A six-strong Australian contingent will take to the red clay of Roland Garros in a bid to qualify for the main draw of the French Open.
The highest-ranked of the group is Matt Ebden, seeded 16th in the draw.
The Western Australian will take on Konstantin Kravchuk of Russia in his opening match, hoping to maintain the form that has seen him reach three consecutive ATP Challenger quarterfinals in Asia in the past month.
Ebden sits in the bottom quarter of the 128-player draw, along with compatriots James Duckworth and Alex Bolt.
> check out the full Roland Garros men’s qualifying draw
In a bittersweet scenario, the pair have been drawn to face one another in the first round, guaranteeing the presence of at least one Aussie in the second round.
Duckworth has been enjoying fine form on clay of late, hitting the South American circuit and reaching the semifinals at the Rio Quente Challenger and quarters at the Santos Challenger (both in Brazil).
In between those events, he captured an ITF Futures title in Chile, and in the past fortnight has risen 33 ranking spots to world No.185.
In the second quarter of the draw’s top half, Matthew Barton has drawn China’s Di Wu in his first match.
Barton’s clay court record in 2013 stands at a lean 1-4, and he’ll be hoping to improve that against a player ranked 46 places above him at No.161.
Also in Barton’s quarter are Aussies Matt Reid and Sam Groth.
Reid will tackle Italy’s Gianluca Naso first up while Groth will take on Farrukh Dustov, a representative of the Uzbekistan Davis Cup team that recently lost to Australia in the Asia/Oceania Zone I second round.
French Open men’s qualifying will commence on Tuesday night AEST, with the women’s qualifying event to begin the following evening (AEST).
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