Djokovic could stop us from making it another Nadal vs Federer final, insists the Swiss master who begins his French Open campaign today

'Only Djokovic can stop Federer-Nadal French Open final'

Djokovic could stop us from making it another Nadal vs Federer final, insists the Swiss master who begins his French Open campaign today

Roger Federer acknowledges he and Rafael Nadal are even stronger favourites than usual for the French Open due to injuries to two of their main rivals.

Two of the biggest obstacles to that have also been removed, with top-six stars Juan Martin del Potro and Nikolay Davydenko out injured.

And defending champion and World No 1 Federer admits this makes the prospect of a fourth final clash with Nadal in five years even more likely.

"I guess we're the big favourites this year, maybe more this year than in the past," the 16-time grand slam champion said ahead of his opener against Austria's Peter Luczak.

"He knows that we both need to be careful and play well at the beginning of the tournament, and then we'll see.

"No matter who is the favourite, what's important is who is the winner at the end."

The 28-year-old added: "It's hard to pick anybody right now to say 'if Roger and Rafa are not going to win, who else will it be?'.

"The reason behind it is that Davydenko and Del Potro are missing, because they were potential title contenders.

"But, then again, there are guys who have played very well. I think a lot of the Spaniards have had a great claycourt season.

"Many of them have not been in a Grand Slam final. When you have not been there, it's hard to obviously pick one of those guys."

The Swiss singled out world number three and former Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic as the biggest threat to a Federer-Nadal showdown.

"Novak belongs also as one of the favourites here, even though he hasn't maybe played to the level people were expecting him to play," he said.

"But he's won a Grand Slam before. He's had the most consistent claycourt seasons as well in the last three or four years or so.

"It seems like he has that solid game that allows him to go deep here in Paris."

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