PARIS, May 23 (AFP) - Defending French Open champion Carlos Moya has been warned. Everybody wants the Spaniard's crown and the 22-year-old former world number one faces a host of challengers on the red clay of Roland Garros over the coming fortnight. Heading a long list of pretenders to the throne at the toughest tournament of them all are moody Chilean Marcelo Rios and Australian world number three Pat Rafter, who both come into the event on a hot streak. Rios, seeded nine here, won at St Polten for the third time on Sunday - his 14th career title - though he barely had to stretch himself after Argentina's Mariano Zabaleta pulled out of the final at 4-4 in the first set with a knee injury. A quarter-finalist here 12 months ago, when he went out to Moya, Rios - who is drawn to meet a qualifier - vowed to do better than that this time round. "I'm in really good shape and I'm sure I'm going to play better than last year. Moya had better look out," warned Rios, who is keen to improve on his poor Grand Slam record. To date it comprises just one final appearance; when he lost to Petr Korda at the 1998 Australian Open. Rios' victory in Austria was a big boost following his shock early loss at the Italian Open to German qualifier David Prinosil. Rafter, meanwhile, continues to insist his serve-and-volley game can gain him top honours even on clay. And he is in winning mode after his sterling performances led Australia to the World Team Cup title Sunday, claiming a win over Thomas Enqvist and then a doubles triumph with Sandon Stolle to down Sweden 2-1. "It's always good going in on a winning note," said two-time US Open champion Rafter, who has a potentially tricky obstacle to overcome in his first French match against junior world champion Roger Federer of Switzerland. In his previous tournament outing, Rafter got to the Italian Open final in Rome before succumbing to 1997 French Open champion Gustavo Kuerten of Brazil. Kuerten himself is bursting to recapture the title having enthralled the Roland Garros crowds two years ago and having won in Monte Carlo and Rome. He opens against Spaniard Galo Blanco, while Moya begins his defence with a date with unheralded Austrian Markus Hipfl. Moya must be feeling the odds are stacked against him with the draw jam-packed former Grand Slam winners - 11 in total - and half a dozen former French champions, plus seven one-time world number ones, including current top dog Yevgeny Kafelnikov. The Russian carried off the title here in 1996, beating German Michael Stich. But the number one spot has brought with it an attack of the jitters and the Russian suffered six straight first round defeats earlier this year. He now has to face 1989 champion Michael Chang, who, while he has dropped out of the top 40, remains an immense talent. Kafelnikov, who won the Australian Open in January, is bidding for the first back-to-back Grand Slam wins since 1996. While the likes of Kuerten and Moya should be strongly fancied on the energy-sapping clay, the incomparable Pete Sampras insists this can be his year as he awaits a first-round match with Costa Rican Juan Antonio Marin. Sampras is anxious for is a first title at Roland Garros, the only Grand Slam to elude him. The American is refreshed after skipping the Australian Open with fatigue - and now he says he is ready for the great prize; the one which would make him surely the greatest ever. Sampras, whose best effort here was a 1996 semi-final, is one of two men who could emulate Rod Laver in winning all four Slams in the Open era. Twice-finalist Andre Agassi is the other, but the flamboyant American is struggling to find his form, having played "like a schmuck" in losing to Rafter in Rome. Agassi could have had a kinder draw. He faces Argentina's Franco Squillari - who beat Moya at the Italian Open and won the title in Munich at the start of the month - in the first round. The battle for the women's crown is no less fascinating. World number one Martina Hingis, who has never won the French title, opens against Amanda Hopmans of the Netherlands and is then set for a crunch second-round meeting with French player Amelie Mauresmo, whom she beat in the Australian Open final in January. Unseeded Mauresmo opens against unseeded American Tara Snyder. Powerful Venus Williams, winner of the German and Italian Open titles on clay, will face either Hingis or Mauresmo in the quarter-finals if the draw holds up. Williams opens against Alexandra Fusai of France but could then face former finalist Natasha Zvereva of Belarus in the second round. Five-time champion Steffi Graf of Germany, seeded sixth, opens against Maggie Maleeva of Bulgaria, while second-seeded Lindsay Davenport of the United States is in a relatively easy-looking quarter and opens up against fellow American Jane Chi. Defending champion Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario of Spain opens against Croatian prodigy Mirjana Lucic.  