Jack Draper will have to navigate a challenging draw at the French Open to consolidate his breakthrough clay-court season with a deep run at Roland Garros, where he is still seeking his first win.
Draper, the fifth seed, will begin against the Italian left-hander and fellow 23-year-old Mattia Bellucci, who is ranked No 68. Draper has been drawn in Jannik Sinner’s quarter and a career-best run in Paris could culminate in a last-eight match with the top seed.
Draper has made dramatic strides on clay in the last month, a surface on which he previously had minimal experience at the highest level. At the Madrid Open, a Masters 1000 tournament, he made his first tour-level final on the surface, losing to Casper Ruud, before an impressive quarter-final run in slower conditions at the Italian Open in Rome. He has only competed at Roland Garros twice. After retiring from his first-round match in 2023, an injury that would also keep him out of action at Wimbledon, he lost in the first round last year.
Emma Raducanu, meanwhile, will attempt to consolidate her positive form on clay when she faces the world No 42, Xinyu Wang, of China. Should Raducanu win, she will probably face the three-time defending champion Iga Swiatek in round two.
After making notable progress on clay over the past few weeks, Raducanu suffered an injury scare on Wednesday in Strasbourg. She had opened her tournament with an excellent win over No 17, Daria Kasatkina, her first against a top-20 player on clay, before struggling with back spasms in her three-set defeat by Danielle Collins. On Thursday , Raducanu’s team said she was on her way to Paris and in good shape for the second grand slam tournament of the year.
Elsewhere, Sinner will start in Roland Garros, his second tournament since returning from his three-month anti-doping ban, against the home hope Arthur Rinderknech. Novak Djokovic, seeded sixth, will face Mackenzie McDonald of the United States in the first round as he tries to breathe life into his season after a difficult period. Djokovic, who turned 38 on Thursday, has landed in Sinner’s half and could face Alexander Zverev, the third seed, in the quarter-final if he can find his form in Paris. In the bottom half, Carlos Alcaraz will begin his title defence against the veteran former No 4 Kei Nishikori, a three-time quarter-finalist at Roland Garros.
The biggest question in either draw was the placement of Swiatek before her attempt to win a record fourth consecutive French Open title, and fifth overall, at the end of her most challenging clay-court season since she first reached No 1. She has been handed a difficult draw as she tries to pull off an astounding feat. No woman has won four consecutive French Open titles in the open era.
Swiatek has not won a title since her triumph at the French Open last year and, after losing in the third round of the Italian Open, she fell to No 5 in the WTA rankings, meaning she could have been drawn against Aryna Sabalenka or Coco Gauff as early as the quarter-finals. She is instead projected to face Jasmine Paolini, the fourth seed and recent Italian Open champion, in the quarter-finals with a potential semi-final match with Sabalenka looming.
Sabalenka, the top seed, will open her tournament against Kamilla Rakhimova. The bottom half of the women’s draw is headed by Coco Gauff, a finalist in Madrid and Rome, who will begin her tournament against Australia’s Olivia Gadecki.
There will be numerous British players in action at Roland Garros. Katie Boulter will face a qualifier as she seeks her first main draw win in Paris. Jodie Burrage will tackle the in-form Collins and Sonay Kartal will play Erika Andreeva. Jacob Fearnley, the British No 2, will make his French Open debut against the 2015 champion Stan Wawrinka and Cameron Norrie faces a tough first-round match against Daniil Medvedev, the 11th seed.
