The West
Rob Bowenburg: Interesting. Bowenburg managed to knock off
Rick Henson in Rome over three sets, and finds himself drawn against the thirteenth seed here in Paris. Best-of-five is a different task for The Lob, though, and he is coming off a weird choice to play a hard court Challenger this past week.
Scotland Rivers: Also playing the Cremona Challenger, but he should prove too good for
Adem Tadić normally. That being said, Rivers is no great shakes on this surface so it could go either way. In any event, second round at best for Rivers you'd say.
Sven Oxenstierna: We analysed his seeded draw, and he starts against Paraguay's
Aldo Marin in a match he should win.
Kasper Buur might be a tough second round opponent, but really the tests begin in the third round.
Rick Langley: Hard draw with
Kasper Buur who is a dangerous unseeded opponent on this surface. Wouldn't expect him to make it past there, but he's a slight chance.
Brett Read: Yuck. He plays tomorrow's final in Nice, but 21st seed
Carlo Amato is exactly what he didn't need. Still, he's shown this week he's capable of matching these sort of guys and if he can make it through there he could seriously go far with favourable matchups in the second and third rounds.
Pierre Rose and Jason Lawley: Well the two Westerners meet in the first round after successful qualifying campaigns. In fairness, we don't know a whole lot about either of them on this surface but I think both will be pleased as punch with their draws.
Randy Banks: Lost in qualifying, but
Felipe Menon is quite a nice first round opponent.
Jozsef Boros is another matter, though.
The East
Ishan Narang: Not a bad start really with a winnable clash against
Rafael Fernando. He had a good week in qualifying and this is a big chance for ranking points. Hurtado/Dorogan isn't an overly great matchup in the second round, but Dorogan is inconsistent while Hurtado is coming off an injury.