Williams could tie Steffi Graf for most singles titles with a French Open victory while Djokovic could complete his career Grand Slam, the French Open being the only major title that has eluded him in his career thus far.
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Williams joined Murray as a champion in Italy, picking up her first title anywhere in nine months.
But tennis is littered with great names whose Grand Slam pedigree endured shattering reality checks on Roland Garros’s unforgiving crushed red brick surfaces.
After losing to Novak Djokovic in the Australian Open semi-finals, he underwent knee surgery in February – his first such operation – after injuring himself while giving his children a bath.
Stefan Edberg also made 13 fruitless visits while Djokovic’s coach Boris Becker tried nine times.
This story has been corrected to show that Williams said “four tournaments and three finals”, not “four titles”.
Djokovic starts in Paris against Taiwan’s Lu Yen-Hsun, the world number 100.
Should the draw follow the seedings, Murray would meet fifth seed Kei Nishikori in the quarter-finals and defending champion Stan Wawrinka in the last four.
“I think about it a lot, and I still don’t know how I got through it”, Williams said Friday after the draw for this year’s tournament. So that’s how I approach things.
“It felt good to win in Rome, obviously”. Murray is seeded second for the first time at Roland Garros and will face a qualifier in his first match. The Spaniard who turns 30 during the fortnight, lost a quarter-final a year ago to Djokovic.
Unquestionably, Groth will start as an enormous outsider in the first-round clash against the crowd favourite at Roland Garros, where the 14-time grand slam champion Nadal happily says he feels at home. En route to the final, she brought down No. 5 seed Petra Kvitova, No. 3 Garbine Muguruzaand three players ranked in the top 50. That’s tough. They have won three matches here.
Roger Federer will miss his first grand slam since 1999 having pulled out of the French Open with a back injury and Djokovic admits it is a blow for the competition. “I know I can beat the top guys and hopefully I can do it again a few times this year”.
A semi-final run in Madrid and quarter-final spot in Rome – where it took Murray and Djokovic respectively to halt him – illustrated his enduring power.
On women’ s part, top seed American Serena, who takes Magdalena Rybarikova of Slovakia in her opening round, has been drawn into the same quarter with former world No. 1 Victoria Azarenka before taking on Australian Open victor Angelique Kerber in a potential semi clash.
Even though seeded below Roberta Vinci, who heads up this quarter, we think that Irina-Camelia Begu’s form this clay season has been good enough to halt the Italian in her last hurrah, while Kvitova can probably handle compatriot Karolina Pliskova, should they face each other in the third round.
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“It’s always a special feeling when you’re able to come back in such a handsome and important place, but especially for me, because it’s the most important place in my career, without a doubt”, Nadal answered.
