The draw for the Roland Garros event was made on Thursday.

Nadal will take on Bulgaria’s Egor Gerasimov in the first round and faces a potential last-eight clash with U.S. Open runner-up Alexander Zverev of Germany.

The German has never made it past the quarter-finals at the claycourt Grand Slam.

Spaniard Nadal then faces a possible semi-final clash against last year’s runner-up and U.S Open winner Dominic Thiem.

Top seed Novak Djokovic of Serbia will face Swede Mikael Ymer in the first round.

In this same round, Swiss 16th seed and former champion Stan Wawrinka will take on Briton Andy Murray in the hottest opener.

Djokovic, who was ejected from the U.S. Open after he inadvertently hit a line judge in the throat with a ball after a point, has an easier route to the final than Nadal.

He has been drawn in the same half as Russian fourth seed Daniil Medvedev.

Meanwhile, Canadian Milos Raonic, the world number 20, has pulled out, according to the organisers.

Serena Williams, hoping to win a record-equalling 24th Grand Slam singles title, will start her campaign against fellow American Kristie Ahn.

The sixth seed, who was drawn in the same half as top seed Simona Halep, faces a potential fourth round clash with U.S. Open runner-up Victoria Azarenka.

World number one and 2019 champion Ashleigh Barty has also pulled out of the tournament, citing the coronavirus pandemic and a troubled preparation.

With Switzerland’s Belinda Bencic a last-gasp withdrawal, only six of the top 10 in the WTA rankings will start the tournament.

The tournament was rescheduled from May 24 to June 7, to Sept. 27 to Oct. 11, amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

“This year’s French Open will already go down in history because of the circumstances,” French federation president Bernard Giudicelli said.

“The key words of Roland Garros 2020 are resilience and responsibility.”

It will be the first year with a retractable roof at the French Open.

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But Andy Murray cared not a jot as he notched his first singles win since returning from career-saving hip surgery.

The 32-year-old former world number one crushed teenage French novice Imran Sibille 6-0 6-1 to move into the second round of the Rafa Nadal Open Challenger tournament.

But he barely perspired on a sultry Mallorcan evening.

Murray, who had hip-resurfacing surgery in January, opted against competing at Flushing Meadows.

He dropped down to the ATP’s second-tier circuit for the first time since 2005 to continue his comeback.

Big Apple it was not, but he was not slumming it.

The Rafa Nadal Academy on the edge of 18-time Grand Slam champion Nadal’s home town of Manacor is a plush state-of-the-art facility backed by olive-green hills.

Word of Murray’s late decision to accept an entry had spectators, many of them breaking off from the beach.

They were packed in around the showcourt to watch the three-time Grand Slam champion’s 42-minute hardcourt exhibition.

Sibille, who trains at the academy, has no ATP ranking and has earned 150 dollars from tennis.

He may look back on his clash with Murray as the highlight of his career.

For Murray it was a taste of the winning feeling, something he has not experienced in singles since January in Brisbane.

That was shortly before a tearful first round exit at the Australian Open when it appeared a flaking hip would end his career.

Far bigger tests of that metal-coated joint await, including on Tuesday when he faces third seed Norbert Gombos of Slovakia, the world number 115, but Murray is back.

“I need to get a bit quicker, and get a little bit more match fit before I’m back competing at that level again,” Murray told reporters. “That’s why I decided to drop down a level and try to get some more matches in.

“It’s still only seven months since my surgery and I was told that nine to 12 months after you will still be seeing improvements, muscles will still be healing and recovering.

“So, I’m hoping by the end of this year I will be feeling better.”

Murray played in second gear throughout and even resisted the temptation to claim a “double bagel”.

That was when he casually netted a forehand in the 12th game to hand Sibille a game — cue the biggest cheer of the evening.

While he was never stretched, Murray moved well, although he says improvements are required, especially when forced to change direction quickly.

The physical battle is not the only challenge, however.

Regaining his old aura will be equally challenging.

Murray has 45 career titles to his name, 663 Tour match wins and more than 61 million dollars in prize money.

But he lost first round matches to Richard Gasquet and Tennys Sangdren in Cincinnati and Winston-Salem this month.

They were his first ATP singles matches in a comeback most notable so far for winning the doubles title at Queen’s Club with Spain’s Feliciano Lopez.

While 17-year-old Sibille admitted to not sleeping a wink after finding out he was playing Murray at 6 p.m. the previous night, more grizzled opponents would not be intimidated.

“I do feel that it’s something that can come back quickly,” Murray, now ranked 328, said.

“Maybe the first few matches it’s a good opportunity for guys to play me because I’m not playing as well or moving as well as I was a few years ago.

“But I’m hoping that all it will take is one big tournament to get that confidence and that aura back and hopefully that will happen sooner rather than later.”

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The three-times Grand Slam singles champion’s management team confirmed the news on Tuesday.

The Scot, who is playing doubles at the All England Club as he tries to regain full match fitness after hip surgery in January, was flooded with offers after he revealed world number one and French Open champion Ash Barty had turned him down.

That rejection has now led to the formation of the ultimate Wimbledon super-couple as between them, Williams and Murray have won 26 singles majors.

“If you guys really want it… all right, done,” teased Williams after she began her pursuit of a record 24th Grand Slam singles title earlier on Tuesday.

Murray’s metal hip may have to work overtime in the next few days as he will also compete in men’s doubles with Frenchman Pierre-Hugues Herbert less than a month after returning to action.

Murray won the Queen’s Club doubles title with Feliciano Lopez in his comeback tournament last month.

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It is what could well be the final match of the Scot’s glittering career.

Hip surgery a year ago has left the three-times Grand Slam champion in severe pain.

The 31-year-old said last week that the year’s first Grand Slam could be his last tournament.

Murray has never lost in three meetings with Agut and last beat the 22nd seed in the Shanghai Masters final in 2016.

It was however when the Scot was at his peak, having just won his second Wimbledon title and Olympic gold in Rio.

Both players’ fortunes have changed since they last faced each other over the net.

Agut is coming off an impressive run in Doha, where he beat Stan Wawrinka, Novak Djokovic and Tomas Berdych en route to winning the title.

Murray, in contrast, is ranked 230th in the world and was beaten in straight sets by Russia’s Daniil Medvedev at the Brisbane International warm-up.

The Scot said his troublesome hip had stacked the odds against him.

“I know most likely I’m going to lose in the first round,” added Murray, who has finished runner-up in Melbourne five times but never won the title.

“If it is my last match, I want to try and enjoy it.”

An hour after Murray walks on to the Melbourne Arena, defending women’s champion Caroline Wozniacki will take on unseeded Belgian Alison Van Uytvanck under the lights on the tournament’s main showcourt.

Wozniacki will be followed by men’s champion Roger Federer, whose quest for a third Australian Open title in a row begins with an eighth career meeting with Uzbekistan’s Denis Istomin.

Federer, who has never lost to Istomin before, will be grateful the match is in the evening.

It allowed the Swiss veteran to avoid the worst of the heat on what promises to be a scorching day.

Temperatures are expected to soar to about 36-37 Celsius (96-99 Fahrenheit) in Melbourne on Monday, with high humidity set to make it the hottest day of the week.

Organisers have updated the tournament’s extreme heat policy, and Tennis Australia’s new “Heat Stress Scale” is likely to be pressed into action from the start.

First to feel the heat will be 2008 champion Maria Sharapova, who kicks things off on Rod Laver against unseeded Briton Harriet Dart.

Second seed Rafa Nadal will battle the worst of the conditions when he takes on Australian wild card and world number 238 James Duckworth in the second match on Rod Laver.

Nadal, who pulled out of the Brisbane International with a thigh strain, has shrugged off concerns his battle-scarred body may not be able to handle the strain.

There is going to be two weeks of top-level tennis, but doubts remain whether he will be able to stand the strain.

The Spaniard recently had ankle surgery and has twice lost to wild cards at a major before.

The first time was at the hands of James Blake in the 2005 U.S. Open and then to Nick Kyrgios at Wimbledon in 2014.

Australian teen Alex de Minaur, who won his first career title at the Sydney International on Saturday, is in action against Portugal’s Pedro Sousa on Margaret Court Arena.

World number 15 Ashleigh Barty faces Thailand’s Luksika Kumkhum on Margaret Court in the first match of the evening session.

Barty is carrying home hopes in the women’s draw and was a losing finalist in Sydney.

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