It's been 20 years since an out-and-out attacking player won the men's singles French Open title.

That sequence looks unlikely to be ended this year.

Dreadlocked and dashing, Yannick Noah was the last man to batter the baseliners defeating Mats Wilander in straight sets in 1983 and providing the only home win since 1946.

In the two decades since that heartwarming day, many attacking greats have tried and failed at Roland Garros.

John McEnroe, Boris Becker, Stefan Edberg, Pat Rafter and more recently Pete Sampras all came to grief on the dusty, red stuff and Sampras has just announced that he has all but given up hope of ever finding his feet in France.

A scan of the 32 men's seeds makes depressing reading for fans of serve-and-volley tennis with only Andy Roddick of the US and Britain's Tim Henman fitting the bill and even they will be forced to mainly slug it out from the baseline.

The problem is that developments in recent years in terms of equipment and player' fitness mean that groundstrokes have become more and more powerful and accurate and charging the net is no longer a realistic tactic.

That leaves the more attack-minded players such as Andre Agassi, Roger Federer and Sebastien Grosjean to provide the entertainment against the crusty Spanish and South American claycourt specialists.

Tournament organisers must have been squirming at the recent Hamburg Masters when for the first time ever four
Argentinian players filled the semi-final slots.

It might have given cause for celebration in the streets of Buenos Aires and Cordoba, but it led to a half-empty
stadium in Germany.

A similar mix in Paris with South American and Spanish claycourters monopolising the latter stages of what has become
one of the highlights of the French sports calendar would not be welcome.

Top seed Lleyton Hewitt is aware of how deflating an experience Roland Garros can be for a non-claycourter having
failed to get past the quarter-finals here in four attempts.

Playing in Dusseldorf this week, the Australian sounded less than confident of a better outcome this time.

"Whether I will ever win the French and master playing on clay, who knows," he said "Maybe I have to work a bit harder on clay - it's a challenge and I've always liked challenges. Not having grown up on it means that it takes me a little longer to get used to it but I enjoy playing on clay, the strategy and the patience you need."

He could, however, take heart from the player he is seeded to meet in the final, Andre Agassi.

The Las Vegas 'Showman' came up short 10 times in Paris before finally winning at his 11th attempt in 1999 when he came back from two sets down to defeat Ukraine's Andrei Medvedev, a win that resurrected his career.

The weather could also play a part in providing an upset winner.