TheSportsCampus

The draw for the second Grand Slam of the year, the French Open at Roland Garros took place today, with the reigning women's champion Li Na helping out the organizers. With Rafael Nadal reclaiming the world no.2 ranking from Roger Federer on Monday by winning the Rome Masters, the big question on every fans' mind was in whose half had the Swiss legend been drawn. Li Na dumped the 16-time Grand Slam champion in the top half of the draw alongside top seed Novak Djokovic while Britain's Andy Murray could look forward to the misfortune of once again running into the King of Clay.

The quarter-finalist segments were drawn next with Jo-Wilfried Tsonga getting Djokovic's quarter, Czech powerhouse Tomas Berdych drawing Federer while Andy Murray had the double misfortune of landing the second best Spaniard on the planet, world no.6 David Ferrer. Rafael Nadal had arguably the easiest of the four opponents in the ever improving Serb Janko Tipsarevic.

Top seed Novak Djokovic, chasing his maiden French Open title, will not come in here as the favourite this time around, unlike last year when he was unbeaten heading into Roland Garros before running into Roger Federer in the semi-finals. The young Serb though will be hopeful of completing his set (he's won the other three Grand Slam's atleast once) and will commence his campaign against Italy's Potito Starace. Djokovic has a rather tricky draw in prospect including Australian wild card Lleyton Hewitt, who gave him a hell of a match at Melbourne Park earlier this year, in addition to two tricky left-handers in Jurgen Melzer (a semi-finalist here a few years ago) and Fernando Verdasco.

Rafael Nadal, chasing a 7th title here in Roland Garros, also meets an Italian first up in Simone Bolelli. He has a relatively easier draw until a potential fourth round clash against the winner of what should be a humdinger between rising Canadian star Milos Raonic and Argentine Juan Monaco.

Federer opens his campaign against German Tobias Kamke before what could potentially be the match of the second round against old foe David Nalbandian.Other big name players in his quarter include Andy Roddick and Juan Martin del Potro, though he may not run into the Argentine unless Del Potro can get the better of Berdych.

Andy Murray would be expected to coast past his first round opponent Tatsumo Ito of Japan before some tricky matches against Bernard Tomic and Richard Gasquet (who beat him last week in Rome).

There are some thrilling first round matches in prospect including 11th seed Gilles Simon taking on young American Ryan Harrison, 22nd seeded Italian Andreas Seppi versus former world no.3 Nikolay Davydenko and a couple of unseeded players in Mikhail Kukushkin and Ernests Gulbis colliding. Andy Roddick also has a challenging opponent in French marathon man Nicolas Mahut, while another American, veteran James Blake takes on Mikhail Youzhny.

Also see: The 2012 French Open Women's Draw