Paris (AFP)
Austria's Dominic Thiem, winner of his first Grand Slam tournament in mid-September at the US Open, was placed in Rafael Nadal's half of the table at Roland Garros, where the draw was made on Thursday.
There will therefore be no third consecutive final between the two men: if the ranking hierarchy is respected, Nadal (seeded N.2) and Thiem (N.3) will meet in the semi-finals.
It is Novak Djokovic (N.1), who inherited in his half of the table from the Russian Daniil Medvedev (N.4) less comfortable on clay, who made the good deal Thursday.
But not Thiem, certainly: the newcomer in the closed circle of Grand Slam winners, entry opponent to Croatian Marin Cilic, winner of the US Open 2014, will not have an easy turn.
The Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka (N.16), winner in 2015 Porte d'Auteil, the Argentinian Diego Schwartzman (N.12), Nadal scorer in Rome or the French Gaël Monfils (N.8) are all in his quarter table.
More spared in the first laps, Nadal will also have some obstacles in his way before perhaps finding Thiem for a place in the final: the Italian Fabio Fognini (N.14), in the round of 16, then the German Alexander Zverev (N.6), finalist in New York, in the quarterfinals.
In the other half of the table, the world No. 1 Novak Djokovic, who has just won the Masters 1000 in Rome on clay, will have to be mainly wary of the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas (No. 5), the Canadian Denis Shapovalov (No. 9) and the Spaniard Roberto Bautista Agut (N.10).
© 2020 AFP