PARIS, 19 May: Naomi Osaka\u2019s return to the French Open will be a tough test against the player who beat her at the Australian Open, Amanda Anisimova.
\nThey were paired in the bracket during Thursday\u2019s draw at Roland Garros for the clay-court major tennis tournament.
\nOsaka is a four-time Grand Slam champion who used to be No. 1 in the rankings but has slipped to No. 38 in part because of a lack of activity. That included time off for a mental health break after she withdrew from Roland Garros ahead of her second-round match last year, revealing that she has dealt with anxiety and depression.
\nBecause she is not seeded at the French Open, where play begins Sunday, she was not safe from facing a seeded opponent right away, so that\u2019s what will happen against No. 27 Anisimova.
\nAnisimova won their third-round encounter at Melbourne Park in January by a score of 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (5).
\nThe possible women\u2019s quarterfinals in Paris are No. 1 seed and 2020 champion Iga Swiatek against two-time major runner-up Karolina Pliskova, defending champion Barbora Krejcikova against Anett Kontaveit, Paula Badosa against Aryna Sabalenka, and Ons Jabeur against Maria Sakkari.
\nNovak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Carlos Alcaraz all were placed on the same half of the men\u2019s bracket.
\nDjokovic, who is the defending champion and seeded No. 1, could meet 13-time champion Nadal in the quarterfinals. Djokovic beat Nadal in the semifinals a year ago.
\nNadal leads the Grand Slam title standings among men with 21, one ahead of Djokovic and Roger Federer. This will be Djokovic\u2019s first major tournament since last year\u2019s U.S. Open; he was not allowed to play in the Australian Open because he has not been vaccinated against COVID-19.
\nIf that Djokovic-Nadal showdown happens, the winner could face No. 6 seed Alcaraz in the semifinals. Alcaraz is just 19, recently won the Madrid Open on clay and became the youngest man to break into the top 10 in the rankings since Nadal in 2005. (AP)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
PARIS, 19 May: Naomi Osaka\u2019s return to the French Open will be a tough test against the player who beat her at the Australian Open, Amanda Anisimova. They were paired in the bracket during Thursday\u2019s draw at Roland Garros for the clay-court major tennis tournament. Osaka is a four-time Grand Slam champion who used to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-191225","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191225","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=191225"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191225\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=191225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=191225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=191225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}