The Roland Garros draw: Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz, forced to meet before the final

The draw of Roland Garros, held this Thursday in Paris, he had no mercy with the great favorites for the title: the number 1 in the world, the Serbian Novak Djokovic, and the Spaniards Rafael Nadal and Carlos Alcaraz were located in the same part of the table of the tournament, which begins this Sunday.

That means Djokovic, the current tournament champion, could face Nadal, a 13-time winner in Paris, in the quarterfinals and the winner of this duel would play in a possible semifinal against Alcaraz, the new phenomenon of world tennis at 19 years old.

“I am very motivated to play my best tennis,” said Djokovic, winner of the Masters 1000 in Rome last Sunday and present at the draw this Thursday. “In Paris I always play very hard. Last year, it was the toughest ‘big’ tournament and I won”, he added referring to the result of the draw.

In the 2021 edition, Djokovic came back from two sets against the Italian Lorenzo Musetti in the second round and then in the final against the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas to lift his second Musketeers Cup, in addition to having to eliminate Nadal, king of the earth beaten, in semifinals. “Musetti, Rafa, Tsitsipas… each match lasted at least three hours, with a lot of sets. It was exhausting, but I loved the result,” he recalled.

In the event of a new victory in 2022, Djokovic would equal Nadal’s record of 21 Grand Slams, who scored the first major of the season in Australia, where the Serbian could not play after being expelled by the authorities for not being vaccinated against covid -19.

Djokovic, 35 years old, will debut in the tournament against the Japanese Yoshihito Nishioka, while Nadal, who will turn 36 during the test, will do so against the Australian Jordan Thompson.

Alcaraz, the fittest player in the first part of the year, with titles at the Miami and Madrid Masters 1000 and victory at the Barcelona tournament, will debut against a player from qualifying, with a possible confrontation against the German Alexander Zverev (N.3) in a hypothetical quarterfinal match.

On the other side of the table, the number 2 in the world, the Russian Daniil Medvedev, who has just reappeared after having a hernia operation, could face Tsitsipas in the semifinals. In the quarterfinals, the current finalist would face the Norwegian Casper Ruud, while the Russian would face his compatriot Andrey Rublev.

The Roland Garros squad already features eight Argentines, which could become 11. This Friday the qualifier will be defined, which has three national tennis players fighting to access the first round of the second Grand Slam of the year.

On one side of the frame, Federico Coria He will make his presentation against the Slovakian Alex Molcan and if Djokivic beats him, he could be the one he faces in the second round. Sebastian Baez will play against Serbian Dusan Jajovic. For its part, Diego Schwartzman awaits his rival, who will be known this Friday. Some rivals could be the Spanish Jaume Munar or the German Daniel Altmaier as rivals in the second round and a theoretical third with a Top 20 like the Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov.

But if he gets through the early rounds, nothing will be easy in Peque’s way. The thing is, could have to face Djokovic, in the round of 16. Even in the case of overcoming that obstacle, the outlook for Schwartzman (semi-finalist in 2020 and quarter-finalist in 2018 and 2021), it would not be much easier, since the rival in quarters could be Nadal, the King of Paris with 13 Musketeers Cups, and in the semifinals with Carlos Alcaraz.

Federivo Delbonis He will debut against Frenchman Adrian Mannarino. Francisco Cerundolo will play his first duel against the British Daniel Evans. Facundo Bagnis will have a very tough presentation before Daniil Medvedev, current number two in the world. Rosario, number 98, could have his chances of winning despite everything, since Medvedev has just returned to the courts after undergoing surgery a little over a month ago from a hernia and has never had good results in Paris: last year he reached the quarter-finals after four consecutive eliminations in the first round. Finally, Tomas Martin Etcheverry will play against Serbian Miomir Kecmanovic.

It is worth noting that Santiago Rodríguez Taverna will play the main draw of a Grand Slam for the first time and it will be at Roland Garros, after qualifying this Thursday. The other Argentines who are in the third round of the classification in the Bois de Boulogne are Marco Trungelliti, Pedro Cachin and Camilo Ugo Carabelli. All three have chances to play the tournament on clay and brick.

Argentine tennis player Sebastián Báez was eliminated from the ATP 250 in Lyon. Who was champion this year at the Portuguese ATP in Estoril and is ranked 38th in the world ranking could not in the quarterfinals against Cameron Norrie, 11 and top favorite to win the title, which he won 6-4, 4-6, 7-5 in two hours and 40 minutes of play.