French Open 2015 Draw Results: Full List of Seedings and Brackets
Defending French Open champion Rafael Nadal is on a collision course to face world No.1 Novak Djokovic in this year's quarter-finals, as announced during Friday's draw.
Seeded sixth heading into the tournament he has dominated since 2004—winning nine out of 10 available titles—Nadal begins his quest against local youngster Quentin Halys. He will likely need to put recent struggles behind him to overcome the Serbian's challenge, not to mention that of Andy Murray and Roger Federer.
Djokovic opens with a tie against Jarkko Nieminen, while Murray and Federer will be celebrating ahead of their first matches, per Roland Garros:
On the women's side, defending champion Maria Sharapova is seeded second behind Serena Williams, and will face Kaia Kanepi in her opening contest. You can see all the seed classifications below:
| 1 | Novak Djokovic (SRB) | Serena Williams (USA) |
| 2 | Roger Federer (SUI) | Maria Sharapova (RUS) |
| 3 | Andy Murray (GBR) | Simona Halep (ROU) |
| 4 | Tomas Berdych (CZE) | Petra Kvitova (CZE) |
| 5 | Kei Nishikori (JPN) | Caroline Wozniacki (DEN) |
| 6 | Rafael Nadal (ESP) | Eugenie Bouchard (CAN) |
| 7 | David Ferrer (ESP) | Ana Ivanovic (SRB) |
| 8 | Stan Wawrinka (SUI) | Carla Suarez Navarro (ESP) |
| 9 | Marin Cilic (CRO) | Ekaterina Makarova (RUS) |
| 10 | Grigor Dimitrov (BUL) | Andrea Petkovic (GER) |
| 11 | Feliciano Lopez (ESP) | Angelique Kerber (GER) |
| 12 | Gilles Simon (FRA) | Karolina Pliskova (CZE) |
| 13 | Gael Monfils (FRA) | Lucie Safarova (CZE) |
| 14 | Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (FRA) | Agnieszka Radwanska (POL) |
| 15 | Kevin Anderson (RSA) | Venus Williams (USA) |
| 16 | John Isner (USA) | Madison Keys (USA) |
| 17 | David Goffin (BEL) | Sara Errani (ITA) |
| 18 | Tommy Robredo (ESP) | Svetlana Kuznetsova (RUS) |
| 19 | Roberto Bautista Agut (ESP) | Elina Svitolina (UKR) |
| 20 | Richard Gasquet (FRA) | Sabine Lisicki (GER) |
| 21 | Pablo Cuevas (URU) | Garbine Muguruza (ESP) |
| 22 | Philipp Kohlschreiber (GER) | Barbora Strycova (CZE) |
| 23 | Leonardo Mayer (ARG) | Timea Bacsinszky (SUI) |
| 24 | Ernests Gulbis (LAT) | Peng Shuai (CHN) |
| 25 | Ivo Karlovic (CRO) | Jelena Jankovic (SRB) |
| 26 | Guillermo Garcia-Lopez (ESP) | Samantha Stosur (AUS) |
| 27 | Bernard Tomic (AUS) | Victoria Azarenka (BLR) |
| 28 | Fabio Fognini (ITA) | Flavia Pennetta (ITA) |
| 29 | Nick Kyrgios (AUS) | Alize Cornet (FRA) |
| 30 | Adrian Mannarino (FRA) | Irina-Camelia Begu (ROU) |
| 31 | Viktor Troicki (SRB) | Caroline Garcia (FRA) |
| 32 | Fernando Verdasco (ESP) | Zarina Diyas (KAZ) |
The men's draw was provided by Roland Garros:
The women's draw can also be seen below, per Roland Garros:
Nadal's Nightmare Draw Leaves French Title Open
Nadal's recent lack of form and fitness will encourage Djokovic, whose runs to the 2012 and 2014 French Open finals are as close as he's got to winning the tournament. He needs the Roland Garros prize to complete a full set of Grand Slams, and this may be the year to do it.
Stan Wawrinka's defeat of Nadal in the Rome Masters quarter-final stopped the Spaniard from receiving a top-four Grand Slam seed for the first time in a decade, according to BBC Sport. Nadal's wrist injury and appendectomy continues to play havoc with his form, highlighted by a disappointing run on clay heading into this year's Paris showpiece.
However, he has plenty of inspiration to draw upon, per the ATP World Tour's official Twitter feed:
Prior to his defeat against Wawrinka, Nadal lost the Madrid Masters final to Murray and suffered against Djokovic in the Monte Carlo semi-finals. Aside from a first-set tiebreaker in the Wawrinka contest, Nadal has been easily pushed aside, failing to win more than three games in any other set across all three matches.
As such, a tougher route through the competition has now been carved. Djokovic is also affected, per Roland Garros' Twitter account:
Stuart Fraser of the MailOnline tweeted Nadal's reaction when he drawn in Djokovic's quarter:
Sports Illustrated provided comment and looked ahead to Djok's potential route:
Murray's clay record stands at 10-0 this year, having recently won the Madrid and Rome tournaments, reported by the Independent. He has a right to be increasingly confident on his previously unfavoured surface, but the British star has never gone beyond the semi-final at the French Open.
Like Djokovic, he will be hoping to take advantage of Nadal's dwindling power. Fraser looked at the potential task ahead for Murray:
Federer may feel expectant toward landing his first French Open title since 2009, per Sports Illustrated:
Women's favourites Sharapova and Williams will be confident of their routes to the latter stages, having been kept apart in the draw. However, last-year's finalist Simona Halep will be looking to break up the three-year Sharapova/Williams dominance at the competition.
As always we can expect plenty of shocks and drama along the schedule. This year's tournament, so often a venue of routine victory for Nadal, could prove to be the scene of his redemption. Even so, Djokovic, Murray and others may feel it's now or never to topple the Spaniard's grip on the prize.
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