2016 French Open men's, women's draws released
The men's and women's draw for the 2016 French Open were released on Friday in Paris. The tournament begins two days later on May 22 and will be played until June 5.
Serena Williams will open her French Open campaign against Magdalena Rybarikova. She is seeking her third French Open title in four years. A championship at this year's tournament would tie her with Steffi Graf for the most Grand Slam titles in the Open era. Earlier this year, Williams fell to Angelique Kerber in the Australian Open final, who was drawn into Serena's top half of the draw. No. 2-seed Agnieszka Radwanska and No. 4-seed Garbine Muguruza were drawn into the bottom half.
On the men's side, Novak Djokovic will be seeking his fourth major title in a row and will open up against Yen-Hsun Lu. But Djokovic has never won the French Open title, and last year he was upset by Stan Wawrinka in the final.
Djokovic is the top seed at this year's tournament, followed by Andy Murray, who is the second seed in the tournament. Roger Federer, the world No. 3, announced Thursday that he would withdraw from the tournament because his fitness is not 100%. Stan Wawrinka and RafaNadal are the No. 3 and 4 seeds. Nadal was drawn into Djokovic's top half of the draw, while Wawrinka was drawn into the bottom with Murray.
The projected men’s quarterfinals are Djokovic-Tomas Berdych, Rafael Nadal-Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Stan Wawrinka-Milos Raonic and Murray-Kei Nishikori. On the women's side, the projected quarterfinals are Serena-Victoria Azarenka, Kerber-Timea Bacsinskzy, Garbine Muguruza-Roberta Vinci and Simona Halep-Agnieszka Radwanska.
