Nuno Borges faces American John Isner in the first round of the Roland Garros tournament

The Portuguese tennis player Nuno Borges will face the American John Isner in the first round of the Roland Garros tournament, the third major of the season, which starts on Sunday, the draw was announced today.

This will be the first time that the current Portuguese 76th place in the ATP hierarchymeasure forces with the veteran american (89)38 years old, who is coming off five consecutive defeats.

The winner of the duel will face the Spanish Zapata Miralles (37 °) or the Argentine Diego Schwartzman (93 °).

Borges will be the only Portuguese representative in the singles table in Paris, in what will be his second appearance, while his compatriot Francisco Cabral will play alongside Brazilian Rafael Matos in the couples section.

In addition, the 2023 edition of the Parisian clay court tournament, which will be without the defending champion for the first time since 2005, Spanish Rafael Nadal (14 times crowned in Paris)due to a hip injury, could dictate an eventual semifinal clash between the two heavy favourites.

The Serbian Novak Djokovic, third seeded, seeks the 23rd Grand Slam of his career and could face the Spanish Carlos Alcarazfirst predesignated and leader of the ranking, tennis players who debut against tennis players from the classification.

The other possible semifinal could oppose the Russian Daniil Medvedev, who rose to second place in the world, thanks to the title in the Masters 1,000 in Rome, last Sunday, the Norwegian Casper Ruud (#4).

On the women’s side, the Polish Iga Swiatek, number one in the WTA hierarchy and current champion of Paris, and the Kazakh Elena Rybakina (04th), recently crowned in Rome, are in the same half of the table, with the prospect of a duel between two in semifinals.

On the other side of the table, there could be a semifinal between the Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka (02nd) and the American Jessica Pegula (03rd).