Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal are on a semi-final collision course in the top half of the draw at Roland Garros. In the bottom half of the draw, defending champion Stan Wawrinka is joined by second seed Andy Murray.

After missing out in the final three times previously, Djokovic is again looking to add the elusive Roland Garros crown to his Grand Slam collection, having won his 11^th major title at the Australian Open (d. Murray) at the start of the year.

World No. 1 Djokovic opens his bid to become the eighth player in tennis history to complete the career Grand Slam when he faces Yen-Hsun Lu in the first round. He would face a qualifier in the second round. The first seed Djokovic is projected to meet is No. 31 Federico Delbonis in the third round.

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Roberto Bautista Agut, the No. 14 seed, is a potential fourth-round opponent for Djokovic, but must come through a section featuring a first-round clash between Borna Coric and Taylor Fritz, who are both a part of the ATP’s #NextGen. Coric trained with Djokovic on Court Philippe Chatrier on Friday.

Another all-#NextGen first-round contest in the top quarter of the draw sees Hyeon Chung take on French wild card Quentin Halys. Seventh seed Tomas Berdych headlines that section of the draw and is projected to take on Djokovic in the quarter-finals. But the Czech must first overcome a 0-2 FedEx ATP Head2Head record against Vasek Pospisil in his opening match. Spaniards David Ferrer and Feliciano Lopez could also both stand in Berdych’s way of a quarter-final berth, as potential fourth-round opponents for the Czech.

Nine-time champion Nadal is attempting to capture his first major title since lifting the trophy at Roland Garros in 2014 (d. Djokovic). But he has a testing draw. The Spaniard, who will celebrate his 30^th birthday during the fortnight, opens against big-serving Australian Sam Groth and could face a third-round clash with Fabio Fognini, who beat Nadal three times last year.

Fast-rising Austrian Dominic Thiem could lie in wait for Nadal in the fourth round, though he finds himself in the same section of the draw as #NextGen Alexander Zverev, who joins Thiem in the Nice semi-finals today. Thiem defeated Nadal in the Buenos Aires semi-finals in February and tested the Spaniard in Monte-Carlo last month.

Nadal is projected to face sixth seed and two-time former semi-finalist Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the quarter-finals, though the Frenchman would first need to get by 12^th seed David Goffin in the fourth round.

Murray comes into Roland Garros fresh from winning his third ATP World Tour clay-court crown in Rome, de-throning Djokovic in the final. The Scot, who pushed Djokovic to five sets in a memorable semi-final last year, opens his campaign against a qualifier and the first seed he could face is No. 27 Ivo Karlovic.

Potential fourth-round opponents for Murray include 15^th seed John Isner and No. 19 Benoit Paire, while Murray’s countryman and #NextGen star Kyle Edmund is also in that section. The Scot is projected to face fifth seed Kei Nishikori in the quarter-finals, but the Japanese finds himself in a tough section of the draw, which could see him face Nick Kyrgios or Richard Gasquet in the fourth round.

Wawrinka lifted his second Grand Slam trophy at Roland Garros last year, and looks to be finding his form on the eve of his title defence, currently through to the semi-finals in Geneva after early exits in Madrid and Rome. The third seed opens against Lukas Rosol, his opponent today in the Geneva semi-finals. He could face Taro Daniel or Martin Klizan in the second round, with No. 30 Jeremy Chardy his expected third-round opponent. Gilles Simon, Viktor Troicki and Grigor Dimitrov will all vie to play Wawrinka in the fourth round.

Eighth seed Milos Raonic joins Wawrinka in the third quarter of the draw and could face the Swiss in the quarter-finals. The Canadian faces Janko Tipsarevic in the first round – this week in Geneva, the Serb played his first tour-level match since the 2015 US Open after being sidelined with injury. Fast-improving Frenchman Lucas Pouille is the first seed Raonic could face, in the third round, with Marin Cilic or Jack Sock seeded to face the Toronto native in the fourth round.

Day four of qualifying at Roland Garros saw all remaining second-round qualifying matches and five final-round qualifying matches completed. #NextGen star Jared Donaldson is one of the players who find themselves one match away from the main draw after winning on Thursday.

The American teenager and No. 29 seed advanced with a straight sets win over Axel Michon of France 6-3, 7-5. Donaldson is looking to come through qualifying at a Grand Slam for the first time in his career. He’ll play No. 14 seed Nikoloz Basilashvili of Georgia on Friday.

No. 4 seed Jan-Lennard Struff of Germany also moved into the last round of qualifying after surviving a tight second set to prevail over #NextGen star Andrey Rublev of Russia, 6-1, 7-6(1). Struff is looking to make his fourth consecutive appearance in the main draw at Roland Garros. Next up for him is No. 22 seed Andrej Martin of Slovakia.

In final-round qualifying action, No. 7 Roberto Carballes Baena of Spain advanced into the main draw of a Grand Slam for the first time in his career by defeating Marius Copil of Romania, 6-4, 3-6, 6-4. Laslo Djere of Serbia will also make his Grand Slam main draw debut after upsetting No. 21 seed Adam Pavlasek of Czech Republic, 6-2, 3-6, 6-2.

Other players to advance into the main draw include No. 7 seed Tobias Kamke of Germany, No. 27 seed Radu Albot of Romania, and Adrian Ungur of Romania.

All 11 remaining final-round qualifying matches will take place on Friday, with the feature match pitting Former Top 10 player Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic against No. 2 seed and #NextGen star Yoshihito Nishioka of Japan.

Roger Federer has announced that he will miss Roland Garros this year. Although he did not specify what the injury was, he withdrew from the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 event in Madrid with a back injury. He then played the following week at the ATP World Masters 1000 event in Rome, where he lost in the third round to Dominic Thiem.

“I regret to announce that I have made the decision not to play in this year’s French Open. I have been making steady progress with my overall fitness, but I am still not 100% and feel I might be taking an unnecessary risk by playing in this event before I am really ready,” said Federer in an announcement posted to his Facebook page. “This decision was not easy to make, but I took it to ensure I could play the remainder of the season and help to extend the rest of my career.”

The World No. 3 in the Emirates ATP Rankings added that he remains “as motivated and excited as ever and my plan is to achieve the highest level of fitness before returning to the ATP World Tour for the upcoming grass court season. I am sorry for my fans in Paris but I very much look forward to returning to Roland Garros in 2017.”

Federer owns the Open Era record with 65 straight appearances in Grand Slam main draws. His streak stretches to 69 straight appearances including qualifying and 73 including the juniors. The last major that Federer did not appear at was the 1997 US Open.

The 34-year-old Federer had trained with his coach, Ivan Ljubicic, at Roland Garros for 20 minutes on Wednesday afternoon. He will be replaced by a lucky loser to be determined from the qualifying draw.

Editor’s note: The ATP has not yet received Federer’s official withdrawal.

Next Generation star Alexander Zverev is through to his third ATP World Tour semi-final of the season after saving two match points to oust second seed Gilles Simon 6-3, 6-7(6), 7-6(1) on Thursday at the Open de Nice Cote d’Azur.

“Playing against Gilles is always tough, especially on this surface,” Zverev said. “He played quite well to save two match points in the second set. Unfortunately I couldn’t win in straight sets, but I did well to recover in the third.

“I’ve now played two three-hour matches back-to-back, so I’ll see how I feel tomorrow.”

The 19-year-old German had the chance to close out the match when he led 6/4 in the second set tie-break, but Simon rallied to force a decider. The Frenchman then had two match points of his own with Zverev serving at 5-6, 15/40, but the teenager held his nerve and dominated the subsequent tie-break to claim victory in just shy of three hours.

It was Zverev’s third victory over Simon this year, having also beaten the 31-year-old Frenchman in Rotterdam and Indian Wells. He saved eight of 10 break points faced.

Zverev will attempt to reach his first ATP World Tour final when he faces Joao Sousa on Friday. The right-hander lost in the semi-finals in Montpellier (l. to Mathieu) and Munich (l. to Thiem) earlier in the year.

The fifth-seeded Sousa was a 7-5, 7-5 winner over Kevin Anderson. The Portuguese prevailed in one hour and 37 minutes, saving the six break points he faced. Sousa is a career-high No. 28 in the Emirates ATP Rankings this week and will contest his first semi-final of the season.

“I played a great match. The conditions were windy but I stayed solid,” Sousa said. “Kevin has a very big serve and hits hard from the baseline, so it was a good win for me today.”

Top seed Dominic Thiem prevented Andreas Seppi from scoring his 300th ATP World Tour victory with a 6-3, 6-3 quarter-final win. The Austrian star did not face a break point and needed just 66 minutes to score his 34th win of the year. The reigning Nice champion improved to 8-1 at the event and remains in contention for his sixth ATP World Tour title. Only Novak Djokovic has more match wins (37) than Thiem in 2016.

“I felt very good on the court again today,” Thiem said. “I practised a lot before the tournament to get used to the conditions and the balls here. Last year I played well and today I was able to continue my good form.”

Seppi dropped to 299-317 in tour-level matches since turning professional in 2002. The 32 year old is currently No. 41 in the Emirates ATP Rankings.

Top Seeds Move Into Doubles Semi-Finals

Top seeds Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah downed Americans Nicholas Monroe and Donald Young to book a place in the doubles semi-finals. The Colombians landed 70 per cent of first serves and prevailed in 80 minutes. They will face third seeds Eric Butorac and Scott Lipsky for a place in the final.

The winner of the semi-final clash will face second seeds Mate Pavic and Michael Venus for the title. Pavic/Venus teamed up to upend Swedes Johan Brunstrom and Andreas Siljestrom 7-6(6), 6-3 in 85 minutes in the semi-finals.

David Ferrer is into the semi-finals of the Banque Eric Sturdza Geneva Open after dispatching countryman Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 6-2, 6-2 on Thursday. The second seed saved six of seven break points faced and needed 74 minutes to secure his 11th win in 12 FedEx ATP Head2Head meetings with Garcia-Lopez.

“I played better than yesterday. Yesterday I got lucky,” Ferrer, who dropped the first set in his match against Denis Istomin on Wednesday, said. “I will be playing against a very good opponent in the semi-final, so I hope the people will be able to enjoy a good tennis match.”

In the semi-finals, Ferrer will face third seed Marin Cilic, who defeated Federico Delbonis 6-4, 6-3. The Croat broke the sixth seed four times in the 76-minute encounter to improve to 2-0 in their FedEx ATP Head2Head rivalry. The 27 year old is taking part in his first ATP World Tour event since the Miami Open presented by Itau in March and has won all four sets played this week.

“Delbonis is a very tough opponent on clay, he’s had some good results,” Cilic said. “From the first point I was concentrated and played aggressively. Even after losing points, I kept my rhythm and kept playing the way that I needed to.

“I’m putting a lot of returns in the court, and making them with good power. I’m in a good place with my tennis, and I just have to do the same thing day after day.”

Ferrer is 4-1 against Cilic and has won both clay-court encounters. He was a semi-finalist in Auckland (l. to Sock) and in Buenos Aires (l. to Almagro) and is looking to reach his first ATP World Tour final since the Erste Bank Open 500 in Vienna last year.

“I will have to make [Marin] move by taking the ball with my forehand,” Ferrer said. “If I don’t, then I will not have a chance.”

Top seed Stan Wawrinka also scored a comprehensive victory in the quarter-finals, defeating Pablo Carreno Busta in 51 minutes. Wawrinka only dropped three first-serve points (19/22) and did not face a break point in the match.

“I think I was able to raise my game a notch,” Wawrinka said. “I moved better, I was more fluid in everything I did. The ball obeyed me. A perfect match, from my point of view.

“When I feel good on the court, I think I have the game to win any match. I’m happy about that. Now it’s about continuing to play well. I have to keep being tough on myself and to fight in every match to keep winning here.”

Wawrinka improved to 2-0 against the Spaniard, with both wins coming on clay. He is into the semi-finals in Geneva for the first time and is aiming for a third ATP World Tour title in 2016 (Chennai and Dubai). He will next face Lukas Rosol, who won 27 of 37 points in the third set during a 2-6, 6-1, 6-0 win over Andrey Kuznetsov.

Americans Advance In Doubles

Third seeds Steve Johnson and Sam Querrey edged wild cards Manuel Pena Lopez and Janko Tipsarevic 7-6(3), 6-1 to reach the doubles semi-finals on Thursday. The Americans combined to hit nine aces and saved all three break points faced. They will next face Julian Knowle and Lukas Rosol.