Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer are all in the same half of the draw for the French Open beginning on Sunday.
With Nadal having dropped behind Daniil Medvedev to third in the rankings, it raised the possibility of a lopsided draw, and so it has proved.
There can be no repeat of last year’s final, when Nadal defeated Djokovic to win a 20th grand slam title, with the pair seeded to meet in the last four.
Federer is a potential quarter-final opponent for Djokovic, although, given the 39-year-old’s lack of matches and stated target of hitting form on the grass, it would be something of a surprise if he made it that far.
Top seed Djokovic will open his campaign against American Tennys Sandgren while Nadal faces young Australian Alexei Popyrin and Federer meets a qualifier.
Britain’s Cameron Norrie, who also opens against a qualifier, has reached two ATP Tour finals on clay in the last month and is a potential third-round opponent for Nadal, although he will first have to get past in-form Italian Lorenzo Sonego.
Medvedev, who reached his second slam final at the Australian Open but has never won a main draw match at Roland Garros, faces a tricky opener against in-form Kazakh Alexander Bublik.
With Harriet Dart losing in the final round of qualifying, Britain have just four representatives across the singles and neither Johanna Konta nor Heather Watson have shown encouraging form.
Konta, seeded 19 and defending ranking points from 2019’s semi-final, meets Sorana Cirstea of Romania, who beat her at the US Open last year, while Watson has won just one of her last seven matches and takes on Kazakh Zarina Diyas.
An interesting first-round match-up sees 2020 runner-up Sofia Kenin play former champion Jelena Ostapenko while Carla Suarez Navarro makes her return following successful cancer treatment against former US Open champion Sloane Stephens.
Ahead of the tournament a statue of Nadal was unveiled at the entrance to Roland Garros.
The statue commemorates the Spaniard’s incredible haul of 13 French Open titles.
