MADRID, 27 (EUROPA PRESS)
Spanish tennis player Rafa Nadal will start his Roland Garros defense against Australian Alexei Popyrin and will not meet Novak Djokovic until a hypothetical semi-final, while Garbiñe Muguruza will start against the Ukrainian Marta Kostyuk, according to the draw for the main draw held this Thursday in Paris.
Nadal, 13 times winner of the French ‘big’, will debut against Popyrin, a rival he already faced recently. It was in the second round of the Mutua Madrid Open, where the Spaniard won by a 6-3 double against the young Australian player, 21 years old and number 62 in the world ranking.
Possible clashes with Richard Gasquet (second round), Lorenzo Sonego (third round), Jannik Sinner (eighth) and Andrei Rublev (fourth) are also drawn on Nadal’s path as the most likely duels taking into account the current ATP ranking.
In addition, on the same side of the table as Nadal and Djokovic, who will start against the American Tennys Sandgren, there is also Roger Federer, so that only one of the three most successful players in history will be able to reach the final. The Swiss will make his debut against a rival from the preliminary phase yet to be known and could meet the world number one in the quarterfinals.
As for the rest of the Spanish ‘Armada’, Roberto Bautista will play against a rival from the previous phase and the rest of the duels will be the following: Pablo Carreño-Norbert Gombos, Pablo Andújar-Dominic Thiem, Albert Ramos-Gael Monfils, Fernando Verdasco -Philipp Kohlschreiber, Feliciano López-Federico Coria, Alejandro Davidovich-Mikhail Kukushkin, Jaume Munar-Jordan Thompson, Roberto Carballés-Elias Ymer and Pedro Martínez-Sebastian Korda.
Regarding the women’s team, Garbiñe Muguruza, winner at Roland Garros five years ago, will start against the Ukrainian Kostyuk, a young 18-year-old player who occupies position 81 in the WTA ranking, and in the second round she could meet the Polish Iga Swiatek, defender of the title , and in some theoretical rooms with the American Sofia Kenin.
The Canarian Carla Suárez, who has been out of the circuit for almost a year and a half, will return against the American Sloane Stephens, a finalist in 2018, in her last participation in the French capital, while Paula Badosa, who arrives with great confidence after winning the first WTA title of her career, she will debut against the Norwegian Clara Tauson and Sara Sorribes will do it against the Chinese Saisai Zheng.
