A place in France where all the women have a chance

Seemingly everybody but the chipper woman at the sandwich stand selling jambon et fromage has a chance to win this French Open women’s singles title, and we shouldn’t necessarily rule out the chipper woman at the sandwich stand selling jambon et fromage.

No. 1-ranked Dinara Safina could win. Nos. 2 and 3, Serena or Venus Williams, could win. Onrushing Victoria Azarenka or Caroline Wozniacki could win. Long-craving No. 5 Jelena Jankovic could win. Somebody else could win. Even four-time champion Justine Henin could’ve won if she hadn’t suddenly up and retired 12 months ago.

No. 102 Maria Sharapova probably can’t win, but she’s back after shoulder surgery that left her unseen in a major since last year’s Wimbledon, and the veteran Frenchwoman Amelie Mauresmo definitely can’t win from her No. 16 seeding, having outdone even herself in her Roland Garros bugaboo with a shockingly listless 6-4, 6-3 loss to 51st-ranked Anna-Lena Groenefeld of Germany on Sunday evening.

Could Serena Williams win and make it three Grand Slam titles in a row even though she hasn’t graced a final here in seven long, slow-clay years?

“Yeah, I definitely think Nadal is probably a big-time favorite,” she said in a puckish turn. “And then, yeah, for women, I’m not -- I don’t know. I’m just here to play and go for it. Yeah.”

As for a drought that includes somehow not snaring any of the last 20 semifinal slots across five years, the 2002 champion and 10-time Grand Slam winner said, “Yeah, it’s definitely something I want to fix.”

So, maybe.

Ever since Henin left abruptly, the women’s game has alternated between a hodgepodge and a mishmash, with Sharapova largely absent, the No. 1 ranking pinballing around and the only normalcy being that the titlists in the last three Slams went Williams (Venus), Williams (Serena) and Williams (Serena).

In that soup, Venus Williams has shown a longevity once doubted of her and vaulted back to the top three for, remarkably, the first time in six years. Ana Ivanovic has walked out on the opening Sunday to Court Philippe Chatrier as both defending champion and afterthought after sinking from No. 1 to No. 8, won her first-round match over 44th-ranked Sara Errani of Italy and said, “There were a lot of memories that were dormant and they awaken, walking out on the court.”

And in this mix of dormancy and tepidity, Safina has risen to No. 1 despite not having won a Grand Slam title and despite being only 12 months removed from being allegedly-gifted-but-spotty.

Entering the Berlin warmup in mid-May 2008 ranked No. 17, she tore through Henin, Serena Williams and Elena Dementieva for that title, then clawed through Sharapova, Dementieva and Svetlana Kuznetsova at the French before losing the final to Ivanovic.

She would make a U.S. Open semifinal and an Australian final across the ensuing eight months, and now she’s a favorite with her more famous brother Marat withstanding his first round on Sunday and saying that if she made the final, “Well, I saw already enough tennis in my life, so I just watch it on TV.”

This, only a year after she finished a stirring French run and said, “Well, I mean, if somebody would tell me before, after how bad I had beginning of the season, and somebody would tell me, ‘You’ll be winning the Tier 1 tournament and being in the final of a Grand Slam, I’d say, ‘God, are you kidding or what? What are you talking about?’ ”

Maybe that very statement made her a fitting No. 1 for a jumbled age.

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chuck.culpepper@latimes.com

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French Open at a glance

TODAY’S KEY MATCHES

(world rankings in parentheses)

Venus Williams (3) vs. Bethanie Mattek-Sands (45): A wee and hopeless French Open country gets a draw against itself. Has the draw no heart for overmatched, downtrodden nations?

Rafael Nadal, Spain (1), vs. Marcos Daniel, Brazil (96): Nadal begins his search for an unprecedented fifth straight title with a 28-0 record at Roland Garros. Many, many people think he’ll be 29-0 after this.

Roger Federer, Switzerland (2), vs. Alberto Martin, Spain (93): Federer tries this thing again even with the ill luck that the Nadal family of Mallorca decided to have a baby 23 years ago. He thinks they should have waited 10 years and enjoyed life more.

A FRENCH MORSEL

The French Open had declined him a wild-card entry, and the ATP had slapped him with a $12,000 fine and a five-week summer ban for betting $192 in 2004 on tennis matches not involving himself. But now 125th-ranked Mathieu Montcourt has become a lucky loser from the qualifying tournament and won his first-round match when Yen-Hsun Lu retired after one set, giving Montcourt a news-conference forum in which he said, “The biggest bet was, I think, three dollars, and I lost 36 dollars, which is, to my point, ridiculous (laughter). . . . Yeah, can you imagine? I was betting on Agassi. He stopped playing like three or four years ago.”

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“Actually, what I remember the most was of winning, and when I arrived after the finals, in the hotel, there was all, the entire staff of the hotel waiting for me. It was like kind of touching.” -- Gaston Gaudio, who lost Sunday to Radek Stepanek but remains the little-known answer to the trivia question: Who’s the last male not named Nadal to win this thing, way back in 2004?

-- Chuck Culpepper