One could forgive Rafa Nadal for bowing out of two clay tournaments in a row given his stunning track record on clay including Barcelona where before Dominic Thiem crushed him last week with some hard hitting tennis, Nadal had been undefeated in Semi and Final appearances. All good runs have to come to an end at some point, even concerning Nadal's love affair with Barcelona (his home city) and clay - his beloved surface. But could one forgive Nadal for missing out on making it 12 French Open slam wins and defending his title once again at Roland Garros? Well if the Austrian Dominic Thiem comes head to head with the king of clay, the answer is a resounding yes you could!

Source: Getty Images - Dominic Thiem

Thiem has shown he can beat Nadal outright three times now, all on clay, plus one more win over three sets on clay. Interestingly enough he has yet to beat Nadal in a slam. They have faced each other three times in slams, twice at Roland Garros where Nadal has beaten Thiem in straight sets 3-0 on both occassions. Could this be the year Thiem finally claims a famous slam victory over Nadal and become the new king of clay? If he plays how he did at Barcelona where he hit Nadal off the court, there's no reason he can't, except perhaps for one or two bumps in the road beyond Nadal including Roger Federer himself entering his first French Open in four years.

Though Thiem edges the head to head with Federer and the Austrian's favourite surface is clay, and although Federer's least favourite surface is clay, the Swiss looked formidable in his last tournament played where he claimed the Miami Masters on a hard court. Just adding Federer to the mix and then also bearing in mind that although Djokovic has looked susceptible of late he was the last player to win a Grand Slam where he made Nadal look ordinary in the Australian Open final means it won't be so easy to even get to face Nadal again, never-mind for Thiem to claim his first ever Grand Slam title.

One thing is for sure, though Thiem will never reach the heights Nadal has in either number of French slams or total number of slams won, he certainly has become the likely heir to the clay throne. Only Djokovic has beaten Nadal on clay more than Thiem and with Thiem being much younger than Djok and also recording his latest win against Nadal last week, he is looking a serious contender for the French Open.

It will likely be Thiem's biggest chance this year of claims to a slam and he won't be such a bad bet to take to go all the way. His current odds are 5.0.

Perhaps even more curious and worth a shot are Federer's odds, set as high as 25.0.

So here are my two recommendations for the French this year.

Thiem at 5.0 (1%)

Federer at 25.0 (1%)

Watch Thiem Destroy Nadal in Barcelona Semi's Before Going on to Win the Title