Rafael Nadal Drawn To Meet World No. 4 Alexander Zverev In 1st Round Of French Open

Get your popcorn ready.

Tennis fans won’t have to wait long for a big-time match at the upcoming French Open.

Rafael Nadal, the 14-time Roland Garros champion who may be playing for the final time in Paris, was drawn to meet world No. 4 Alexander Zverev in the first round.

Another popcorn first-round match features Andy Murray against Stan Wawrinka in a battle of three-time Grand Slam champions.

Both matches are set to start at 6 a.m. ET on Tennis Channel.

“If you are not seeded you can play anyone of the other 127 players in the draw 1st rd,” ESPN’s Brad Gilbert Tweeted. “The tournament could have chosen to seed Vamos-Rafa but hardly ever change the seeds here to my knowledge, this is how a random draw comes out for better or worse.”

Nadal, 37, is 7-3 all-time against the 27-year-old German. They have played 25 sets in total, with Nadal winning 15 and Zverev winning 10.

Their last match came in the French Open semifinals in 2022 when Zverev suffered a gruesome ankle injury trying to retrieve a shot and Nadal advanced 7-6(8), 6-6 when Zverev retired. The German left the court in a wheelchair.

“Well, very tough, no? And very said for him,” Nadal told Mats Wilander on court. “Honestly, he was playing unbelievable tournament. Yeah, he’s a very good colleague on the tour.

“I know how much he’s fighting to win a Grand Slam. But for the moment he was very unlucky, no? And the only thing that I am sure is that he gonna win not one, much more than one, so I wish him all the best and very fast recovery.”

Nadal went on to win his 22nd major in straight sets over Casper Ruud, but has been hampered in the last couple of years by a hip injury that required surgery.

He most recently played at the Italian Open, losing in straight sets, 6-1, 6-3, to Hubert Hurkacz in the round of 64.

Nadal has been practicing at Roland Garros this week and took a practice set from world No. 28 Sebastian Korda, 6-3.

“Rafa, what can you say?,” Martina Navratilova said this week on a Tennis Channel conference call. “You just hope that he could go out on his own terms playing his best tennis. Doesn’t look like it right now, but it’s three out of five, so that might give him some breathing room.

“But no matter what happens this year, nobody will do what he’s done. That will not — I wish I could come back like 500 years from now and see that Rafa still has that record. That’s not going to be broken ever, no matter what happens. He doesn’t have to play at all, but he wants to and I wish him the best, but his legacy is unmatched for that one particular tournament.”

The projected quarterfinals on the men’s side look like this:

(1) Novak Djokovic vs Casper Ruud (7)

(4) Daniil Medvedev vs Alexander Zverev (5)

(3) Carlos Alcaraz vs Andrey Rublev (6)

(2) Jannik Sinner vs Hubert Hurkacz (8)