There are numerous candidates for the French Open on the women's side, but one stand-out performer who will surely prevail: Serena Williams.

The American has only won the title at Roland Garros once — back in 2002 — but her performances in Charleston, in particular, show that she is the best in the world on the surface.

On her day, the 30-year-old remains untouchable and there is no one on the WTA Tour that can match her power or intensity.

I have seen some of the odds for Serena prevailing at Roland Garros, and there is some money to be had, let me tell you.

Since Charleston, Serena has

Madrid Masters - Rafael Nadal

There's no doubt that the blue clay at the Madrid Masters was a mistake.

Watching the Rome Masters today, you can see the difference clearly — the ball is more difficult to follow on the red clay, so you can understand why they tinkered with it, but the movement was a total mess, a disaster.

Why was it so slippery, so difficult to move on? I'm not a scientist so cannot say whether the dye had some kind of reaction with the clay, or if they just used a different compound without properly testing it.

But no-one gave it the thumbs-up, and most of the men gave it a resounding thumbs-down.

And,

Andy MurrayAndy Murray has always been susceptible to big hitters blasting through him on clay, so his defeats to Milos Raonic and Tomas Berdych do not worry me greatly.

These days it's pretty much the only way he gets beaten — apart from when he plays against the top three on the big occasions, obviously.

Raonic brought his best game in Barcelona, with Murray falling short; against Berdych in Monte Carlo Murray actually played really well, but the Czech was on fire and just too powerful for him.

Neither defeat is of particular concern though, and I would say Murray is in just as good form as last year —

It was a remarkable performance from Maria Sharapova as she steamrollered world number one Victoria Azarenka in straight sets to win in Stuttgart, and she made a big statement in the process.

In what was only Azarenka's second defeat of the year, the Belarusian was unable to compete with a very fired-up Sharapova, and it said a lot about the way her opponent imposed herself on the match.

Yes, Azarenka was treated for a wrist injury at the start of the second set, but by that point she had already lost the opener 6-1 in convincing fashion.

What was key for me in assessing Sharapova's

Nadal could not hide his emotions after an emphatic win over Novak DjokovicRafael Nadal got the monkey off his back at the weekend with his 6-3 6-1 demolition of Novak Djokovic. The top seed has defeated the Spaniard time after time and towards the end of last year, Nadal was despairing to find a solution.

Obviously Djokovic was less than himself because his grandfather died during the week and I think he was, at best, distracted — but even so, Nadal looked formidable.

He beat him and he beat him easily, and that will set a marker. For me, he showed even better form than when he won Roland Garros last year.

It was obviously an important win for him, and you could see

The switch to clay courts requires the biggest adjustments to a player's game in the course of a season, but it is nowhere near as hard as it used to be to do.

Those new to the game may not remember the days of extremes between the clay-court specialists, who relied on patience and movement at the back of the court, to the serve-and-volley experts on grass courts.

The former world number one Marcelo Rios famously said during Wimbledon 1997 that grass was for "cows and soccer". He only played at SW19 three times in his 10-year career.

He was not alone. Clay-court specialists would regularly go

Serena Williams remains the best player in the world and her presence as an unstoppable force was exemplified with her stunning display in Charleston.

It was not the simple fact that she swept aside every player that was in her path in taking the title, but the message that she sent out to the rest of the WTA Tour.

"I am still here and playing as well as I ever have done" — that was what her performances in Charleston said to her rivals.

Serena did not just beat her opponents, but butcher them in quite ruthless and emphatic fashion: it was truly frightening to watch.

Sam Stosur and Lucie

A focused Roger Federer is poised to enjoy a golden year

Another week, another trophy collected by the ongoing Roger Federer. If we accept the consensus that the standard of tennis has improved year on year in the past three or four years, do we assume that Roger Federer is playing as well as he was when he was winning Grand Slams for fun? There is a case to be made for such a thought.

Favours were certainly done for him in Indian Wells with Guillermo Garcia-Lopez beating Andy Murray, and Novak Djokovic losing to John Isner along the way. That was a big surprise, but Federer can only beat the men in front of him. This he did with some style.

The