the best two players in the world. The rankings show it and so do the eyes.

As a punter, I was certainly hoping (and to an extent expecting) Sinner to show some rust in Rome, where he was competing for the first time in three months due to his controversial drugs ban.

An iffy display there could have set the cat amongst the pigeons in the outright market here but instead the Italian looked like he’d never been away.

All could be faced before the semis where Alex Zverev or Novak Djokovic could await.

Zverev has an excellent record at this tournament, making at least the semis in each of the last four years. Last season he made the final but couldn’t convert a two-sets-to-one lead against Alcaraz into victory.

The German’s form hasn’t been as good as he’d have liked coming in though and that will give hope to Djokovic, at time of writing trying to play himself into shape in Geneva.

I’m not expecting the Serb to win a record-breaking 25th Grand Slam title here at the age of 38 - he’s been too inconsistent for me for some time now.

But neither am I prepared to completely write off his chances.

While the last 18 months have been something of a struggle, certainly by his standards, Djokovic has shown an ability to produce his best displays at the big events.

He’s won just one title in that period but it was the one he would have hand-picked – the Olympic Games at this very venue last summer.

There have also been two Australian Open semi-finals runs, one of which was halted by injury. He was also forced to quit this tournament 12 months ago having played well to reach the last eight.