Top-seeded Novak Djokovic might face his longtime rival Rafael Nadal as early as the second round of the Paris Olympic tennis tournament.
In Thursday’s draw, Djokovic is set to play against Australian Matthew Ebden, while Nadal will take on Hungarian Marton Fucsovics. The winners of these matches will meet in the second round.
At 38, Nadal has dominated the French Open with a record 14 titles out of his 22 major wins. He also secured Olympic gold in singles at Beijing in 2008 and in doubles with Marc López at Rio de Janeiro in 2016.
“Roland Garros, as everybody knows, is the most special place in tennis for me. I am enjoying the fact I am back for the Olympics,” Nadal said on stage after the draw. “I am just trying to enjoy every single moment.”
French Open champion Carlos Alcaraz will face Lebanese player Hady Habib.
Top-ranked Iga Swiatek of Poland will play Irina-Camelia Begu of Romania in the first round, while second-seeded American Coco Gauff will face Australian Ajla Tomljanović.
Gauff, the reigning U.S. Open champion, is making her Olympic debut and will be a flag bearer for the U.S. team at Friday’s opening ceremony alongside basketball star LeBron James. She will be the first tennis athlete to carry the U.S. flag.
Djokovic and Swiatek have not won Olympic gold. Djokovic, who holds 24 Grand Slam titles, more than anyone else in tennis apart from Margaret Court, has only won a bronze medal at the Beijing Games in 2008. Swiatek has won the French Open four times in the past five years at Roland Garros.
Four-time major winner Naomi Osaka of Japan will compete against three-time major champion Angelique Kerber of Germany.
Wimbledon runner-up Jasmine Paolini of Italy, seeded fourth, returns to the courts where she lost the French Open final to Swiatek and will face Romanian Ana Bogdan. Fifth-seeded American Jessica Pegula will play Viktorija Golubic of Switzerland.
Wimbledon champion Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic, seeded ninth, is drawn against Spaniard Sara Sorribes Tormo. The 2022 Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina, seeded third, will face Romanian Jaqueline Cristian. Tenth-seeded Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia, who won the French Open in 2017, will play Colombian Camila Osorio.
Men’s and women’s first-round play begins Saturday, but top-ranked man Jannik Sinner will not be participating. Sinner withdrew on Wednesday due to tonsillitis and announced on X that he took medical advice to sit out the Summer Games.
Eighth-seeded Stefanos Tsitsipas, the 2021 French Open runner-up to Djokovic, will face Belgian Zizou Bergs, while three-time major winner Stan Wawrinka of Switzerland is up against Pavel Kotov.
Wimbledon semifinalist Lorenzo Musetti of Italy, seeded 11th, will play French veteran Gael Monfils. Two-time French Open runner-up Casper Ruud of Norway, the sixth seed, will take on Japan's Taro Daniel.
Other notable matchups include fourth-seeded Daniil Medvedev against Rinky Hijikata of Australia and seventh-seeded American Taylor Fritz against big-serving Kazakh Alexander Bublik.
Tokyo Games champion Alexander Zverev of Germany will play Jaume Munar of Spain.
Two-time Olympic champion Andy Murray has withdrawn from singles but will compete in men’s doubles alongside Dan Evans, marking his farewell to tennis. They will face the Japanese pair of Daniel and Kei Nishikori.
The 37-year-old Murray, a three-time Grand Slam champion, won gold in singles at London in 2012 and Rio in 2016. After undergoing hip replacement surgery in 2019, he has struggled with various injuries and withdrew from singles at Wimbledon due to a procedure to remove a cyst from his spine.
“The Olympics have been incredibly special to me. I’m really happy I get to do this one more time,” Murray said on stage. “I just ran out of time really [to play singles], but I’m happy to be in the doubles with Dan and we play well together.”
In women’s doubles, top-seeded American pair Gauff and Pegula will play against the Australian duo of Daria Saville and Ellen Perez.
In men’s doubles, Nadal will team up with Alcaraz to face sixth-seeded Argentines Maximo Gonzalez and Andrés Molteni. Tsitsipas will team up with his younger brother Petros to face Portuguese pair Nuno Borges and Francisco Cabral.
