Emma Raducanu will face a qualifier in her first ever French Open outing as British teenager bids to hit the ground running at Roland Garros… while men’s singles stars Cameron Norrie and Dan Evans are drawn against Manuel Guinard and Francisco Cerundol
- Emma Raducanu has been drawn alongside a qualifier in her French Open debut
- The British teenager is gearing up for her first ever campaign at Roland Garros
- Fellow Brits Heather Watson and Harriet Dart also learnt their opening matches
- While men’s stars Cameron Norrie and Dan Evans were also drawn on Thursday
Emma Raducanu will make her French Open debut against a qualifier while Heather Watson meets French teenager Elsa Jacquemot and Harriet Dart, another debutante, faces former quarter-finalist Martina Trevisan.
Raducanu is gearing up for her first Roland Garros campaign, having burst onto the scene at Wimbledon last year before claiming a historic victory in the US Open two months later.
In her debut outing at the famous clay tournament, the 19-year-old will be pitted against a qualifier with a potential second-round clash against Aliaksandra Sasnovich or Wang Xinyu in store for the winner.
Emma Raducanu will make her debut at the French Open next month against a qualifier
Meanwhile, British number one Cameron Norrie, seeded 10th, will take on French wild card Manuel Guinard, with 29th seed Dan Evans, who is still looking for his first victory at Roland Garros, set to meet Argentina’s Francisco Cerundolo.
Watson, 30, is heading into her 10th campaign at the French Open, where she has only ever made it as far as the second round.
As for Dart, 25, like Raducanu she is set to compete at Roland Garros for the very first time, having been dumped out of the qualifying rounds in the last two years.
All British eyes will be on Raducanu in the women’s singles, nevertheless, as she eyes more history nine months on from her heroics at the US Open.
British number one Cameron Norrie will also take on French wild card Manuel Guinard
Dan Evans, still looking for a first French Open win, will meet Argentina’s Francisco Cerundolo
The teenager has suffered a difficult start to 2022, crashing out in the second round of the Australian Open and recently slumping to early exits in the Madrid and Italian tournaments.
Nevertheless, she heads into the French competition with a new coaching team behind her, having spent the last six weeks working closely with the LTA’s senior performance advisor Louis Cayer.
Tennis greats Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal could also lock horns in the quarter-finals of the French Open.
The pair have won 15 of the last 17 titles at Roland Garros between them, with Nadal claiming 13 of them but losing to Djokovic in the semi-finals last year.
An unbalanced draw saw Carlos Alcaraz, widely considered the most likely challenger to Djokovic and Nadal, also placed in the top half and a potential semi-final opponent for either of the two veterans.