PARIS — A look at 10 of the top topics at the French Open, the clay-court Grand Slam tennis tournament that begins Sunday and ends June 9: 1. WHY STOP AT SEVEN? Rafael Nadal already owns a record seven French Open titles — he broke a tie with Bjorn Borg by winning last year — and is widely considered the favorite to add No. 8. He is 36-2 this season, reaching the finals of all eight tournaments he’s entered, winning six. And he’s as good as it gets on red clay. 2. IF HE’S SO GOOD, WHY WASN’T NADAL SEEDED NO. 1? After a surprising second-round loss at Wimbledon last year, Nadal was off the tour for a little more than seven months, missing the last two Grand Slam tournaments and every other event — and missing out on the ranking points they offer. So he slid down to a current spot of No. 4, and while the French Open would have been allowed to bump him higher, it chose instead to stick to its policy of strictly adhering to the rankings when seeding players. 3. WHO COULD STOP NADAL? The man who is ranked and seeded No. 1, Novak Djokovic, is one of the two players to beat Nadal this season, and he did it on clay, no less. Djokovic also has won eight of their 11 meetings since the start of 2011. A six-time major champion, Djokovic is trying to complete a career Grand Slam (at least oneThe post 10 Things to Know for the French Open appeared first on The Epoch Times. Reported by Epoch Times 3 hours ago.