The French Open has something unusual this year - an overwhelming favorite for the men's title.
The 21-year-old Florida native is returning to Paris, where he won his first Grand Slam title a year ago, as the undisputed No. 1 player in the world.He won the Australian Open earlier this year and swept to an impressive victory last week in the Italian Open, the season's major clay-court warmup for Paris, stretching his winning streak to 16 matches.
So dominant is Courier at the moment that he has taken to describing his form in terms of perfection.
"The way I'm hitting the ball and moving and how I feel physically, it's perfect," Courier said after overpowering Spain's Carlos Costa, the year's clay-court sensation, in the final of the Italian Open last Sunday. "I am very pleased and very confident."
The women's field is headed by two-time defending champion Monica Seles, with Gabriela Sabatini, Steffi Graf and Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario as the main challengers. No surprises there.
But there hasn't been such a strong favorite among the men since Mats Wilander won at Roland Garros in 1988. In the past three years, the French Open began with wide-open fields and ended with surprise winners - Michael Chang in 1989, Andres Gomez in 1990 and Courier himself in 1991.
None came into the French with the kind of season that Courier has enjoyed in 1992.
"I'm playing much better," he said. "I feel I'm more of a professional as each day goes by. I know what I need to do to play well. It's been pretty much of a dream year."
There's every reason to believe the dream will continue in Paris, although Courier won't take anything for granted.
"Two weeks is a long time," he said. "A lot of weird things can happen. That's the beauty of it."
Other contenders in Paris figure to include Stefan Edberg, Wimbledon champion Michael Stich, Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi, Chang, Costa and clay-court specialists such as Emilio Sanchez, Sergi Bruguera and Thomas Muster. Boris Becker is skipping the French Open because of a thigh injury. Of all the challengers, Agassi - Courier's former roommate at the Nick Bollettieri academy in Florida - has the game most suited to the red clay in Paris. But he has folded in two straight French Open finals, and this year has slipped to No. 12 in the world rankings.
"He is as much a question mark for me as for you," Courier said. "I do know Andre is one of the most talented players on the tour and he's a threat to win any week he decides he wants to. I am quite sure he will decide he wants to play well here."
So will Chang, who stunned the tennis world three years ago by winning the French at the age of 17. He said he has become more aggressive to keep up with power hitters like Courier.
"The game is getting a lot quicker," he said. "It's one thing to be a defensive player, but you can't expect to win all the time against people who hit the ball hard. You have to change it up more. You can't rely only on passing shots."
Ivan Lendl, a three-time French Open champion, has dropped out of the top 10 for the first time in 13 years. He's tied with Jimmy Connors among active players with eight Grand Slam titles, but seems unlikely to add another one in Paris.
Connors, 39, and John McEnroe, 33, are back in Paris for possibly the last time. Both are unseeded and could face tough first-round opponents.
Connors had fans on their feet last year before retiring in the fifth set of a third-round match against Chang. McEnroe, who says this is his last full year on the tour, is set to do color commentary for NBC once he is out of the tournament.
McEnroe is still bitter about his defeat in the final in 1984, when he lost to Lendl after leading two sets to love.
"There's no doubt about it, the loss in Paris to Lendl was the biggest loss of my career," he said in a first-person account in Tennis magazine. "That loss in Paris is always going to hurt me when they start the game of comparing champions."
At the age of 18, Seles has already established herself as among the top women champions. She has won the last four Grand Slam tournaments in which she competed, including the Australian Open in January.
Seles has won five tournaments this year and goes into the French with a 31-2 record. Sabatani also has captured five titles in 1992, beating Seles in the final of the Italian Open two weeks ago. Graf is coming off two straight tournament wins in Germany, defeating Sanchez-Vicario in both finals.
Jennifer Capriati, who reached the semifinals in Paris in 1990 at the age of 14, has been struggling in her third year on the tour.