Rafael Nadal will open his quest for a ninth French Open crown with a tie against US veteran wildcard Robby Ginepri following today'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.
Still, the draw handed Nadal a relatively more straightforward passage through the rounds than Djokovic.
Nadal is facing fourth-round and quarter-final matchups against fellow Spaniards Nicolas Almagro and David Ferrer, and although both me have beaten him in the buildup to Roland Garros, he has dominated them throughout his career.
Past them, his likeliest semi-finals opponents would be either Australian Open champion Stan Wawrinka or Britain's Andy Murray, who are slated to meet in the quarter-finals. Murray led Nadal 4-2 in the deciding set in the Rome quarter-finals last week but eventually lost 7-5
Nadal, whose only tournament win on clay in the buildup came in Madrid where opponent Kei Nishikori of Japan had to pull out in the deciding set of the final, said that he had fully recovered from his efforts in Rome where he played a series of tough three-setters before losing in the final to Djokovic.
"During the claycourt season I get a little better week by week," he said.
"Last week in Rome it was tough physically. I played a lot of time, but in the end sometimes you need these things, No?
"I was happy with the way I finished in Madrid and Rome. Not that happy about what I did in Monte Carlo and Barcelona.
