Tough French Open draw for Murray

ANDY Murray admits clay-court specialist Juan Ignacio Chela will provide him with a tough early test when the British number one launches his campaign at the French Open.

While Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic – Murray's chief rivals on the circuit – all received benign draws for the first round at Roland Garros, the Scot was handed a tricky opener.

Chela, who has been as high as 15th in the world, reached the quarter-finals here in 2004 and will present third seed Murray with an immediate examination of his credentials on his least favourite surface.

The Argentinian has not progressed past the second round at the French Open on his last four visits and has had a low-key campaign on the dirt this year.

But Murray said: "He's obviously a tough clay-court player.

"He had a very bad injury last year and he has come back this year and is playing well at the moment.

"I think he's made the second week here quite a few times so I definitely can't afford to look past him."

But Murray is confident he can ruffle a few feathers at Roland Garros this year, adding: "I've played well the last few months and my ranking has got up there with those guys.

"I haven't played necessarily my best tennis on clay but I made the semi-finals in Monte Carlo and the quarter-finals at Madrid.

"If I play my best tennis, I have a good chance of doing well."

Murray, a winner of three of his previous four meetings against Chela, has shown signs of improvement on clay in 2009 and will be favourite to progress through to a second-round meeting with either Germany's Mischa Zverev or Potito Starace, of Italy.

The first seed the British number one could meet is Feliciano Lopez, the 28th seed from Spain, in the third round.

Spain's premier representative in the French capital is Nadal, the world number one, top seed and reigning four-time champion.

The 22-year-old Mallorcan, who will take on an as-yet-unknown qualifier in the first round, is yet to taste defeat at Roland Garros and starts as the heavy favourite to claim a fifth successive title.

Second seed Roger Federer will have nightmares about his last match here – he was crushed by Nadal in last year's final, winning just four games in total.

He has since been usurped at the top of the rankings by the Spaniard, who has also taken his Wimbledon crown and beaten him in a thrilling Australian Open final earlier this year.

But the Swiss posted a morale-boosting victory over his arch-rival in Madrid last week, and is confident he can end his French Open hoodoo and move level with Pete Sampras on 14 grand-slam titles.

"Perhaps this is the year for me," Federer said.

"In 2004 and 2005, I felt I missed a great chance in Paris. And I thought I would never play in a final at Roland Garros.

"But now, with three finals and a semi-final (all lost to Nadal) plus my successes over Rafa in Hamburg (in 2007) and Madrid, I know I can beat anyone if I play well."

Federer takes on Spain's Alberto Martin first while fourth seed Novak Djokovic opens against Nicolas Lapentti, of Ecuador.

The Serb lost to Nadal in the semi-finals here both last year and in 2007, but is on the other side of the draw in 2009.

He is also in with a decent shout of the title, having run Nadal very close on the clay in the semi-finals in Madrid.

"It's a bit of a change – the last three years I've been in a quarter or semi with Rafa, in the same half of the draw. Now I'm with Roger," said Djokovic, who celebrated his 22nd birthday today.

"The semi-final against Rafa in Madrid gave me even more self-belief that I might win my next encounter against him."

The best-looking matches elsewhere in the draw feature Ivan Ljubicic taking on 2003 winner Juan Carlos Ferrero and 26th seed Ivo Karlovic meeting Australia's Lleyton Hewitt, the former world number one.

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French Open, Roland Garros, Paris, France

Men's Singles Draw:

Rafael Nadal (Spa) (1) v QUALIFIER
Igor Kunitsyn (Rus) v Teimuraz Gabashvili (Rus)
Denis Gremelmayr (Ger) v Andrey Golubev (Kaz)
Lleyton Hewitt (Aus) v Ivo Karlovic (Cro) (26)
Robin Soderling (Swe) (23) v Kevin Kim (USA)
Denis Istomin (Uzb) v QUALIFIER
QUALIFIER v Nicolas Kiefer (Ger)
Frederico Gil (Por) v David Ferrer (Spa) (14)
Nikolay Davydenko (Rus) (10) v Stefan Koubek (Aut)
Diego Junqueira (Arg) v Paul Capdeville (Chi)
Nicolas Massu (Chi) v Daniel Koellerer (Aut)
Nicolas Devilder (Fra) v Stanislas Wawrinka (Swi) (17)
Nicolas Almagro (Spa) (31) v Agustin Calleri (Arg)
Ernests Gulbis (Lat) v Sam Querrey (USA)
QUALIFIER v Philipp Petzschner (Ger)
Florent Serra (Fra) v Fernando Verdasco (Spa) (8)
Andy Murray (Gbr) (3) v Juan Ignacio Chela (Arg)
Mischa Zverev (Ger) v Potito Starace (Ita)
Janko Tipsarevic (Ser) v Albert Montanes (Spa)
QUALIFIER v Feliciano Lopez (Spa) (28)
Radek Stepanek (Cze) (18) v Gaston Gaudio (Arg)
Yen-Hsun Lu (Tpe) v QUALIFIER
Dudi Sela (Isr) v QUALIFIER
Jan Hernych (Cze) v Marin Cilic (Cro) (13)
Fernando Gonzalez (Chi) (12) v QUALIFIER
QUALIFIER v Kristof Vliegen (Bel)
Marcel Granollers (Spa) v Josselin Ouanna (Fra)
Alexandre Sidorenko (Fra) v Marat Safin (Rus) (20)
Victor Hanescu (Rom) (30) v Steve Darcis (Bel)
Mikhail Youzhny (Rus) v Gilles Muller (Lux)
QUALIFIER v Robert Kendrick (USA)
Wayne Odesnik (USA) v Gilles Simon (Fra) (7)
Juan Martin Del Potro (Arg) (5) v Michael Llodra (Fra)
Viktor Troicki (Ser) v QUALIFIER
Thomaz Bellucci (Bra) v Martin Vassallo Arguello (Arg)
QUALIFIER v Igor Andreev (Rus) (25)
Dmitry Tursunov (Rus) (21) v Arnaud Clement (Fra)
Fabrice Santoro (Fra) v Christophe Rochus (Bel)
Marcos Baghdatis (Cyp) v Juan Monaco (Arg)
Julien Benneteau (Fra) v Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (Fra) (9)
Tommy Robredo (Spa) (16) v Adrian Mannarino (Fra)
Evgeny Korolev (Rus) v Daniel Gimeno-Traver (Spa)
Guillermo Garcia-Lopez (Spa) v Andreas Seppi (Ita)
Maximo Gonzalez (Arg) v Mardy Fish (USA) (22)
Phillip Kohlschreiber (Ger) (29) v Bernard Tomic (Aus)
Juan Carlos Ferrero (Spa) v Ivan Ljubicic (Cro)
Brian Dabul (Arg) v QUALIFIER
Nicolas Lapentti (Ecu) v Novak Djokovic (Ser) (4)
Andy Roddick (USA) (6) v Romain Jouan (Fra)
Oscar Hernandez (Spa) v Ivo Minar (Cze)
Ivan Navarro (Spa) v Andreas Beck (Ger)
Marc Gicquel (Fra) v Rainer Schuettler (Ger) (27)
Jurgen Melzer (Aut) (24) v Sergio Roitman (Arg)
Guillaume Rufin (Fra) v Eduardo Schwank (Arg)
QUALIFIER v QUALIFIER
Bobby Reynolds (USA) v Gael Monfils (Fra) (11)
James Blake (USA) (15) v QUALIFIER
Andrei Pavel (Rom) v Tommy Haas (Ger)
Bjorn Phau (Ger) v Jeremy Chardy (Fra)
Simone Bolelli (Ita) v Tomas Berdych (Cze) (19)
Paul-Henri Mathieu (Fra) (32) v Laurent Recouderc (Fra)
Robby Ginepri (USA) v Pablo Andujar (Spa)
Jose Acasuso (Arg) v QUALIFIER
Alberto Martin (Spa) v Roger Federer (Swi) (2)