Djokovic, Nadal on collision course at Olympics

Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal are on a collision course for an early-round showdown at the Olympic Tennis Event following the release of the draw Thursday.

The rivals, who have played 59 times in their Lexus ATP head2Head series, could meet in the second round. Top-seeded Djokovic opens against Australian Matthew Ebden. while unseeded Nadal plays his first round against Hungarian Marton Fucsovics.

Djokovic leads Nadal 30-29 in their series but the Spaniard won their lone Olympics meeting in 2008 in the Beijing semi-finals. Nadal went on to win the title. Nadal has won eight of their 10 meetings at Roland Garros, taking their most recent clash in the 2022 quarter-finals in a fourth-set tie-break.

Two-time Olympics singles gold medallist Andy Murray has withdrawn from the singles but will play doubles with Daniel Evans.

Second seed Carlos Alcaraz plays his first match against Lebanon's Hady Habib, with the winner to meet either Dutchman Tallon Griekspoor or Great Britain's Cameron Norrie, No. 44 in the PIF ATP Rankings, in the second round.

Defending champion and third seed Alexander Zverev will play Spain's Jaume Munar in the opening round.

View the draw

The doubles draw was also released Thursday, with Nadal and Alcaraz set to face sixth-seeded Argentines Maximo Gonzalez and Andres Molteni.

Play at the Olympic Tennis Event begins Saturday and concludes Sunday, 4 August.