Federer's French Open quest begins with American

May 25, 2007, 15:37 GMT

Paris, France - Roger Federer will start his quest for the only Grand Slam title he has never won against an unheralded American, as the draw for the 2007 French Open was unveiled on Friday.

The top-seeded Federer will square off against Michael Russell in the first round at the French Open, which gets under way on Sunday in Paris. The Swiss superstar lost in last year's final at Roland Garros to the amazing clay-court talents of Rafael Nadal.

Nadal is seeded second this year and trying to capture the French crown for a third year in a row. He enters this year's tournament off a loss, however, falling to Federer in the final at the Hamburg Masters last Sunday -- a setback that ended his remarkable streak of clay-court wins at 81.

The Spaniard will open his Roland Garros stay against Argentina's Juan Martin Del Potro.

While Nadal has excelled on the slow surface and only a major upset would prevent him from reaching another French final, Federer has had his share of troubles on clay and could face a few tough matches as he tries to navigate his way toward a potential blockbuster final.

Federer's quarter of the draw features a possible fourth-round encounter with 2003 French champion Juan Carlos Ferrero of Spain or tough Russian Mikhail Youzhny.

A quarterfinal matchup for the 10-time Grand Slam champ could feature Italian Filippo Volandri, who beat Federer at the Italian Masters earlier this month, or seventh-seeded Croat Ivan Ljubicic, who must first get past veteran Frenchman Arnaud Clement. Ninth-seeded Tommy Robredo is also a possible quarterfinal foe.

The other quarter in Federer's half of the draw includes fourth-seeded Russian Nikolay Davydenko, Valencia winner Nicolas Almagro of Spain and fifth-seeded Chilean Fernando Gonzalez, who reached the Rome final.

Also part of this quarter is Argentina's Guillermo Canas. The 19th seed has already beaten Federer twice this year, knocking him off in consecutive tournaments at Indian Wells and Miami.

Nadal's quarter of the draw includes a potential fourth-round matchup against Australia's Lleyton Hewitt, although the former world No. 1 could meet 2004 French champ Gaston Gaudio of Argentina in the second round. Quarterfinal opponents for Nadal could include eighth-seeded American James Blake or 1998 French winner Carlos Moya.

American Andy Roddick highlights the other quarter in Nadal's portion of the draw. Seeded third this year, Roddick will open against Russian Igor Andreev, who was the last player to beat Nadal on clay in April 2005 before Federer's conquest last week.

Nadal will be trying to become the first man since the great Bjorn Borg to win three straight French Open titles. The scintillating Swede won four in a row from 1978 through 1981.

Federer, meanwhile, will be trying to complete the career Grand Slam. In the process of joining only Fred Perry, Don Budge, Rod Laver, Roy Emerson and Andre Agassi in that elite group, he would also be the holder of all four major championships at the same time, having captured the titles at Wimbledon, the U.S. Open and Australian Open within the past year.

© 2007 The Sports Network