The Roland Garros draw, this Thursday in Paris, gave way to an explosive part of the table: Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and the young Spanish phenomenon Carlos Alcaraz, the three main favorites, were paid into the same half of the table. of the tournament, which begins on Sunday.
Djokovic, world N.1 and holder of the trophy, could thus face Nadal, thirteen times winner of the Parisian Grand Slam, from the quarter-finals. The two monsters with 20 and 21 Grand Slam titles respectively have not faced each other so early in one of the four major tournaments since 2015. The winner would potentially meet Alcaraz, at the gates of the top 5 to 19 years oldin the semi-finals.
The Serb, who will turn 35 on Sunday, will begin his fortnight against the Japanese Yoshihito Nishioka. The Mallorcan, soon to be 36, will start against Australian Jordan Thompson. Alcaraz, who is having a hair-raising spring with his first two Masters 1000 titles, in Miami at the start of April and Madrid at the start of May, plus a success in Barcelona in the meantime, will be opposed to a player from the qualifications in the first round. He could meet another young talent, the American Sebastian Korda (21, 30th), in the third round, then in theory, Cameron Norrie (11th) in the round of 16, and the world No.3 Alexander Zverev in the quarter-finals. So far, however, his best Grand Slam result is a quarter-final reached at the US Open last September.
In the other half of the table, the theoretical semi-final would pit world No.4 Stefanos Tsitsipas, outgoing finalist, against No.2 Daniil Medvedev, who has just returned after a hernia operation in early April.
And the French in all this?
The Blues will have to get rid ofa top seed from the start : Hugo Gaston will face Alex De Minaur, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga for his farewell will be opposed to Casper Ruud, Frances Tiafoe will stand in the way of Benjamin Bonzi and Quentin Halys will have to achieve a feat against John Isner. Corentin Moutet did not fall on a seed, but on a former winner in the person of Stan Wawrinka, winner of the tournament in 2015.