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Roland Garros Draw


 

Originally published on 24/05/18 00:00

The draw for the 2018 French Open was conducted in the beautiful new surroundings of the Orangerie at Roland Garros; Watching and validating the draw where the non seeded players were placed in the draw by computer and then the seeded players were drawn manually, was new tournament referee, Remy Azemar.

Women

Standout matches in the first round include Serena Williams against Kristyna Pliskova. Williams unseeded in the draw by virtue of the fact she has been absent from tennis since the birth of her first child last year.

Last year’s Wimbledon Champion Garbine Muguruza has arguably the most difficult first round of the women when she faces Svetlana Kuznetsova

Julia Goerges and Dominika Cibulkova square off, as do Daria Gavrilova and Sorana Cirstea.

Maria Sharapova faces a qualifier

Looking ahead in the draw, if the seedings were any prediction for the quarter finals we could see Simona Halep against Caroline Garcia, Garbine Muguruza against Karolina Pliskova, Jelena Ostapenko facing Elina Svitolina and Petra Kvitova taking on Caroline Wozniacki.

But very rarely does this go according to plan and perhaps attention should be focused on Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova. If they both progress they could meet in the fourth round.

Britain’s Johanna Konta faces Yulia Putintseva in the first round and Heather Watson France’s Ocean Dodin.  There will be no other British players in the first round as all of the British players lost in qualifying. Gabriella Taylor losing in the second round of qualifying on Thursday to Colombia’s Mariana Duque-Marino. Jay Clarke and Katie Boulter had both lost in the first round.

Men

Rafael Nadal gets his Roland Garros underway with a first round match against Alexandr Dolgopolov. This will be the tenth time the pair has met, with Rafa winning 7 of those meetings.

The highest ranked Briton Kyle Edmund starts against 19-year-old Australian wildcard Alex De Minaur.  Cameron Norrie faces Peter Gojowczyk

Other notable first round matches David Goffin against Robin Haase and the all American clash of Frances Tiafoe and Sam Querrey

If the draw progressed according to the seedings, quarter finals would see Nadal against Kevin Anderson, Marin Cilic and Juan Martin del Potro, David Goffin and Grigor Dimitrov and Dominic Thiem and Alexander Zvererv.

Britain’s Jay Clarke lost in the second round of qualifying against Bernard Tomic. Liam Broady lost in the first round tof qualifying o Zdenek Kolar

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Tim Farthing, Tennishead Editorial Director & Owner, has been a huge tennis fan his whole life. He's a tennis journalist and entrepreneur as well as playing tennis to a national standard. He also helps manage his local club and volunteers for his local tennis organisation. He's a specialist in content about the administration of professional tennis and tennis coaching for all levels.