Saturday, 24 May 2014
Tennis :Serena, Maria in same quarter
The two are the form players heading into Roland Garros with Williams having won last week's tournament in Rome and Sharapova having claimed titles in Stuttgart and Madrid in the run-up to the second Grand Slam of the season.
However, the draw will be seen to favour Williams who has a fine head-to-head record against Sharapova - she leads 16-2 overall and has won their last 15 meetings with Sharapova's last win coming back in 2004.
Williams has beaten the Russian twice already this year and also defeated her in the French Open final last season.
Williams will start her title defence against close friend Alize Lim and could meet sister Venus in the third round. The pair have played just once since 2009, Serena beating Venus in Charleston last April.
The reigning champion also faces a potential tricky last-16 clash against her Wimbledon conqueror Sabine Lisicki.
Sharapova opens against a qualifier.
The winner of that potential Williams-Sharapova quarter-final is seeded to meet Agnieszka Radwanska in the semis.
The bottom half of the draw is headed by former champion Li Na, who will start her campaign against home hope Kristina Mladenovic.
Li is seeded to meet Jelena Jankovic in the quarter-finals and Simona Halep in the semis.
However, Jankovic is in the same part of the draw as claycourt expert Sara Errani - the pair could meet in round four - while fourth seed Halep is in a loaded section which also includes Petra Kvitova, Sloane Stephens and Ana Ivanovic.
No British players were included in Friday's draw in Paris, although Heather Watson and Johanna Konta will hope to make it in as qualifiers.
The main-draw action in Paris gets under way on Sunday.
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