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E-mail Xinhua, July 26, 2024
The world's top tennis players got to know their opponents in the opening round of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games on Thursday.
In the men's singles, 24-time Grand Slam winner Novak Djokovic will face Australian Matthew Ebden, and is possible to meet his old rival Rafael Nadal, the Beijing 2008 gold medalist who has won 14 French Open titles at Stade Roland Garros, in the second round.
The recent Wimbledon and French Open winner Carlos Alcaraz of Spain will fight against Lebanon's Hady Habib. China's sole male player Zhang Zhizhen, men's world No. 34, will take on Tomas Machac of Czech Republic in his maiden Olympic journey.
Two-time Olympic champion Andy Murray, who will retire after Paris 2024, said on the draw ceremony that he decided to withdraw from the men's singles event and will only focus on the men's doubles with fellow Briton Dan Evans.
"I trained in the last few weeks to try to get myself ready to play the singles and doubles, but I'm getting a bit old, and now it becomes a bit harder to recover from the injuries, and it's running out of time," Murray noted.
In the women's singles, world No. 1 Iga Swiatek of Poland will meet Irina-Camelia Begu, while Coco Gauff, the world No. 2, will combat Ajla Tomljanovic of Australia. China's Zheng Qinwen, the 6th seed of the Games, will face French favorite Caroline Garcia.
The Rio silver medalist Angelique Kerber of Germany said that Paris Olympics would be her last competition on the draw ceremony. Kerber, winning both the Australian Open and the US Open in 2016 as well as the 2018 Wimbledon, had ranked No. 1 in the world for 34 weeks between 2016 and 2017.
"It's really a special tournament because I just announced a few hours ago that this is my last tournament here. I think I did the toughest decision of my life today, but I feel good with that. So I would just try to enjoy my last tournament here, and I hope that I will have a great time here in Paris," said Kerber.
The tennis competition of Paris 2024 will take place at the iconic Stade Roland Garros, home of the French Open, from July 27 to August 4.
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