Nadal Aims For 13th French Title; Serena Seeking 24th Grand Slam Crown

Second-seeded Rafael Nadal will begin pursuit of his 13th French Open title when he faces Egor Gerasimov of Belarus in the first round of the clay-court event.

Play begins Sunday and the men's draw was revealed Thursday with Nadal seeded behind Novak Djokovic.
Nadal holds the record for most French Open titles and has 19 Grand Slam titles, one behind injured Roger Federer's 20.

Djokovic, from Serbia, opens against Sweden's Mikael Ymer in their first career meeting. Djokovic has won the French Open just once, in 2016 when he defeated Brit Andy Murray.

U.S.

Open champion Dominic Thiem will start against Croatia's Marin Cilic. Thiem, the No. 3 seed from Austria, has lost the past two French Open finals to Nadal.

Germany's Alexander Zverev, who lost the five-set U.S. Open final to Thiem, opens with Austria's Dennis Novak.
Zverev is seeded sixth.

An intriguing first-round matchup is the clash between Switzerland's Stan Wawrinka and Murray. Wawrinka, seeded 16th, defeated Djokovic to win the 2015 French Open, and defeated Murray in the 2017 semis before falling to Nadal in the title match.

Murray continues to make strides after enduring major hip surgery and fearing his career was over.

In the women's draw, Serena Williams opens with fellow American Kristie Ahn as she again tries to match Margaret Court's record of 24 Grand kynghidongduong.vn Slam titles.

Williams, who is seeded sixth, has won the French Open three times, most recently in 2015.

Victoria Azarenka of Belarus is in the same bracket as Williams.

Azarenka recently defeated Williams in the U.S. Open semifinals.

Azarenka, seeded 10th, opens with a match against Danka Kovinic of Montenegro.

Top-seeded Simona Halep faces Spain's Sara Sorribes Tormo in her first match.

Fourth-seeded Sofia Kenin of the United States opens with Russia's Liudmila Samsonova.

U.S.
Open champion Naomi Osaka of Japan is among four women ranked in the Top 10 that have pulled out. Osaka is ranked No. 3. The others are World No. 1 Ashleigh Barty of Australia, tour trương gia giới No. 7 Bianca Andreescu of Canada and No. 10 Belinda Bencic of Switzerland.

The draw was carried out electronically due to coronavirus protocols.

The French Open was initially scheduled to be held from May 24-June 7 before being pushed back due to the pandemic.

The tournament is slated to end on Oct. 11.

--Field Level Media