Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz, world number 1, and Serbian legend Novak Djokovic, third in the ATP since Monday, could face each other in the semifinals of Roland Garros, as determined by the draw held on Thursday at the facilities of the French Grand Slam.
On the other side of the draw, Russian Daniil Medvedev, second player in the world, would play the last finalist of the French tournament, Norway's Casper Ruud (4th), who fell to Rafael Nadal a year ago.
The great absentee of the draw was precisely the Spanish myth, who last week announced that he will not be able to seek his 15th crown due to the physical problems that drag from the Australian Open. His idea is to regenerate his body and return in the 2024 season to say goodbye to tennis.
The tradition at Roland Garros dictates that the defenders of the title in the male and female category attend the draw so Iga Swiatek, world number 1 and winner a year ago, was left unaccompanied.
Rafa was missing. The 2022 champion, Iga Swiatek fulfilled the tradition and was present at the Roland Garros draw. Photo: AP Photo/Thibault Camus.
Nadal was replaced by the captain of the French rugby team and the best player in the world in 2021, Antoine Dupont, in charge of distributing luck.
Alcaraz, who hours before had trained for the first time on the Philippe Chatrier court with Stan Wawrinka surrounded by great expectation, will debut against a tennis player who exceeds the classification.
Hypothetically, he would play in the third round against Canadian Denis Shapovalov (31), in the eighth round against Cameron Norrie (14th) or Italian Lorenzo Musetti (18th) and in the quarters against Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas.
Without Rafa and with Djokovic irregular, Carlos Alcaraz arrives in Paris as the 1 of the world and great candidate. Photo: REUTERS/Guglielmo Mangiapane.
Djokovic, who arrives at Roland Garros after completing a disappointing clay-court European tour, would face Spaniard Alejandro Davidovich (34th) in the third round, Hubert Hurkacz (13th) or Roberto Bautista (23rd) in the eighth round and Russian Andrey Rublev (7th) in the quarters.
Roland Garros was drawn: how the Argentines fared
The Argentines who entered directly by their ranking are Francisco Cerúndolo (28); Sebastián Báez (44), Tomás Martín Etcheverry (46); Pedro Cachín (63); Diego Schwartzman (93); Federico Coria (94) and Guido Pella (421), who will play with "protected ranking".
On the other hand, among the women, the only national representative will be the rosarina Nadia Podoroska (101), semifinalist in 2020.
They were joined this morning by Thiago Tirante (153), who surpassed the classification, in which Camilo Ugo Carabelli (150), Facundo Díaz Acosta (137) and Genaro Alberto Olivieri (227) are still competing in the third and final round.
Francisco Cerundolo has been completing a good tour of the brick dust and seeks to make the big leap in Paris. Photo: EFE/EPA/RICCARDO ANTIMIANI.
The draw of the main draw yielded the following opponents for Argentine tennis players in the first round:
Podoroska will face France's Jessika Ponchet (123)
Francisco Cerúndolo with the Spanish Jaume Munar (77)
Sebastián Báez with Frenchman Gael Monfils (386)
- Thomas Etcheverry against Jack Draper (60)
Pedro Cachín with Austrian Dominic Thiem (91)
- Federico Coria (94) against Croatia's Borna Coric (16)
- Diego Schwartzman will face the Spanish Bernabé Zapata Miralles (37)
- Guido Pella with Frenchman Quentin Halys (87)
Thiago Tirante and the rest of the tennis players who manage to overcome the qualy will have their own draw this Friday, when all the matches of the classification end.
The French Open will be played from Sunday, May 28 to Sunday, June 11 at the complex located in the Parisian neighborhood of Bois de Boulogne and will distribute prizes that will be a record of 43,900,000 euros (about 47 million dollars).
With information from Agencies
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