French Open 2022: Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal drawn to possibly meet in quarterfinals

The French Open 2022 gets underway on Sunday. Meanwhile, the tournament's seedings are out, along with the draw. Defending champion and reigning world number one Novak Djokovic of Serbia happens to be the top seed. In contrast, the record 13-time winner at Roland Garros and 21-time Grand Slam winner, Rafael Nadal of Spain, happens to be the fifth seed. Meanwhile, the competition's draw was made on Thursday, as the two are on a collision course in the quarterfinals. Last year, the Serbian defeated the Spaniard in the semis. However, things would get tough for either one who progresses to the semis.

Djokovic plays his opening match against Yoshihito Nishioka of Japan, while he could take on either Diego Schwartzman of Argentina or Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria in the pre-quarters. As for Nadal, he will be up against Jordan Thompson of Australia in the first round, while Stan Wawrinka of Switzerland could be his second-round opponent. Either Felix Auger-Aliassime of Canada or Reilly Opelka of the United States of America (USA) could be his pre-quarters opponent.

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Speaking during the draw, Djokovic expressed, "It's amazing to see the number of people who came this week during the qualifying week and the practice sessions. Many people are on the centre court and Court Suzanne Leglen as well. It's fantastic to see that because you can see how much they miss tennis, how passionate they are, and how much they love this sport."

"And, of course, for us players, it's an incredible feeling to have the crowd. Particularly for me at this stage of my career, they are one of the main factors of why I still play professional tennis and why I compete. The energy you get from the crowd, the excitement is vital for us," added Djokovic.

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Highly rated sixth seed Carlos Alcaraz of Spain could meet the winner of the Djokovic-Nadal clash in the semis. He already defeated both in the Madrid Masters earlier this month. However, to reach the semis, he could go through Alexander Zverev of Germany. In the other half, Daniil Medvedev of Russia is drawn in the half of Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece and Casper Ruud of Norway. At the same time, the German could meet Andrey Rublev of Russia in the quarters.