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Paris Olympics tennis draw: Djokovic and Nadal could meet in second round; tough draw for Sumit Nagal
Sumit Nagal will begin his campaign against French Moutet Corentin while Rohan Bopanna and N Sriram Balaji have been drawn to meet the French team of Fabien Reboul and Edouard Roger-Vasselin
File photo of Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal.
| Photo Credit: AP
Top-seeded Novak Djokovic could meet his longtime rival Rafael Nadal in the second round of the Paris Olympic tennis tournament.
Djokovic was drawn Thursday against Australian Matthew Ebden and Nadal faces Hungaraian Marton Fucsovics, with the winners of those matches meeting in Round 2.
The 38-year-old Nadal won a record 14 of his 22 major trophies at the French Open. He won gold in singles at Beijing in 2008, and in doubles with Marc López at Rio de Janeiro in 2016.
French Open champion Carlos Alcaraz takes on Lebanese player Hady Habib.
Top-ranked Iga Swiatek of Poland faces Irina-Camelia Begu of Romania in the first round of the women’s draw with second-seeded American Coco Gauff taking on Australian Ajla Tomljanović.
Djokovic and Swiatek have not won Olympic gold.
Djokovic owns 24 Grand Slam trophies, more than anyone else in tennis apart from Margaret Court, but his only Olympic medal was bronze at Beijing in 2008.
Swiatek has won the French Open four of the past five years on the same clay courts at Roland Garros.
Men’s and women’s first-round play begins on July 27, and the top-ranked man won’t be playing. Jannik Sinner pulled out on Wednesday because of tonsillitis. The 22-year-old from Italy posted on X that he took medical advice to sit out the Summer Games.
Tough draw for Nagal; Bopanna-Balaji to start against French cuo
India’s top singles player Sumit Nagal will begin his Paris Olympics campaign against French Moutet Corentin, who he had beaten in April and could run into formidable Australian world number six Alex di Minaur in the second round if he wins the opener.
Nagal, ranked 80th in the world, shares a 2-2 head-to-head record with Moutet, who is placed 12 places above him in the ATP singles chart.
If Nagal can clear the first round, he might face Wimbledon quarterfinalist Di Minaur in the second round.
Di Minaur withdrew from the last-eight Wimbledon clash against Novak Djokovic due to a hip injury.
In the men’s doubles, Rohan Bopanna and N Sriram Balaji have been drawn to meet the French team of Fabien Reboul and Edouard Roger-Vasselin. Bopanna has shared the court with Roger-Vasselin in the past on the ATP Tour.
This is Bopanna’s last chance to win an Olympic medal. He had finished fourth with Sania Mirza in the mixed doubles event at 2016 Rio Games.
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