Will Rafael Nadal win No.12?

It’s a simple enough question, but the answer comes in seven layers atop the terre battue, with 21 sets needed across two weeks and thousands (thousands!) of tennis strokes hit with near perfection.

Will Rafael Nadal win Roland-Garros title No.12?

Winning a whopping 12 titles at one Grand Slam tournament is something no player has done in the history of the game. Only Margaret Court equals Rafa at 11, hers won at the Australian Open yet split between the amateur and Open Eras.

On Monday, Nadal will take the first step to try and launch himself into a stratosphere that belongs only to him.

So, the question lingers: will he do it?

It’s the topic we debated on Sunday night (7pm Paris time) in this year’s first iteration of Live at Roland-Garros, our nightly web show streamed live on our official YouTube and Facebook accounts, as well as on this website and the official app.

Somehow, though, not me, not my fellow presenter Gigi Salmon nor our expert panelist Daniela Hantuchova, the former world No.5, answered “yes” to said question.

I’ve picked Dominic Thiem to win here, while Gigi and Daniela have picked Novak Djokovic.

Watch the full debate with the 'Live at Roland-Garros' team below:

Daniela explained her reasoning: “It just doesn’t feel the same with Rafa this year,” she said in our ‘Question of the Day’ debate. “But it’s so hard to pick. I just feel like Novak is in the best space mentally, which is the most important thing for him. He won the first Slam of the year. I think that matters so much for him.”

But we needed to get more opinion on the matter. So, we sent out our roving reporter Eli Weinstein to chat with fans around the grounds at Roland-Garros. The answers: mostly split, including several fans who answered with abrupt “Yes!” responses while others called out Djokovic or Roger Federer as their favourites.

Hantuchova tended to agree: While the race is close, it’s hard to call exactly who will emerge out front.

“What makes this year so interesting is that all the top three guys on clay (Djokovic, Nadal and Thiem) seem to have found their best form on the surface; they’re all in such good physical form at the moment," she said. "It’s so hard to pick one of those.”

But, the last say should always belong to you, the people, so we put out a poll on the official Roland-Garros Twitter, and the people spoke, loud and clear: Seventy percent say Rafa will win No.12 this year, with just 30% siding with me, Gigi and Daniela.

So, is it we against the people?

More than anything else, it’s a fascinating discussion to have, because, quite honestly, none of us know what will transpire over the coming fortnight in Paris. Monday afternoon, second on Court Philippe Chatrier, Rafa will take on qualifier Yannick Hanfmann, a German ranked world No.184.

And as the forecast cloudy skies move over Paris and Nadal hits the first of those predicted thousands of shots, we’ll have our beginning clues to that simple question.