Four-time defending champion Rafael Nadal begins his quest for his fifth Coupe des Mousquetaires as he faces Brazilian Marcos Daniel in the first round.
The Spaniard, who has a 28-0 record at the claycourt Grand Slam, says that he’s not pressing himself too much considering that he’s the overwhelming favorite to lift the championship trophy two weeks from now.
“My only pressure is try to play good tennis, try to play well, and later we will see what happens, no? The tournament is always really tough. Long matches, against the best players of the world, no? So we will see,” he was quoted as saying.
Other notable matches for today include Roger Federer’s match against Alberto Martin of Spain, Andy Roddick of United States vs. Romain Jouan of France and Fernando Gonzalez of Chile vs. Jiri Vanek of Czech Republic.
On the women’s side, world number one Dinara Safina begins her campaign against Great Britain’s Anne Keothaving. Safina has the most successful claycourt season among the pack, clinching the Rome and Madrid Open titles prior to this tournament, thus making her a top choice to win her first Slam title in Paris.
Other matches to look forward to today include Carolina Wozniacki (DEN) vs. Vera Dushevina (RUS), Flavia Penneta (ITA) vs. Alexa Glatch (USA), Venus Williams (USA) vs. Bethanie Mattek-Sands (USA) and Dominika Cibulkova (SVK) vs. Alona Bondarenko (UKR).
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