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Clay-court Grand Slam will be held from 28 May - 11 June
Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic have landed in the same half of the Roland Garros draw.

The Spaniard, who has captured three trophies on clay this season, could meet third seed Djokovic in the semi-finals, with 2021 finalist Stefanos Tsitsipas drawn in the 20-year-old's quarter.

Alcaraz is making his third appearance at the clay-court Grand Slam, having advanced to the quarter-finals in 2022. The top seed will open against a qualifier and is seeded to play 14th seed Cameron Norrie in the fourth round. Fifth seed Tsitsipas, who is in the same section as Felix Auger-Aliassime, is a potential quarter-final opponent for Alcaraz.

Canadian Denis Shapovalov and Italian Lorenzo Musetti are also in a stacked top quarter of the draw. Shapovalov is a potential third-round opponent for Alcaraz, while Musetti, who pushed Djokovic to five sets in Paris in 2021, is in the same section as Norrie.

Two-time champion Djokovic, who is aiming to win a record 23rd Grand Slam title in Paris, will start against American Aleksandar Kovacevic. The Serbian is in the same section as Hubert Hurkacz, with seventh seed Andrey Rublev a possible quarter-final opponent. Rublev captured the Monte-Carlo title last month and faces Laslo Djere in the first round.

#NextGenATP American Ben Shelton is in the same section as Rublev. The 20-year-old Shelton, who reached the quarter-finals at the Australian Open, had never competed on red clay before this year. Shelton will face a tough opening test against Italian Lorenzo Sonego.

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Second seed Daniil Medvedev anchors the bottom half of the draw. The 27-year-old rose to No. 2 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings after winning his first clay-court title last week in Rome. Medvedev’s victory in Italy ensured he would be seeded second in Paris, making it possible for Alcaraz and Djokovic to be drawn in the same half.

Medvedev will face a qualifier in the first round and could play Jannik Sinner or two-time semi-finalist Alexander Zverev in the quarter-finals. The eighth-seeded Italian Sinner opens against Frenchman Alexandre Muller, while Zverev plays South African Lloyd Harris. Sinner, currently 28-7 on the season, has reached three tour-level finals this year, including his second ATP Masters 1000 title match in Miami.

Last year’s finalist Casper Ruud, who has won nine of his 10 tour-level titles on clay, is seeded to meet Medvedev in the semi-finals. The Norwegian begins against a qualifier and is in the same quarter as Holger Rune, who Ruud beat in the quarter-finals last season. Rune, who defeated Ruud en route to the Rome final, might face ninth seed Taylor Fritz in the fourth round. Tommy Paul is also in that section. The American, currently 11th in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin, advanced to the semi-finals at the Australian Open in January.

A number of interesting first-round matches were drawn, with Madrid finalist Jan-Lennard Struff meeting the 2022 Next Gen ATP Finals runner-up Jiri Lehecka and Auger-Aliassime facing Italian Fabio Fognini. Former champion Stan Wawrinka starts against Albert Ramos-Vinolas, with their previous meeting coming in Paris in 2016.

First-round action at clay-court Grand Slam begins Sunday in Paris
The Roland Garros draw has thrown up a host of intriguing first-round matchups as the ATP Tour’s finest seek a fast start at the 2023 edition of the clay-court Grand Slam.

With the action set to kick off on Sunday in Paris, ATPTour.com highlights five first-round matches to watch.

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[10] Felix Auger-Aliassime (CAN) vs. Fabio Fognini [ITA]
The 10th-seeded Auger-Aliassime faces one of the ATP Tour’s biggest entertainers first up in Paris. The 35-year-old Fognini, an eight-time tour-level titlist on clay and former Roland Garros quarter-finalist, will be a stern opening test for the Canadian, who won their only previous ATP Head2Head meeting in Rio de Janeiro in 2019.

Auger-Aliassime has struggled to find his best level on the European clay this year (he holds a 1-2 record) but is into the quarter-finals this week in Lyon. The former Top 10 star Fognini may have dropped to No. 130 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings, but the Italian has made a habit of rising to the big occasion.

[14] Cameron Norrie (GBR) vs. Benoit Paire (FRA)
Few occasions faze the rock-solid Norrie, but taking on the unpredictable Paire in front of a partisan French crowd is sure to test the Briton’s mental resilience. Norrie beat the former World No. 18 on hard courts in Auckland in 2019 and at the 2022 US Open: Can he do it again on the Parisian clay?

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[19] Roberto Bautista Agut (ESP) vs. Wu Yibing (CHN)
Bautista Agut has twice reached the fourth round at Roland Garros but will be wary of the threat of Wu, who became the first Chinese ATP Tour champion in history in February in Dallas. Bautista Agut will attempt to exploit Wu’s relative lack of experience on clay in the pair’s maiden tour-level meeting.

Before he beat Richard Gasquet in Rome earlier this month, Wu had never won a tour-level match on clay. Yet the 23-year-old now has three victories on the surface and could make it four when he steps on court for his quarter-final in Geneva on Thursday.

[21] Jan-Lennard Struff (GER) vs. Jiri Lehecka (CZE)
Struff arrives in Paris in red-hot form after he reached the Monte-Carlo quarter-finals as a qualifier and the Madrid final as a lucky loser. Now at a career-high No. 26 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings, the German will need to bring his free-flowing best to hold off the 21-year-old Lehecka, a finalist at the 2022 Next Gen ATP Finals.

After his strong display in Milan, Lehecka made his mark on the Grand Slam stage by reaching the quarter-finals at January’s Australian Open. Despite a modest run of results on the clay so far this year, the Czech has the power to compete with Struff from the baseline.

[30] Ben Shelton (USA) vs. Lorenzo Sonego (ITA)
#NextGenATP Shelton’s year of discovery on the ATP Tour continues with his debut at Roland Garros. Shelton had not left the United States prior to last December, but now enters a Grand Slam as a seeded player for the first time. Italy’s Sonego, who possesses one of the most aggressive gamestyles on Tour, will seek revenge for his defeat to the American in Cincinnati last year.

Shelton competed on red clay for the first time in his career, including as a junior, in Estoril in April, and has notched two tour-level wins on the surface. The Australian Open quarter-finalist will look to deploy his big lefty serve to good effect as he looks to kick-start another deep run at a major.