Djokovic, Nadal and Federer in same half of French Open men's field

Paris: Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer all ended up in the same half of the French Open men's field in the draw Thursday, meaning no more than one of them can reach the final.

The Big Three top the leaderboard for Grand Slam men's singles titles: Federer and Nadal head to Roland Garros, where play begins Sunday, tied with 20, while Djokovic has 18.

Nadal beat Djokovic in straight sets in the 2020 final for his record-extending 13th championship on the red clay of Paris, but if they meet again this time, it would be in the semifinals. Nadal is ranked and seeded No. 3 now and so he could have wound up on either side of the bracket; as luck would have it, he was placed in No. 1 Djokovic's half.

So was Federer, whose record for most weeks atop the ATP rankings recently was broken by Djokovic and is currently at No. 8 after playing only three matches over the past 15 months because of two operations on his right knee. Federer could meet Djokovic in the quarterfinals.

The other possible men's quarterfinals on their side is Nadal vs. No. 7 Andrey Rublev.

On the other side of the draw, the potential quarterfinals are No. 2 Daniil Medvedev vs. No. 5 Stefanos Tsitsipas, and No. 4 Dominic Thiem vs. No. 6 Alexander Zverev.

Medvedev is a two-time Grand Slam finalist but is 0-4 for his French Open career. Thiem won last year's US Open and twice has been the runner-up in Paris.