Novak Djokovic has a warning for anyone who thinks his charge up the rankings is about to grind to a halt at Roland Garros. For the Serb, playing on clay feels just like coming home.
"I grew up on clay," Djokovic told Reuters in an interview.
"In Serbia, 90 per cent of the courts we have in the country are clay courts so during the summer I played a lot of tournaments on that surface.
"Even though, of course, looking at my results the last year or so my preferred surface is hardcourt, outdoors, but I'm happy that I'm managing to do really well on the surface I grew up on."
While triple French Open champion Rafael Nadal is still the acknowledged master on the surface, Djokovic has proved this season that it would be foolish to underestimate him anywhere.
Djokovic may be ranked third in the world, behind Roger Federer and Nadal, but he is the number one in what the ATP calls the Race, which measures only performances since the start of the season.
The Belgrade-born player, who turns 21 today, won his first grand slam title in Australia at the start of the year and since then he has added two Masters titles to his list of honours.
The second of those came on clay at Rome and he did well in Monte Carlo and Hamburg, too, losing in the semi-finals to, respectively, Federer and Nadal. The match against Nadal in Germany was a spectacular battle between the best two players in the world on current form.
Self-belief has never been a problem for the multi-lingual Djokovic, who started playing at the age of four and came through the Niki Pilic academy in Munich before turning professional at 16.
He has lost to Nadal at Roland Garros in each of the last two years but he can feel he is getting closer, and it certainly looked that way as he pushed the Spaniard all the way in a 7-5 2-6 6-2 defeat in Hamburg.
"I've always tried to make my game an all-round game, with more variety," Djokovic told Reuters.
"That's what I've been working on lately and I'm pretty happy with my improvements so far. I've improved my volley game a lot and I can change pace at different moments in the match, which is very important for the upcoming Roland Garros.
"Sure, Rafa is the number one favourite. Winning three in a row the French Open is a real achievement for such a young guy. But this year is a quite different situation and it's going to be interesting to see who is going to win it."
The difference this year, should they meet again, is that Djokovic has been given a huge shot in the arm by his win in Melbourne. Put simply, he believes he can beat anyone, and he is unwilling to settle for having won just one grand slam.
"I don't consider every great result now this season as just a bonus," he said. "I see everything I do as a great achievement, a great success and something that motivates me to do even better in the future."