Qualifying and draw day - Thursday May 23

Now there's been time to digest the two singles draws, we've put together two guides to which matches REALLY stand out ahead of first round action across Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.

Frenchwoman Alize Cornet is playing the final tournament of her career and has the task of facing Australian Open finalist Zheng Qinwen in her opening match, while it's difficult to look past Rafa Nadal's meeting with Alexander Zverev as the pick of the men's first round battles.

Have a look at some of the other opening matches we picked out...

>> MEN'S POPCORN FIRST ROUND MATCHES

>> WOMEN'S POPCORN FIRST ROUND MATCHES

Germany's Jule Niemeier spoke to Chris Oddo after securing her passage into the main draw on Thursday. The former Wimbledon quarter-finalist explains how a change to her coaching set-up late last year and the rediscovery of the joy of tennis has helped her climb the rankings. Read all about it in Chris' Thursday women's qualifying wrap...

>> NIEMEIER: 'I FOUND THE JOY AGAIN'

Three hours after the men's draw was released and we're wondering whether anyone's told Rafa who's waiting for him in the first round. The 14-time champion here in Paris was going through the gears on Chatrier this afternoon...

There's always a lot to process on Grand Slam draw days but fear not, two of our writers - Chris Oddo and Dan Imhoff - have broken down the women's and men's draws respectively. Read their analysis of each of the draws through the links below...

>> SWIATEK'S PATH STACKED WITH CHAMPIONS

>> NADAL FACES TALL ORDER AT FIRST HURDLE

Our colleagues in the digital department, meanwhile, have been breaking down the possible routes to the women's final for rivals and top two seeds Iga Swiatek and Aryna Sabalenka.

Earlier this week we took a minute to appreciate the Pole's dominance at this Grand Slam in recent years.

With all the talk of the Rafa-Sascha first round blockbuster, lets not overlook what will be a fourth Roland-Garros meeting (and 23rd overall) between 2016 runner-up Andy Murray and 2015 champion Stan Wawrinka. It will most probably be Murray's last-ever appearance at the Paris major this year.

As the dust settles on the draw ceremony, there have been a handful of third round results in qualifying with another group of players securing places in the main draw.

A huge, noisy Court Suzanne-Lenglen crowd watched Frenchwoman Leolia Jeanjean see off American Robin Montgomery 6-4 in the decider.

No.2 seed Julia Riera from Argentina (pictured below) outlasted Alexandra Eala from the Philippines by the same scoreline, while Turkey’s Zeynep Sonmez took out 21st seeded Croat Jana Fett 7-6(5), 6-3.

In the men’s draw 14th seed Valentin Vacherot beat Briton Billy Harris in straight sets and Italian Giulio Zeppieri went through with a 6-2, 6-2 victory over Otto Virtanen, the Finn who beat Dominic Thiem on Wednesday.

You can find the full singles draws on www.rolandgarros.com by following the links below...

>> FULL MEN'S SINGLES DRAW

>> FULL WOMEN'S SINGLES DRAW

The build-up has begun...

The tennis world will already be rubbing its hands together in anticipation of Rafael Nadal’s first round meeting with Alexander Zverev, the recent Rome champion and No.4 seed in Paris.

It will be an 11th contest between the two with Nadal ahead 7-3 in their career meetings.

The last time they played was at Roland-Garros when Zverev sustained a serious ankle injury deep into the second set of their 2022 semi-final.

The German subsequently missed the rest of that season.

The world No.4 showed he was back to his best last Sunday when he claimed his second Rome title – and his sixth Masters trophy – by beating Chile’s Nicolas Jarry at the Foro Italico.

This is how the men's quarter-finals could look if the seedings go to plan...

Now it's time to reveal the men's singles draw. Some headlines...

Rafael Nadal plays 4th seed Alexander Zverev

Andy Murray to take on Stan Wawrinka

Defending champion Novak Djokovic v Pierre-Hugues Herbert

Second seed Jannik Sinner v Chris Eubanks

Carlos Alcaraz v Qualifier / lucky loser

Casper Ruud v Jakub Mensik

Defending and three-time former champion Iga Swiatek joins the ceremony for a chat on stage with MC Marc Maury before the men's draw gets under way.

The world No.1 talks about her Roland-Garros preparations, how good it feels to be back and says she's looking forward to coming back to Paris this summer to play the Olympic Games.

Projected quarter-finals in the women's singles...

[1] Swiatek v [5] Vondrousova

[3] Gauff v [8] Jabeur

[7] Zheng v [4] Rybakina

[6] Sakkari v [2] Sabalenka

The women's draw is revealed first. Some headlines...

Defending champion and top seed Iga Swiatek v Qualifier / lucky loser

Swiatek could player the unseeded Naomi Osaka in the second round

Second seed Aryna Sabalenka to play Erika Andreeva

Third seed Coco Gauff to face Qualifier / lucky loser

Fourth seed Elena Rybakina will take on Belgian Greet Minnen

We have a very special guest at the draw ceremony – French three-time Olympic gold medallist Marie-José Pérec.

She joins tournament director Amelie Mauresmo, tournament referee Remy Azemar and FFT President Gilles Moretton overseeing the process.

It’s time to turn our attention to the draw ceremony taking place on site at L’Orangerie at 14:00 Paris time - just 10 minutes from getting under way.

Watch the draw live below on this page or on the official Roland-Garros YouTube channel.

Some familiar faces getting ready for the clay...

We've had our first two women's third round qualifying results come through in the last few minutes.

German fifth seed Jule Niemeier is into the main draw after beating Hungary's Dalma Galfi 6-4, 6-1 on Court 12.

And on Court 7 Spain's Irene Burillo Escorihuela took out the former world No.21 from Switzerland Jil Teichmann 6-1, 7-6(1).

Serbia's Hamad Medjedovic is the second man into the main draw.

The 20-year-old Serb, who won the ATP Next Gen Finals in Saudi Arabia last season, cruised through his third round qualifying match against Frenchman Geoffrey Blancaneaux 6-2, 6-2. He will go in search of his first win at a major when the main draw gets under way on Sunday.

We're around 90 minutes away from the men's and women's draws being revealed.

Many will be wondering where 14-time Roland-Garros champion Rafael Nadal will fall in the 128-player men’s draw at 14.00 local time.

Did you know he’s lost only THREE matches here at Roland-Garros since his first appearance in 2005?

Find out more mind-boggling Nadal numbers in Chris Oddo’s deep dive into the Spaniard's dominance in Paris…

>> NADAL'S IMPROBABLE LEGACY IN PARIS

Congratulations to Japan's Shintaro Mochizuki who becomes our first qualifier at this year's event.

His Argentine opponent Facundo Bagnis retired injured after two games of the second set with Mochizuki up 6-4, 2-0. The 20-year-old is the first player to make it through three rounds of quailfying this week.

Talking of Grand Slam champions hitting the RG practice courts, things are getting serious with three full days left to prepare before the main draw starts on Sunday. You can see exactly who's hitting with who on the order of play area on the www.rolandgarros.com website.

>> THURSDAY PRACTICE SCHEDULE

Look who's here... three-time champion Iga Swiatek is on the Court-Philippe Chatrier practice schedule today.

There are 32 seeded spots in both singles draws and we’ve been analysing the ATP and WTA rankings looking for unseeded ‘dangerous floaters’ to look out for when the draws are made. Everybody will be looking for Rafa Nadal's name when the draws drop at 14.00...

>> UNSEEDED MEN TO LOOK OUT FOR

>> UNSEEDED WOMEN TO LOOK OUT FOR

To get you in the mood for day 4 of qualifying find out which of the 16 third round matches to keep an eye on in our Ones to watch on Thursday preview. We have 32 players all battling for main draw spots today, one win away from a Grand Slam appearance in Paris.

Welcome to Thursday...

The warmest of welcomes to the first day of our live updates from on site at Roland-Garros 2024. And what better time to kick things off than on the day the singles draws are revealed. You can follow the draws live at 14.00 local time here at www.rolandgarros.com and on the official Roland-Garros YouTube channel.

In addition we’ll bring you news from the fourth day of qualifying as well as superstar sightings on and around the practice courts…

>> THURSDAY QUALIFYING ORDER OF PLAY