Dominic Thiem starts his 33rd tennis major tournament against Argentinian Pedro Cachin. Austria’s only lady in the main draw, Julia Grabher, who will be in the semi-finals in Rabat on Friday, will have to deal with a qualifier.
At his tenth appearance in Roland Garros in Paris, where he was only stopped in the final by clay court king Rafael Nadal in 2018 and 2019, Thiem is against the world number 63. by no means an outsider. However, he had lost the only duel in two sets when he came back after a long injury break at a Challenger 2022 in Marbella.
In the event of a win, the unseeded Thiem will at least not have to deal with one of the big ones. Either Cachin’s compatriot Federico Coria or number 15 seeded Croatian Borna Coric would be the second round opponents.
Grabher celebrates her Roland Garros premiere against a qualifier. After this year’s Australian Open (first round out), the Vorarlberg native is only contesting her second major tournament. If you win, you can expect a duel with last year’s finalist Coco Gauff (USA-6). Gauff starts her tournament against Rebeka Masarova (ESP).
With Jurij Rodionov and Sebastian Ofner, two more Austrians could reach the men’s competition, both are in the third and last qualifying round.
From an international point of view, the drawing of Novak Djokovic, who was only seeded number three, in the upper half of the tableau caused a stir. Because that means that the 22-time Grand Slam champion could already meet the top seeded Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz in the semifinals. So if the Serb wants to leave the big absentee, the injured 14-time Paris champion Nadal, behind as a major record winner, he has to eliminate the Spanish top favorite before the final.
The “Djoker” would certainly have preferred to be in the tournament branch of Daniil Medvedev, who was number two. The Russian recently won his first clay court title in Rome, but it is probably easier for Djokovic to bend. By the way, if Thiem creates a performance exploit, then he could have to deal with this Medvedev in the round of 16. Both Alcaraz and Medvedev start the second major of the year against one of a total of 19 qualifiers (three lucky losers after cancellations).
