The world tennis number two Roger Federer says the exit of clay court king Rafael Nadal will have no affect on his French Open Tennis campaign, unless he reaches the final.
Federer's just three wins away from both a career grand slam and joining Pete Sampras as a 14-time major winner, and he's desperate to avoid sinking beneath a tidal wave of expectations.
With four-time champion Nadal, who defeated the Swiss star in the last three finals at Roland Garros, beaten for the first time at the Paris event, Federer's widely-tipped to cruise to a first French Open title.
That would make him only the sixth man in history to have won all four grand slam titles.
But the 27-year-old insists that with or without Nadal there's still work to be done on the claycourts which have, year in, year out, resembled more of a scrapyard for him than a playground.
If Federer can get past French 11th seed Gael Monfils and then either Juan Martin Del Potro or Tommy Robredo in the semi-finals, he may start thinking that finally the tennis gods, are on his side.
