Carlos Alcaraz and the person he simply changed atop the world rankings, Novak Djokovic, have been positioned in the identical half of the French Open discipline and will face one another within the semi-final.
Alcaraz is seeded No.1 at a grand slam for the primary time and was mechanically positioned within the prime part of the bracket.
Djokovic is No.3 and so may have ended up on both half. Had he landed within the backside, he and Alcaraz solely may have met within the last at Roland Garros, the place injured 14-time champion Rafael Nadal is lacking for the primary time since his 2005 debut.
Typically, the earlier 12 months’s singles champions are invited to look on the draw, so 2022 ladies’s winner Iga Swiatek was current in Paris on Thursday, however Nadal was absent.
Swiatek didn’t seem to point out any in poor health results from the harm proper thigh that brought about her to cease enjoying within the third set of her quarter-final in Rome final weekend and indicated that the problem wouldn’t forestall her from competing in Paris, the place she has received two of her three main trophies.
“It’s like my favourite tournament in the whole year, so I’m always excited to come back,” stated Swiatek.
“Before the tournament, I get this extra motivation to practice harder, to make everything better.”
The draw put her in a possible quarter-final towards Coco Gauff in what could be a rematch of final 12 months’s last.
Alcaraz, who simply turned 20, and 36-year-old Djokovic have performed one another simply as soon as beforehand, within the semi-finals of the Madrid Open in May 2022, which the Spaniard edged in a tricky three-setter.
This 12 months, the lads’s quarter-finals by seeding could be US Open champ Alcaraz, towards Stefanos Tsitsipas, Djokovic towards Andrey Rublev, Daniil Medvedev towards Jannik Sinner and Casper Ruud, runner-up final 12 months, towards Holger Rune.
The ladies’s match-ups in that spherical are scheduled to function Elena Rybakina, the reigning Wimbledon champion, towards Ons Jabeur, Australian Open champ Aryna Sabalenka towards residence hope Caroline Garcia and Jessica Pegula towards Maria Sakkari.
One participant who would have been seeded, Twenty ninth-ranked Paula Badosa, pulled out earlier than the draw, saying she obtained a stress fracture in her backbone in the course of the Italian Open.
Swiatek will start her match with a gathering towards Cristina Bucsa, a Spaniard ranked 67th who misplaced her solely earlier match at Roland Garros.
Some intriguing first-rounders embody Sabalenka towards Marta Kostyuk, Pegula towards 2022 Australian Open finalist Danielle Collins, and Victoria Azarenka towards Bianca Andreescu in a showdown between previous grand slam champions.
Nadal might not have been current however his shadow hangs over the occasion. “It’s going to be an emotional edition after (tournament director) Amelie Mauresmo received a call from Rafael Nadal saying he could not take part in the tournament,” French federation president Gilles Moretton stated.
“It will also be emotional because it marks the 40th anniversary of Yannick Noah’s triumph at Roland Garros.”
No French man has received the singles’ title since 1983 and it will take a miracle to see one in all them raise the Musketeers Cup on June 11.
With Reuters
Source: www.perthnow.com.au
