There is going to be something missing, of course there is. Justine Henin will be at Roland Garros today to shake hands, shed tears and seek to explain to an international gathering what she has faced up to in Belgium, her home country - that the spark has gone.

Martina Navratilova, who finished playing at 49, said she could not believe that Henin did not decide to give Wimbledon a parting shot, to see if she could win the tournament for the first time “because something special might happen”. Sadly, Henin is no Navratilova. Belgium apart, the loss of the 25-year-old to women's tennis will be felt most strongly here, for she won the past three French Open finals without dropping a set. Suddenly, with her absence, the women's event is tough to call and if Serena Williams does not repeat her 2002 victory, a new name will be on the Coupe Suzanne Lenglen.

Maria Sharapova has assumed the role of No1 seed and, in the initial stages of her 2008 campaign, she is surrounded by wild cards and qualifiers, so progress ought to be devoid of rough edges. She has great sympathy with Henin. “Literally, from the age you start playing this sport, every single day you are training,” the Russian said. “Everything you do that is not tennis, you think of all the consequences that can add up - that all the things that are not tennis can hurt your game.

“Then, after tennis, that's one of the things that everybody looks forward to - not having to think, ‘How is this going to hurt me when I'm going to go back on the court?' I don't think she has anything to regret in her career.”

The odds appear to be stacked in Sharapova's favour. The draw is lop-sided, with Ana Ivanovic and Jelena Jankovic, the Serbs who are ranked No2 and No3 respectively, in the opposite half, along with the Williams sisters and Marion Bartoli, the top-seeded French player and last year's Wimbledon finalist.

Sharapova, who avoids such potential problems, said: “I'm at a spot in my career where I know the player that I am and I know what I'm capable of producing on the court and that I never feel I have to prove to anyone, now or in the future. To be honest, winning this tournament would be an incredible addition to my résumé, but if it's not this year, my career's not ending. I've got many more years ahead of me to try and achieve that.”

Whether or not this is Amélie Mauresmo's final French Open, for she has talked often this year about the consequences of striving so hard and not winning (although she has twice as many wins as losses in 2008), it is difficult to reconcile that she is ranked No23 and fourth in France. Bartoli is the French No1, with Alize Cornet and Tatiana Golovin also ahead of Mauresmo. Golovin misses the event with back problems.