The French Open (referred to as Roland Garros by the locals) released its main draw.

Once again, Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer are in the same half of the draw.  Novak’s section has some solid, but not overly tough players.  Hewitt is in his section, but Hewitt is not a noted clay courter, and he’s played very little recently.  Melzer was a better player a few years ago, but has slipped to the 30th seed.  Davydenko was making progress, but the Brian Baker express continues to plow on (see this in a separate post) and he lost today to Baker.

The most dangerous players in Section 1 (the winner of which goes to the quarterfinals) is Verdasco, and he is so up and down, that he may not make his seeding to meet Djokovic.  It looks pretty good for Djokovic.

Section 2 features Tsonga.  Baker was given a wildcard due to his performance in Nice, a credit to fast-thinking French Open officials to reward someone that might be on the verge of a mid-career resurgence.  Simon opens up with Harrison, which is tough for both.  Simon has been playing well on clay, but Harrison has a big serve.  And the winner of that may play Brian Baker, who is having a Linsanity moment in tennis.

Tsonga and Troicki was in the same part of the draw and are the expected seeds to meet in the third round.  However, Troicki is not playing nearly as well this year as last. H e might even lose to Bellucci in the opening round.

Federer plays Kamke in his opening round, and is likely to play Nalbandian after that.  Nalbandian used to give Federer fits.  He still plays well enough to make life difficult for Federer.  Roddick plays Mahut in the opener.  Roddick has not played well on clay lately, so he is expected to not go that far in the draw.  Stepanek and Lopez are also in Roger Federer’s section.  Stepanek is better on hard courts than clay, but can be tricky.  The same can be said for Lopez.  It should be pretty smooth for Federer to get to the quarterfinals.

del Potro and Berdych are in Section 4 and the winner of these two might face Federer (should they meet).  del Potro has to get past Spaniard Albert Montanes who has historically played well on clay, but not lately.  Ferrero, who has also not played much, but is always dangerous is in that section as is Cilic.  Anderson is also someone that might ride his booming serve a few rounds.

In the bottom half, David Ferrer and John Isner higlight Section 5.  Other than those two, Granollers and Youzhny are the other two seeds.  The two are likely to meet each other in the fourth round.

Section 6 features Dolgopolov and Murray.  Dolgo starts off with quirky compatriot, Stakhovsky.  Tommy Haas is in that section as well as Richard Gasquet.  In Murray’s section, there is Tomic.  Murray start off with Japanese player Tatsuma Ito.  The Japanese have been faring better lately and that doesn’t include Nishikori.  Giraldo and Falla are in Murray’s section too.

Section 7 includes Tipsarevic and Almagro.  Tipsarevic plays Querrey who is still struggling to come back.  Go Soeda, who beat Roddick this past week, is in that section too.  Kolhschreiber, Chela, and Baghdatis are in Almagro’s section.

Finally, Nadal and Monaco are in Section 8 with Raonic and Mayer as the other two seeds.

Matches start Sunday.  The French Open is the only Slam to have a Sunday start.