French Open: Nadal draws wildcard in Grand Slam opener

Defending champion to face American Ginepri in first round

PARIS: Rafael Nadal will open his quest for a ninth French Open crown with a tie against US veteran wildcard Robby Ginepri following Friday's draw which treated the Spaniard kindly.

The 27-year-old has a 59-1 win record at Roland Garros since he first appeared in Paris in 2005, his only loss being to Robin Soderling of Sweden in a 2009 fourth round upset.

But Nadal's uncustomary struggles on clay in the buildup to Roland Garros means that he is not the outstanding favourite he usually is, with world number two Novak Djokovic also fancied to win what would be his first French Open title.

Djokovic will start comfortably enough with a match against Portugal's Joao Sousa, but he could be faced with dangerous Croat Marin Cilic in the third round.

Meanwhile, Roger Federer opens up against Lukas Lacko of Slovakia and could run early into the talented Ernests Gulbis of Latvia, but his path looks clear enough through to the last eight.

Having played just once – and lost once – since his wife Mirka gave birth to the couple's second set of twins, he said that things were ‘fairly normal’.

"I am not sure if I have played less than in previous years on clay because sometimes I didn't play in Monaco.

"So I think it's about what I usually always have before the French Open.

"For me, I feel like I'm in good shape. I know where my game is at. I'm not worried that maybe there is not enough matches played, all of that."

Williams sisters set for early clash in Paris

Serena Williams is set for a third round clash with sister Venus following a French Open draw on Friday that left her in the tougher half of the tournament.

The defending champion and top seed will open her 13th campaign at Roland Garros with a match against young French wildcard Alize Lim, while Venus, who has never won the title in Paris and went out in the first round last year, starts against Belinda Bencic of Switzerland.

If she makes it through to the last eight, the American's opponent could be seventh seed Maria Sharapova who she beat in last year's final.

Meanwhile, the bottom half of the draw sees second seed and 2011 French Open champion Li Na of China get things underway with a tie against France's Kristina Mladenovic, the junior champion at Roland Garros in 2009.