Roland Garros 2011 Men's Draw

Rafael Nadal ESP (1) v John Isner USA
Santiago Giraldo COL v Pablo Andujar ESP
Pablo Cuevas URU v Q VEIC, Antonio CRO
Q GREMELMAYR, Denis GER v Nikolay Davydenko RUS (28)

Sam Querrey USA (24) v Philipp Kohlschreiber GER
Ivan Ljubicic CRO v Somdev Devvarman IND
Dmitry Tursunov RUS v Xavier Malisse BEL
Juan Monaco ARG v Fernando Verdasco ESP (16)

Mardy Fish USA (10) v Ricardo Mello BRA
Daniel Gimeno-Traver ESP v Robin Haase NED
Jeremy Chardy FRA v Grigor Dimitrov BUL
Michael Russell USA v Gilles Simon FRA (18)

Marcos Baghdatis CYP (27) v Frederico Gil POR
Q MAYER, Leonardo ARG v Dustin Brown GER
Q RAMOS, Albert ESP v Q MARTI, Javier ESP
Benjamin Becker GER v Robin Soderling SWE (5)

Interesting quarter, to be sure. The defending champion gets a player who's beaten him several times in a row in the round of 16 and a player who beat him at this event two years ago in the round of 16. And how did all the competitive American men in the draw end up here? Depending on where Rafael Nadal's confidence is, he could be tested out of the gate, but I can't imagine he won't get out of this quarter unless the Big Swede decides he can do it again. If that match comes to pass, it will be the most anticipated quarterfinal of the final eight.

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Andy Murray GBR (4) v Q PRODON, Eric FRA
LL BOLELLI, Simone ITA v Q DANCEVIC, Frank CAN
WC Arnaud Clement FRA v Filippo Volandri ITA
Michael Berrer GER v Milos Raonic CAN (26)

Alexandr Dolgopolov UKR (21) v Rainer Schuettler GER
Andreas Haider-Maurer AUT v Ryan Sweeting USA
Tobias Kamke GER v Olivier Rochus BEL
Julian Reister GER v Viktor Troicki SRB (15)

Nicolas Almagro ESP (11) v Q KUBOT, Lukasz POL
Carlos Berlocq ARG v WC Bernard Tomic AUS
Potito Starace ITA v Q FALLA, Alejandro COL
Igor Kunitsyn RUS v Florian Mayer GER (20)

Kevin Anderson RSA (32) v Nicolas Mahut FRA
Juan Ignacio Chela ARG v WC Tim Smyczek USA
WC Edouard Roger-Vasselin FRA v Q ROSOL, Lukas CZE
LL BECK, Andreas GER v Jurgen Melzer AUT (8)

Andy Murray couldn't be happier. I mean, really. I don't know where Jurgen Melzer's motivation is these days, but I don't exactly expect him to defend his points. Murray makes his first semi in Paris. If he doesn't, well, maybe he might consider a professional career in football.

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David Ferrer ESP (7) v Jarkko Nieminen FIN
Julien Benneteau FRA v Rui Machado POR
Kei Nishikori JPN v Yen-Hsun Lu TPE
Q GUEZ, David FRA v Sergiy Stakhovsky UKR (31)

Michael Llodra FRA (22) v Q DARCIS, Steve BEL
Philipp Petzschner GER v Mischa Zverev GER
Adrian Mannarino FRA v WC Guillaume Rufin FRA
Q PHAU, Bjorn GER v Gael Monfils FRA (9)

Stanislas Wawrinka SUI (14) v Q GENSSE, Augustin FRA
Q SCHOOREL, Thomas NED v Maximo Gonzalez ARG
Florent Serra FRA v Igor Andreev RUS
Jan Hajek CZE v Jo-Wilfried Tsonga FRA (17)

Janko Tipsarevic SRB (29) v Brian Dabul ARG
Ivan Dodig CRO v Pere Riba ESP
WC Vincent Millot FRA v WC Maxime Teixeira FRA
Feliciano Lopez ESP v Roger Federer SUI (3)

Feliciano Lopez already had his chance against the world No. 3 but blew it. Badly. I don't expect their opening round encounter in Paris to even be close. If it is, Federer will prevail anyway, though it will be the most compelling first-round match up on paper in the entire draw. After that, this quarter is all Federer to the point of yawning.

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Tomas Berdych CZE (6) v Q ROBERT, Stephane FRA
Fabio Fognini ITA v Denis Istomin UZB
Tommy Haas GER v LL ILHAN, Marsel TUR
Robert Kendrick USA v Guillermo Garcia-Lopez ESP (30)

Marin Cilic CRO (19) v Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo ESP
Lleyton Hewitt AUS v Albert Montanes ESP
Daniel Brands GER v Mikhail Kukushkin KAZ
Go Soeda JPN v Mikhail Youzhny RUS (12)

Richard Gasquet FRA (13) v Radek Stepanek CZE
LL BOGOMOLOV JR., Alex USA v Marcel Granollers ESP
Teymuraz Gabashvili RUS v Andreas Seppi ITA
Andrey Golubev KAZ v Thomaz Bellucci BRA (23)

Juan Martin Del Potro ARG (25) v Ivo Karlovic CRO
Ernests Gulbis LAT v Blaz Kavcic SLO
WC Benoit Paire FRA v Victor Hanescu ROU
Thiemo De Bakker NED v Novak Djokovic SRB (2)

Interesting. The Unbeatable One opens against a cat who can play but can't close and will likely find himself playing the biggest forehand on tour in round three, provided the Argentine can get past the big serving spoiler. Not sure how Juan Martin del Potro's hip feels, but I guess we'll see soon enough. And then there's a resurgent(?) Richard Gasquet waiting in the fourth round, provided he can get past the pesky Czech in his first. Nothing much going on in the top half of this quarter, so whoever wins the bottom wins it all. I say the Unbeatable One adds another 5 matches to his streak.

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