French Open director Mauresmo responds to criticism over Nadal's tough draw

French Open tournament director Amelie Mauresmo has responded to criticism for her handling of the men’s draw. The second Grand Slam of the year will begin from Sunday in the capital city of France, Paris, where players from all over the world will showcase their talent.

This year’s mega-event has even more significance as it will feature 14-time winner Rafael Nadal for the last time after he announced in 2023 that the 2024 season would be his last at the highest level.

The former world number has been handed a tough draw in the first round of the mega-event, where he will face the current world number four, Germany’s Alexander Zverev.

After the draw, Nadal fans were highly critical of Mauresmo for not awarding the most successful player in the competition's history a top-seed status, which would have protected him from facing a tougher opponent in the first round.

Mauresmo, who is also a former world number one and a two-time Grand Slam winner, was recently quoted in a report explaining why the management decided not to award Nadal top-seed status in the upcoming mega-event.

"We knew that it could happen that we had Nadal against Zverev or Nadal against one of the top players in the world already in the first round,” she said. “Zverev demonstrated in Rome that he is in excellent form, I imagine that Rafa will not have been happy with the draw, but he is a warrior like no other and knows this court well and the long distance of the five sets there was this semi-final which ended with Zverev's very serious injury.

"If we could, we would have done it. But protecting him would have solved some problems, but it would have brought many more. Even Wimbledon stopped working like that several years ago. It's sport, everything is possible. There are also other wonderful first rounds like Wawrinka vs. Murray match between these two great veterans, it's another extraordinary match.”