Last year, Rafael Nadal was left at the mercy of the French Open draw as the No. 3 seed. Or, more accurately, the draw was at the mercy of Nadal and Novak Djokovic. They did, in fact, land on the same side and–as expected–their titanic semifinal showdown proved to be the real title match just a few days too early.

This year, there is no such skewing of the bracket. Nadal and Djokovic are in opposite halves as the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds, respectively, and even beyond that it is a balanced draw. Nadal has 2013 runner-up David Ferrer in his section, Djokovic’s quarter is loaded with talent in the form of Milos Raonic and Kei Nishikori, Stanislas Wawrinka is with Andy Murray, and Roger Federer could see Tomas Berdych, John Isner, and/or Ernests Gulbis prior to the semifinals.

Nadal’s quarter

Two of the three players to whom…