Why Federer has French Open edge over Nadal

Rafael Nadal has always had the wood over Roger Federer on clay, but Todd Woodbridge has pinpointed one reason why that could change this year.

The Aussie great is concerned for Nadal's fitness going into the French Open owing to the Spaniard's hectic schedule leading up to the tournament.

The 30-year-old will have played more tournaments than any other player in the top five going into the second Grand Slam of the year.

Nadal's main rivals - Federer, Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray and Stan Wawrinka – have all taken breaks since the start of the season and skipped at least one tournament during the clay court swing of the season.

Nadal and Federer at the 2011 French Open. Image: Getty

The 14-time men's singles Grand Slam champion is favourite to take his 10th French Open title owing to his current form, but the former men's doubles world No.1 is concerned that the 'king of clay' is overplaying himself by packing his schedule with multiple tournaments.

Nadal has already won back-to-back titles at Monte Carlo and Barcelona and is scheduled to play the next two tournaments in Madrid and Rome.

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He will have just one week of recovery between the end of the tournament in Italy and start of the second major of the year in Paris and Woodbridge is concerned that it will not be enough time for him to get back to his best physical condition.

"My main concern for Rafa in the coming weeks is overplaying," Woodbridge told Tennis World USA.

"He's already won two clay events, and is scheduled to play both Madrid and Rome in the coming weeks."

"But to win a 10th Roland Garros he needs to go in as fresh as possible. Once you're in your thirties, you have to respect your body – it doesn't recover as well as it does in your mid-twenties."

"This is a period of physical management for him, confidence is at a high and I'm intrigued to see what his team decides to do."

In contrast, Federer hasn't played an official match since beating Nadal in the Miami Open final.

He's played two charity matches (against Andy Murray and John Isner) but made the key decision to skip all clay-court tournaments leading up to Roland Garros.