After 18 years and 58 grand slam titles, you would think tennis had nothing new left to offer Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer. That, though, was before the holy trinity of men’s tennis found themselves pitted against each other in the same half of a grand slam draw for the first time.
With seedings for the French Open determined strictly by the ATP standings, the third-ranked Nadal, who is bidding for a fifth successive title and a 14th in all, faces a projected semi-final meeting with world No 1 Novak Djokovic. The contest would afford Djokovic, who has not beaten Nadal on a clay court for five years, a chance to avenge his 6-0, 6-2, 7-5 defeat to the Spaniard in last October’s final.
To keep that semi-final appointment, Djokovic will potentially need to negotiate a quarter-final path past Federer, the 2009 winner and eighth seed. The Swiss, who is returning to the Tour after undergoing two knee operations last year, missed last year’s tournament and has played just three matches since losing to Djokovic at the 2020 Australian Open.
The top-heavy nature of the draw means that opportunity beckons for those in the lower half of the 128-strong field, where Daniil Medvedev is the second seed. It remains to be seen whether the Russian, who has failed to progress beyond the first round in any of his previous four appearances in Paris, can justify his billing.
Medvedev freely admits that he does not enjoy competing on clay, although in the 37th-ranked Alexander Bublik he faces an opening-round opponent who once told French newspaper L’Équipe that he “hates tennis” full stop. Should Medvedev survive that potentially volatile encounter, he could face the big-serving American Reilly Opelka, a semi-finalist in Rome, in round three.
Also in the Russian’s quarter is Stefanos Tsitsipas, the fifth seed, whose Roland Garros preparations have included titles in Monte Carlo and Lyon and a run to the final of the Barcelona Open, where he held a match point against Nadal. The Greek, a semi-finalist at Roland Garros last autumn, has a Tour-leading 33 wins this season. He will begin his title challenge against the French veteran Jeremy Chardy before potentially facing Sebastian Korda, who reached the fourth round last year.
Dominic Thiem, twice a finalist at Roland Garros, faces a testing opener against Pablo Andujar, the 35-year-old Spaniard whose recent passage to the last four in Geneva included a win over Federer. The US Open champion and fourth seed, the only player in the bottom half of the draw with a grand slam title to his name, is slated to meet former quarter-finalist Fabio Fognini in the third round before a possible meeting with Norway’s Casper Ruud, who recently won the Geneva Open on clay following semi-final appearances in Monte Carlo and Rome.
Should Thiem emerge from his quarter unscathed, he could face Alexander Zverev for the first time since the pair’s epic US Open final last September. Zverev, who won the Madrid Masters title and reached the last eight in Rome, will play fellow German Oscar Otte, a qualifier, in the opening round.
Inevitably, though, the top half of the draw promises to be the chief focus of attention. Djokovic will begin his campaign against the 66th-ranked American Tennys Sandgren and, intriguingly, could face Marco Cecchinato, his quarter-final conqueror in 2018, should the Italian successfully negotiate a quarter that includes David Goffin and Alex de Minaur. Federer will start against the big-serving Denis Istomin of Uzbeksitan, who at the age of 34 has qualified for his 11th French Open campaign.
It is the tournament favourite Nadal, however, who looks to have the toughest draw. The defending champion will play Alexei Popyrin of Australia in round one. Should he come through, he will face the winner of the domestic squabble between former world No 7 Richard Gasquet and fellow Frenchman Hugo Gaston, who last year defeated former champion Stan Wawrinka en route to a fourth round loss against Thiem.
Round three could bring up a contest against either Cameron Norrie, the in-form Briton who recently made finals in Estoril and Lyon, or the 28th-ranked Italian Lorenzo Sonego, who won the Sardegna Open last month before making a thrilling charge to the last four in Rome.
Another dangerous Italian could await in the last 16 in the form of rising star and 18th seed Jannik Sinner, while the last eight promises a resumption of hostilities with the powerful Russian Andrey Rublev, the seventh seed, who beat Nadal at the quarter-final stage in Monte Carlo.