The biggest stars in the world of tennis will descend on Paris to begin their quest for glory at the French Open this month.
Among them will be reigning champion Rafael Nadal — if he can recover from injury — and Novak Djokovic, with each man on 22 career grand slam titles and gunning for a record 23rd. However, the headline duo are not the only players who will be in with a shout of claiming the top prize.
A total of 32 participants will be seeded for the draw and this is how that illustrious list is expected to look, albeit with places — including top spot — still to be settled...
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French Open 2023: Predicted men's singles seeds
| No. seed | Name/country |
| 1 | Carlos Alcaraz (Spain) |
| 2 | Novak Djokovic (Serbia) |
| 3 | Daniil Medvedev (Russia) |
| 4 | Casper Ruud (Norway) |
| 5 | Stefanos Tsitsipas (Greece) |
| 6 | Andrey Rublev (Russia) |
| 7 | Holger Rune (Denmark) |
| 8 | Jannik Sinner (Italy) |
| 9 | Taylor Fritz (USA) |
| 10 | Felix Auger-Aliassime (Canada) |
| 11 | Karen Khachanov (Russia) |
| 12 | Frances Tiafoe (France) |
| 13 | Cameron Norrie (Great Britain) |
| 14 | Rafael Nadal (Spain) |
| 15 | Hubert Hurkacz (Poland) |
| 16 | Borna Coric (Croatia) |
| 17 | Tommy Paul (USA) |
| 18 | Alex de Minaur (Australia) |
| 19 | Lorenzo Musetti (Italy) |
| 20 | Matteo Berrettini (Italy) |
| 21 | Pablo Carreno Busta (Spain) |
| 22 | Alexander Zverev (Germany) |
| 23 | Marin Cilic (Croatia) |
| 24 | Daniel Evans (Great Britain) |
| 25 | Roberto Bautista Agut (Spain) |
| 26 | Nick Kyrgios (Australia) |
| 27 | Denis Shapovalov (Canada) |
| 28 | Jan-Lennard Struff (Germany) |
| 29 | Sebastian Korda (USA) |
| 30 | Botic van de Zandschulp (Netherlands) |
| 31 | Francisco Cerundolo (Argentina) |
| 32 | Yoshihito Nishioka (Japan) |
Who was the last unseeded man to win the French Open?
It is a rare thing for unseeded players to win the tournament, but Argentina's Gaston Gaudio was the most recent to do so in 2004. Gaudio, then ranked 44th, defeated compatriot Guillermo Coria in an unlikely final showdown.
Gaudio had to come from two sets down to claim a five-set thriller, eventually triumphing 0-6 3-6 6-4 6-1 8-6.
That remained a clear career highlight for Gaudio, who never made it past the fourth round at another grand slam, let alone tasted victory again at one.
Why are players seeded in tennis?
The central idea behind having a seeding system is to avoid big-name players meeting in the early rounds. In theory, this saves the blockbuster clashes for later in the tournament.
The top two seeds are placed on opposite sides of the draw and cannot meet until the final.
In grand slams, there are 32 seeded players, with factors such as world ranking and past tournament performance coming into play. However, the French Open sticks more rigidly to world ranking as the basis for the ordering of its seeds.
Some tournaments — notably Wimbledon — use a "surface-based system" to alter seeds depending on the player's history on a particular playing surface.