No easy passages early on for leading seeds in French Open

THERE will be no gentle start for the favourites at the French Open starting this weekend, with nine-time winner Rafa Nadal and defending champion Novak Djokovic on a semi-final collision course.

Fourth seed Nadal, who has only lost one match on clay this season, has been handed a tricky first-round opponent in the mercurial Benoit Paire.

Serbian Djokovic, the second seed, will take on Spain’s Marcel Granollers, a man who has won three of his four ATP titles on the red dirt.

World number one Andy Murray, who has been struggling this season, will play Russian Andrey Kuznetsov and faces a potential thirdround with either claycourt specialist Nicolas Almagro or Argentine Juan Martin Del Potro.

Third seed Stan Wawrinka of Switzerland, the 2015 champion, will face a qualifier and could meet Murray in the semi-finals.

In the women’s draw Czech Petra Kvitova, who has not played competitive tennis since being stabbed during a burglary at her home last December, was included as 15th seed thanks to her protected ranking.

If she is fit enough to play, she will take on American Julia Boserup.

Kvitova who reached the semi- finals in Paris in 2012, required four hours of surgery in December after protecting herself from a man wielding a knife who had gained access to her apartment block by posing as a utilities worker.

She sustained injuries to tendons in all four fingers and the thumb on her left hand. At the time she said she was “shaken, but fortunate to be alive”.

Kvitova, who won Wimbledon in 2011 and 2014, has made a faster than expected recovery. Last month she said she had left her name on the entry list for the French Open, in part to ensure she had a positive mind-set as she continued her recovery.

Earlier this month, she posted a photo of herself practising in Monte Carlo.

Defending champion Garbine Muguruza was handed a tricky first round as she will take on the 2010 champion, Italian Francesca Schiavone.

On her possible path to the final, the fourth-seeded Spaniard could also face American Venus Williams.

World number one Angelique Kerber will open her campaign against Ekaterina Makarova.

Several top names will not feature in this year’s tournament as 18-time Grand Slam champion Roger Federer is skipping the claycourt season, two- time champion Maria Sharapova was denied a wild card after returning from a doping ban, and three-time winner Serena Williams is expecting a child. – Reuters