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French Open 2019: Full Draw Schedule and Reaction from Roland Garros
May 23, 2019
Rafael Nadal will face qualifiers in the first two rounds of his 2019 French Open and has a preferable draw ahead of him as he goes in search of a third straight crown at Roland Garros.
Top seed Novak Djokovic was the last player other than Nadal to win the French Open, and he was drawn opposite Hubert Hurkacz in his first match of the competition.
No. 3 Federer lines up in the third quadrant of the men's singles and could face Nadal as early as the quarter-finals should both make it that far.
Tennis.com posted a complete rundown of the men's draw:
Naomi Osaka heads to Paris as the top seed for this year's French Open, and she was drawn against Slovakian Anna Karolina Schmiedlova for her first fixture of the competition.
Last year's champion, Simona Halep, is seeded third ahead of her title defence and will face Ajla Tomljanovic in her opener.
WTA Insider posted a breakdown of the women's draw:
Visit the Roland Garros website to view the draws in full.
Preview
Nadal is widely considered the king of clay with 11 all-time French Open wins to his name—five more than any other male player in the Open Era—but Djokovic would seek to challenge the throne as the No. 1 seed.
It's a peculiar situation for Nole to be seeded first and yet not be considered the outright majority favourite.
What's more, tennis writer Ricky Dimon sees the Spaniard's route to the final as a grand opportunity:
Nadal will discover his first qualifier opponent in due course, but the prospect of facing two such simple fixtures in the opening stages will be like music to the ears of the 32-year-old.
That being said, Djokovic is enjoying top form in 2019 and already has one major to his name after collecting the Australian Open at the start of the year.
That's after the Serb clinched two in the latter half of 2018, and journalist David Law hyped up what could be a historic win that's gone under the radar:
In the women's singles, Osaka continues to lead tennis' new breed as the favourite to win her third major.
However, her road looks potentially complicated from the early stages, per sportswriter Tumaini Carayol:
Czech star Karolina Pliskova is the second seed in the women's draw and is closely followed by defending champion Halep, who will encounter Australia's Tomljanovic in her opener.
The Romanian star finally ended her search for a major trophy here in 2018, and Halep was proud to again share her moment alongside Parisian king Nadal in the buildup to Roland Garros:
Kiki Bertens and Angelique Kerber complete the top five seeds at fourth and fifth, respectively, and will face Pauline Parmentier and Anastasia Potapova in their first-round matchups.