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Djokovic, Nadal on course for semi, Serena handed tough draw at Roland Garros

Xinhua, May 20, 2016 Adjust font size:

World No. 1 Novak Djokovic has a potential semifinal encounter with clay expert Rafael Nadal, while defender Serena Williams could face Angelique Kerber on course to the women' s singles final after the draw took place at Roland Garros on Friday.

The top-seeded Serb, who holds 11 Grand Slam titles but still seeks an ever first trophy of the French Open, will open his campaign against Chinese Taipei' s Lu Yen-Hsun, the world No. 100, and will avoid all top ten seeds except Czech Tomas Berdych before semifinals.

Nadal, having been promoted to fourth seed after Roger Federer withdrew, could meet local favorite Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the quarters as the Spaniard is chasing his tenth Roland Garros title.

In the other half of the men' s singles draw, second-seeded Scot Andy Murray is heading to a possible quarterfinal collision against fifth-seeded Japanese Kei Nishikori, while defending champion Stan Wawrinka is on course to meet Canada' s big server Milos Raonic in the last eight.

France' s hopes of triumph for the first time since Yannick Noah in 1983 have been hit on Friday morning when former semifinalist Gael Monfils pulled out due to virus infection.

On women' s part, top seed American Serena, who takes Magdalena Rybarikova of Slovakia in her opening round, has been drawn into the same quarter with former world No. 1 Victoria Azarenka before taking on Australian Open winner Angelique Kerber in a potential semi clash.

The second seed Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland heads the draw in the other half with Simona Halep in the same quarter and Roberta Vinci and Garbine Muguruza wait in the other quarter.

With the ailing U.S. Open semifinalist Peng Shuai droping to the 464th in the WTA rankings and having failed to earn a wildcard from the French organizers, three Chinese enter directly into the French Open main draw.

Australian Open quarterfinalist Zhang Shuai picks up Kazakhstan veteran Galina Voskoboeva in her opening match and the 2014 Asian Games champion Wang Qiang faces French wildcard holder Tessah Andrianjafitrimo.

Zheng Saisai, 22, came out the sole Chinese suffering a bad-luck draw, with her first opponent to be the 22nd seed Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia.

The French Open, featuring a total prize money of 32,017,500 euros, starts on Sunday and ends on June 5 with the men' s singles final. Endit