Carlos Alcaraz, Daniil Medvedev to face qualifiers at French Open, Novak Djokovic takes on Aleksandar Kovacevic

Top seed Carlos Alcaraz will face a qualifier in the first round of the French Open.

Alcaraz is among the favourites to win at Roland-Garros, alongside Novak Djokovic, after 14-time champion Rafael Nadal announced he would not defend his title owing to injury.

Djokovic is seeded third and will begin his quest for a third title at Roland-Garros with a match against Aleksandar Kovacevic

Daniil Medvedev is on the opposite side of the draw to Alcaraz and Djokovic. The Russian has shown improvement on his least favoured surface, winning the Rome Masters last week, and he will start second seed with an encounter – like Alcaraz – against a qualifier.

Holger Rune is seeded sixth, with Christopher Eubanks awaiting him in the first round.

Britain’s Cameron Norrie starts with a match against Benoit Paire, Dan Evans faces Thanasi Kokkinakis and Jack Draper begins against Tomas Martin Etcheverry.

Qualifying concludes on Friday.

Full draw to follow…

How does the French Open draw work?

There are 128 players in the men’s and women’s singles draws.

There are 32 seeded players in each draw, which are determined by the ATP and WTA rankings the week before the tournament starts.

Those seeds will be drawn apart and cannot face each other for the first few rounds of the tournament. The top seed and the second seed can only meet in the final, and the top four seeds can only meet in the semi-finals. If the seeds hold, then the top eight seeds would all reach the quarter-finals.

French Open seeds – top 16

Men’s seeds

• 1 – Carlos Alcaraz
• 2 – Daniil Medvedev
• 3 – Novak Djokovic
• 4 – Casper Ruud
• 5 – Stefanos Tsitsipas
• 6 – Holger Rune
• 7 – Andrey Rublev
• 8 – Jannik Sinner
• 9 – Taylor Fritz
• 10 – Felix Auger-Aliassime
• 11 – Karen Khachanov
• 12 – Frances Tiafoe
• 13 – Hubert Hurkacz
• 14 – Cameron Norrie
• 15 – Borna Coric
• 16 – Tommy Paul

Women’s seeds

• 1 – Iga Swiatek
• 2 – Aryna Sabalenka
• 3 – Jessica Pegula
• 4 – Elena Rybakina
• 5 – Caroline Garcia
• 6 – Coco Gauff
• 7 – Ons Jabeur
• 8 – Maria Sakkari
• 9 – Daria Kasatkina
• 10 – Petra Kvitova
• 11 – Veronika Kudermetova
• 12 – Belinda Bencic
• 13 – Barbora Krejcikova
• 14 – Beatriz Haddad Maia
• 15 – Liudmila Samsonova
• 16 – Karolina Pliskova

What’s the French Open schedule?

All times are UK time

• Men’s and women’s first round – May 28, 29, 30 (play starts 10am, night session scheduled to start at 7.30pm on May 29 and 30)
• Men’s and women’s second round – May 31, June 1 (play starts 10am, night session scheduled to start at 7.30pm)
• Men’s and women’s third round – June 2, 3 (play starts 10am, night session scheduled to start at 7.30pm)
• Men’s and women’s fourth round – June 4, 5 (play starts 10am, night session scheduled to start at 7.30pm)
• Men’s and women’s quarter-finals – June 6, 7 (play starts 10am, night session scheduled to start at 7.30pm)
• Women’s semi-finals – June 8 (play starts 2pm)
• Men’s semi-finals – June 9 (play starts 1.45pm)
• Women’s final – June 10 (2pm)
• Men’s final – June 11 (2pm)

Will Rafael Nadal be fit for the French Open?

Nadal originally said he would miss up to eight weeks after suffering a grade two iliopsoas tear at the Australian Open in January.

As the defending champion at the French Open, Nadal has 2,000 ranking points to defend, so he will drop out of the top 100 in the world rankings following the tournament.

Nadal’s exit leaves Djokovic and Alcaraz as the leading contenders for the Grand Slam.

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