The potential men’s quarter-finals are Djokovic against No.7 Casper Ruud — who lost to Nadal in the 2022 final and 24-time major champion Djokovic in the 2023 final — and Zverev or Nadal against No.5 Daniil Medvedev in the top half of the bracket, and No.2 Jannik Sinner against No.8 Hubert Hurkacz, and No.3 Carlos Alcaraz vs No.6 Andrey Rublev in the bottom half.

Australia’s No.11 seed Alex de Minaur will play unseeded Alex Michelsen in the first round.

In the women’s draw, one intriguing semi-final could be No.1 Iga Swiatek, who seeks a third consecutive French Open title, against No.3 Coco Gauff, the reigning US Open champion who lost to Swiatek in the Paris final two years ago.

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“I’m starting to really feel at home here,” Swiatek said at the draw ceremony.

She will start off against someone who was in the qualifying rounds, and then could face four-time major champion and former No.1 Naomi Osaka.

The possible women’s quarter-finals are Swiatek vs No.5 Marketa Vondrousova, and Gauff vs No.8 Ons Jabeur on the top half, and No.2 Aryna Sabalenka vs No.6 Maria Sakkari, and No.4 Elena Rybakina vs No.7 Zheng Qinwen on the bottom half.

Despite all of the success Nadal has enjoyed at the event — his career record there is 112-3 — the French tennis federation decided not to go against its usual rules that follow the ATP and WTA rankings to determine seedings.

So the 22-time major champion’s inactivity-affected ranking of No.276 left him unseeded — which meant Nadal could be selected in the computerised, random draw to face any opponent to start. His match-up against Zverev, the 2020 US Open runner-up and Tokyo Olympic gold medalist, is a rematch of their 2022 French Open semi-final that ended when Zverev tore ligaments in his right ankle.

Zverev, a 27-year-old from Germany, enters Roland-Garros as a serious contender for what would be his first major title, coming off a trophy at the Italian Open on clay.

He’s drawn attention lately for a serious matter away from tennis: A court proceeding is scheduled to begin next week in Germany related to accusations of physical abuse made by an ex-girlfriend of his. Zverev does not need to attend and has said he won’t.

Another high-profile first-round match-up pits a pair of three-time grand slam champions against each other: Andy Murray, who just turned 37, vs Stan Wawrinka, who is 39.

First-rounders to keep an eye on also include Australian Open runner-up Zheng against popular French veteran Alizé Cornet, who has said she will retire after the French Open, and two-time major finalist Karolina Pliskova against No.15 seed Elina Svitolina, a three-time grand slam semi-finalist.

One expected withdrawal was announced Thursday: fifth-ranked Jessica Pegula, an American who has reached six major quarter-finals.