The Spaniard will first take to the court at Roland Garros when he faces Italy’s Simone Bolelli on Monday (May 28).

It follows the withdrawal of Ukraine’s Alexandr Dolgopolov, who had been due to be Nadal’s first-round opponent. 

If the 31-year-old goes all the way, he would equal Australian Margaret Court’s record of 11 titles at a single Grand Slam.

Nadal’s triumph in Paris last year saw him become the first player - male or female - to win the same Grand Slam tournament 10 times in the Open era.

As ever, he has been in ominous form on clay this year, claiming his 11th titles in Monte Carlo and Barcelona on his way to a record-breaking 50-set winning streak on a single surface.

The run was ended by Austria’s Dominic Thiem in the quarter-finals of the Madrid Open.

Nadal’s last loss on clay prior to that came against the same opponent 12 months earlier in Rome.

Despite the set-back, he went onto secure his eighth Italian Open crown last week with victory over Germany’s Alexander Zverev.

He also regained the world number one spot from Swiss legend Roger Federer following his victory.

Zverev is considered Nadal’s biggest threat at the French Open, even though he has never gone past the last-16 of a Grand Slam.

The 21-year-old is the leading player on the Association of Tennis Professionals Tour this year, having won 30 matches and claimed clay-court titles in Munich and Madrid.

Novak Djokovic, the 2016 champion, has dropped to 22^nd in the world rankings but the Serb showed signs of returning to his best form by reaching the Italian Open semi-finals and could make a challenge.

Thiem, a French Open semi-finalist in 2016 and 2017, is also likely to be contention.

Federer and Great Britain’s Andy Murray will not be competing with the former deciding to skip the entire clay-court season for the second year running and the latter still recovering from hip surgery.

In the women’s event, Romania’s Simona Halep is regarded as the favourite as she aims to secure her first Grand Slam title.

The 26-year-old goes into the tournament as the world number one and the leading player on the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) Tour this year.

She has lost in three previous Grand Slam finals, however, two of which came at Roland Garros.

Her narrow defeats to Russia's Maria Sharapova and Latvia's Jelena Ostapenko in Paris preceded her most recent defeat to Denmark's Caroline Wozniacki at the Australian Open this year.

Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina is also expected to be a strong contender, going into the event as the Italian Open champion for the second consecutive year. 

Two-time champion Sharapova will be among the seeds for the first time at a Grand Slam since returning from a 15-month doping ban in 2017. 

Other potential winners include defending champion Ostapenko and American Serena Williams, despite the fact that the 23-time Grand Slam champion has only played four WTA Tour matches since returning to the court after giving birth to daughter Alexis in September.