Roger Federer, who missed an opportunity to win four straight majors twice in his career, in 2006 and 2007, when he was stopped by Rafael Nadal at Roland Garros after winning Wimbledon, the U.S. Open, and Australian Open titles consecutively, says the pressure on Novak Djokovic to try a similar feat at this year's French Open will be immense. "It's an amazing achievement in itself to win three in a row,' Federer said. "Four in a row is just another amazing step. I think the toughest part is the back end of it. I was twice in the finals, twice a couple sets away. Okay, I mean, I was playing Rafa [in Paris], which doesn't make it a whole lot easier. But it's easier to maybe start with the French in this era and then finishing it on the hard court. But it's amazing for tennis right now that we have Novak in this situation again, where we had Rafa [trying to do it] at the Australian Open [in 2011]. But the hard part is every point you play, every game you play, the pressure you face, and just answering the questions time and time again. It's fun because you're talking about the highest of accomplishments. But at the end of the day, you just like to play the matches and not talk about it that much."

Even though his uncle Goran has resigned as tournament director, Novak Djokovic says that at this point, his family has no plans to sell the ATP tournament in Belgrade, but would not commit to saying what the future of the event is. Seville has been reported as a possible destination. A Serbian newspaper has reported that the family is going to put the April tournament up for sale—none of top three Serbian players competed in it this year—which Goran Djokovic denied. "Not at this moment," Novak told reporters. "Well, we are thinking what is our next step, actually right now. My home tournament is the first ever professional tennis tournament, ATP tournament, organized in Serbia, so we are very proud of it. And, of course the city and the country, we have organized it for last four years and we always try to make it better every single year. Most of the comments that we hear are positive, so that's good to hear. But it's taking a lot of effort and a lot of energy from my family and myself to play there. We'll see what we gonna do."

China's Li Na says she became too distracted after winning Roland Garros last year, which lead to poor results. "I lost a lot of time (after the title)," Li told reporters. "I had to do so many things out of tennis. So after Roland Garros I felt I had lost concentration on the court. I was training as hard as before ... but it was totally different because my mind was not on the court anymore. I always had to do so many things and it's something I had never experienced before. I wasted half a year to learn life. Last year I was back in China, I was in a restaurant, and suddenly a lady screamed: 'Oh, she's eating.' I was like ... I have to go to the supermarket to buy something, like everyone else but they think I'm different."

ESPN analysts Chris Evert and Patrick McEnroe tab Serena Williams as the favorite to win Roland Garros. Serena won her sole French Open title in 2002 and hasn't reached the final since. She's riding a 17-match winning streak on clay, although she pulled out of Rome last week before her semifinal against Li Na. "I just have never seen Serena play this well on clay before, and she has never really come back with as much aggressiveness, and I think her fitness level is higher than we have seen it," Evert told reporters. "She’s moving better and she wants the French Open really badly. She’s talked about it all year because it is the one surface that eludes her at times, the clay. She’s brilliant on the hard court and the grass, but has not had as much success on the clay. So I think you’re going to see a triangle effect here with [Maria] Sharapova who has also played some great clay court tennis, and [Victoria] Azarenka. And the big question is, can [Azarenka] continue her dominance on the slower surface versus the hard court which she excelled on the last few months. It’s really interesting and it’s a tough one to call now." McEnroe said that one of the primary reasons for Serena's excellence on dirt this season is her movement. "I think some of my spies who were there at the Fed Cup when the U.S. played about a month ago, said that she seemed to be very, very determined to get herself in tiptop condition and that maybe she wasn’t quite where she needed to be fitness?wise in Australia, and that she was determined to not let that happen again," he said. "So obviously she’s playing great. I think the difficulty for her at this point being a little bit older is that I think there’s more of a chance, as we saw in Australia, that she can have an off day. And because there’s a lot more depth in the women’s game. I think the only really fear for her is that she has an off day, or it’s a heavy condition kind of day in Paris where it can get rainy and a little bit windy and cold; so that could be tough for her. She’s got to find a way to win those matches when she’s not going to be at her best. Obviously when she’s at her best, she’s the best player in women’s tennis. But what’s lacking is the consistency day?in, day?out. So if she can somehow get through that maybe one or two matches that she may have, she’s certainly got a great chance to win it."

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga says the chances that a French man will win Roland Garros are zero.  "Let's be clear, there is no chance that a French win Roland Garros," he told reporters in Rome. "There is no inevitability in my comments. It's just an observation. But not to be able win a Masters 1000 clay, then a Grand Slam seems impossible." Yannick Noah, who was the last French man to win Roland Garros in 1983, told L'Equipe that he was disappointed with Tsonga's statements. "It is useless to say, 'This year I will win," Noah said. "However, dreaming of winning, that's fine. The worst thing is not even dreaming of victory. What happens is that the French do not even dream of winning. French players perform better on other surfaces, which is a shame because they do not have the chance to play well at home."

Novak Djokovic has ended his relationship with clothing manufacturer Sergio Tacchini and has signed with the Japanese company Uniqlo. Djokovic will wear shirts with a new logo at Roland Garros.  Uniqlo, which is subsidiary of Fast Retailing Co., also sponsors Japan's top-ranked player Kei Nishikori. In a statement, Tacchini said that Djokovic "has outgrown the Italian brand" and that it is "offering Djokovic the opportunity to take on new challenges."