French Open

Ofner meets Frenchman, Nadal meets Zverev

Sebastian Ofner

(Bild: GEPA pictures)

Styrian Sebastian Ofner will face Frenchman Terence Atmane in the first round of the French Open. The 22-year-old local hero has a wild card into the main event and is ranked 120th in the world, 75 places behind Austria's number one. According to Thursday's draw, Alexander Zverev will face Rafael Nadal in the absolute first round. Zverev could thus end the Roland Garros career of 14-time tournament winner Nadal.

The 28-year-old Ofner and Atmane have already fought two duels, one of them in Paris. Six months ago, Ofner prevailed 5:7, 7:5, 6:4 in the first qualifying round of the Masters 1000 indoor tournament there. Atmane returned the favor again this year at the Phoenix Challenger in the first round on hard court with a 7:6(5),1:6,6:4 victory. The Frenchman celebrated his only two main draw victories on the tour this year in Rome, one of them by forfeiting his opponent. Ofner claimed his tenth main draw win of 2024 in Geneva this week.

In good form
Ofner has been in good form in Switzerland in recent days and also put in a good performance in his round of 16 exit against last year's Paris finalist Casper Ruud (starts as number seven in Paris against Jakub Mensik/CZE). If he gets past Atmane, either the Argentinian number 20 seed Sebastian Baez or a qualifier will be waiting. In the third round, Ofner would face Chile's Nicolas Jarry (No. 16) according to the paper form, in the round of 16 he would meet the second-ranked Australian Open winner Jannik Sinner (ITA).

Zverev (No. 4) goes into the match with Nadal as the Rome winner and favorite, even though he is 7:3 ahead in the head-to-head. However, the soon-to-be 38-year-old Iberian has only played eight matches this year due to thigh problems, three of which he has lost. Nadal will probably be competing at Roland Garros for the last time. The most recent of the ten duels between the two took place in the semi-finals of the French Open in 2022, when Zverev twisted his ankle badly at the end of the second set, had to retire and went into a long injury break. Now he is a title contender again.

Duel between the old stars
Another first-round clash is the match between veteran stars Stan Wawrinka and Andy Murray. The Swiss Wawrinka won this major in the final against Novak Djokovic in 2015. The following year, Scotsman Murray made his only appearance in the final, but was defeated by Djokovic, who was once again the top seed. After arriving from the tournament in Geneva as the defending champion, the Serb will face French wildcard Pierre-Hugues Herbert in the opening round. The women's defending champion Iga Swiatek, who is also the top seed, starts against a qualifier.

While there is no red-white-red representative in the main event of the women's singles following Julia Grabher's withdrawal due to injury and Sinja Kraus' qualifying exit, Filip Misolic still has a chance of progressing. The 22-year-old Styrian will play the 27-year-old Frenchman Quentin Halys in the third qualifying round on Friday. The winner could then face Carlos Alcaraz (ESP-3) or Hubert Hurkacz (POL-8), among others.