NEWS ROLAND GARROS 2014: MAIN DRAW SINGLES

Defending champion Serena Williams opens against a French wildcard, with a projected third-round clash against big sister Venus and a likely quarter-final against Maria Sharapova. When world No.138 Alize Lim passed Serena Williams in the locker-room after the defending champion was on hand for Friday’s draw ceremony, she asked her whom she was set to play first up. 
The American told her she never looked at the draw. It was merely a delay in hearing her fate. They were drawn to meet each other; a daunting task for the French wildcard, who has played just one match at a lowly ITF event in Cagnes-Sur-Mer this year. While Serena should have few difficulties opening her title defence, she is slated for the 26th installment of Family Ties in the third round against big sister Venus, the tournament’s 29th seed. The only time the pair met at Roland Garros was the 2002 final, where Serena picked up the first of her two French titles. In a mismatch of ages, 33-year-old Venus faces a tricky opener against rising Swiss 17-year-old Belinda Bencic, the 2013 French Open junior champion who has been under the eye of Martina Hingis’s mother Melanie Molitor. 
 Serena’s Wimbledon conqueror from last year, big-hitting German Sabine Lisicki, would likely be her fourth-round opponent and the job at hand would not get any easier from there with the defending champion likely to renew her lop-sided rivalry with the 2012 champion, seventh seed Maria Sharapova in the quarter-finals. The Russian is in unfamiliar territory, having slipped outside the top four, but she and Serena are the form players on clay coming into this year’s French Open – Serena won the title in Rome last week, while Sharapova won titles in Madrid and Stuttgart. Sharapova opens against a qualifier and her first real test would likely come against this year’s Australian Open finalist Dominika Cibulkova or Australian Sam Stosur – the 2010 finalist – in the fourth round. Also in Serena’s half of the draw is Polish third seed Agnieszka Radwanska, who comes off a pair of quarter-final losses and a semi-final finish on clay-court events in the lead-up. The Pole has never beaten the world No.1 in eight attempts but certainly would not be looking that far ahead as she would have to first negotiate a way past talented Spaniard, 14th seed Carla Suarez Navarro, in the fourth round, with a likely quarter-final against German Angelique Kerber or resurgent Italian veteran Flavia Pennetta, a player who has twice beaten her already this year. Women’s second seed Na Li – the 2011 winner and this year’s Australian Open champion – will be up against the might of the French crowd when she squares off against home hope Kristina Mladenovic first off.