French Open men's singles draw: Murray in opposite half to Nadal, Djokovic

Murray has instead been placed on course for a semi-final meeting with Stan Wawrinka, the third seed and 2015 champion.

However, the out-of-sorts Scot could face some awkward matches to get to that stage.

An opener against world number 85 Andrey Kuznetsov, who he has beaten in their two previous meetings, would be followed by a clash with either Martin Klizan or French wild card Laurent Lokoli.

It is in round three where things could get tricky with Juan Martin Del Potro, the man Murray beat in the Olympic gold-medal match in Rio last summer, in his path.

Meetings with Tomas Berdych, a player who has beaten Murray at Roland Garros in the past, and Kei Nishikori could follow before any clash with Wawrinka. Rome winner Alex Zverev is another possible foe at the last-eight stage.

Wawrinka will start against qualifier Jozef Kovalik and is seeded to face Marin Cilic in the quarter-finals.

Arguably more eyes will be on the bottom half where Nadal and Djokovic have been placed on course for a blockbuster of a semi-final.

Nadal will be seeking a record 10th French Open title - no-one has ever won the same Grand Slam tournament 10 times.

He will start as favourite having already captured titles in Monte Carlo, Barcelona and Madrid in recent times, although last week's loss to Dominic Thiem in Rome will have given his rivals a much-needed lift.

Nadal will start against enigmatic Frenchman Benoit Paire. His path to the final includes potential meetings with Jack Sock and Milos Raonic.

Djokovic will look to deny Nadal and retain the crown he won last year but his form has dipped since that career Grand Slam-clinching success.

The Serb will open against Spain's Marcel Granollers but potential problems in the shape of David Goffin (in the last 16) and Thiem (at the quarter-final stage) await.

The other Brits in the draw all avoided seeded first-round foes.

Kyle Edmund will face Portugal's Gastao Elias first up, Dan Evans meets Tommy Robredo, a five-time quarter-finalist in Paris, and Aljaz Bedene takes on American Ryan Harrison.

All three have the potential to meet a seed in round two with Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Grigor Dimitrov and Sock their respective possible opponents.

The main-draw action gets under way on Sunday.

Projected quarter-finals:

Murray v Nishikori
Wawrinka v Cilic
Raonic v Nadal
Thiem v Djokovic

Andy Murray's potential route to the title:

R1: Andrey Kuznetsov
R2: Martin Klizan
R3: Juan Martin Del Potro
R4: Tomas Berdych
QF: Kei Nishikori/Alex Zverev
SF: Stan Wawrinka/Marin Cilic
F: Novak Djokovic/Rafael Nadal

Full French Open men's singles draw:

(seedings in brackets):

Andy Murray (Gbr) (1) v Andrey Kuznetsov (Rus)
Laurent Lokoli (Fra) v Martin Klizan (Svk)
Marcos Baghdatis (Cyp) v Nicolas Almagro (Spa)
Guido Pella (Arg) v Juan Martin Del Potro (Arg) (29)

John Isner (USA) (21) v Jordan Thompson (Aus)
Paolo Lorenzi (Ita) v Ricardas Berankis (Lit)
Karen Khachanov (Rus) v Nicolas Jarry (Chi)
Jan-Lennard Struff (Ger) v Tomas Berdych (Cze) (13)

Alexander Zverev (Ger) (9) v Fernando Verdasco (Spa)
Pierre-Hugues Herbert (Fra) v Jared Donaldson (USA)
Damir Dzumhur (Bih) v Nicolas Kicker (Arg)
Maxime Hamou (Fra) v Pablo Cuevas (Uru) (22)

Sam Querrey (USA) (27) v Hyeon Chung (Kor)
Ernesto Escobedo (USA) v Denis Istomin (Uzb)
Radu Albot (Mol) v Jeremy Chardy (Fra)
Thanasi Kokkinakis (Aus) v Kei Nishikori (Jpn) (8)

Stan Wawrinka (Swi) (3) v Jozef Kovalik (Svk)
Alexandr Dolgopolov (Ukr) v Carlos Berlocq (Arg)
Santiago Giraldo (Col) v Andreas Seppi (Ita)
Frances Tiafoe (USA) v Fabio Fognini (Ita) (28)

Richard Gasquet (Fra) (24) v Arthur de Greef (Bel)
Teymuraz Gabashvili (Rus) v Victor Estrella Burgos (Dom)
Thiago Monteiro (Bra) v Alexandre Muller (Fra)
Dustin Brown (Ger) v Gael Monfils (Fra) (15)

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (Fra) (12) v Renzo Olivo (Arg)
Kyle Edmund (Gbr) v Gastao Elias (Por)
Kevin Anderson (Rsa) v Malek Jaziri (Tun)
Philipp Kohlschreiber (Ger) v Nick Kyrgios (Aus) (18)

David Ferrer (Spa) (30) v Donald Young (USA)
Feliciano Lopez (Spa) v Bjorn Fratangelo (USA)
Konstantin Kravchuk (Rus) v Federico Del Bonis (Arg)
Ernests Gulbis (Lat) v Marin Cilic (Cro) (7)

Milos Raonic (Can) (5) v Steve Darcis (Bel)
Rogerio Dutra Silva (Bra) v Mikhail Youzhny (Rus)
Marco Trungelliti (Arg) v Quentin Halys (Fra)
Guillermo Garcia-Lopez (Spa) v Gilles Muller (Lux) (26)

Pablo Carreno-Busta (Spa) (20) v Florian Mayer (Ger)
Taro Daniel (Jpn) v Jerzy Janowicz (Pol)
Tommy Robredo (Spa) v Daniel Evans (Gbr)
Stephane Robert (Fra) v Grigor Dimitrov (Bul) (11)

Jack Sock (USA) (14) v Jiri Vesely (Cze)
Aljaz Bedene (Gbr) v Ryan Harrison (USA)
Mikhail Kukushkin (Kaz) v Tennys Sandgren (USA)
John Millman (Aus) v Roberto Bautista Agut (Spa) (17)

Gilles Simon (Fra) (31) v Nikoloz Basilashvili (Geo)
Viktor Troicki (Ser) v Evgeny Donskoy (Rus)
Robin Haase (Ned) v Alex De Minaur (Aus)
Benoit Paire (Fra) v Rafael Nadal (Spa) (4)

Dominic Thiem (Aut) (6) v Bernard Tomic (Aus)
Simone Bolelli (Ita) v Nicolas Mahut (Fra)
Mathias Bourgue (Fra) v Borna Coric (Cro)
Yuichi Sugita (Jpn) v Steve Johnson (USA) (25)

Ivo Karlovic (Cro) (23) v Stefanos Tsitsipas (Gre)
Horacio Zeballos (Arg) v Adrian Mannarino (Fra)
Yen-Hsun Lu (Tpe) v Sergiy Stakhovsky (Ukr)
Paul-Henri Mathieu (Fra) v David Goffin (Bel) (10)

Lucas Pouille (Fra) (16) v Julien Benneteau (Fra)
Thomaz Bellucci (Bra) v Dusan Lajovic (Ser)
Benjamin Bonzi (Fra) v Daniil Medvedev (Rus)
Marius Copil (Rom) v Albert Ramos-Vinolas (Spa) (19)

Mischa Zverev (Ger) (32) v Stefano Napolitano (Ita)
Andrey Rublev (Rus) v Diego Sebastian Schwartzman (Arg)
Joao Sousa (Por) v Janko Tipsarevic (Ser)
Marcel Granollers (Spa) v Novak Djokovic (Ser) (2)