Anne Keothavong has been handed a shocking draw in the first round of the French Open after being paired with top seed Dinara Safina.

The day after becoming the first Briton to reach the semi-finals of a clay-court event for 26 years, Keothavong was given the worst possible draw.

Safina is in electric form after back-to-back clay court titles in Rome and Madrid and will be determined to go one better than last year at Roland Garros, where the Russian finished runner-up to Serb Ana Ivanovic.

This, however, is Keothavong's first time in the main draw after failing to get past qualifying on five occasions. Her confidence has been boosted by her run at the Warsaw Open, where she was playing Ukraine's Alona Bondarenko today, but it would be a huge shock if the world No56 was to win next week.

If Safina can maintain her form then she is on course for a possible revenge meeting with Ivanovic in the quarter-finals.

The eighth seed, who has won only two matches on clay this season and is just back from a knee injury, could have to deal with Belarus's Victoria Azarenka, seeded ninth, in the fourth round.

Second seed Serena Williams has not won on clay this season but the American has been handed a relatively straightforward draw until a potential quarter-final against Russian seventh seed Svetlana Kuznetsova.

An all-Russian semi-final is then a possibility if fourth seed Elena Dementieva survives a theoretical quarter-final against Serbian fifth seed Jelena Jankovic of Serbia.

Maria Sharapova will play Anastasiya Yakimova of Belarus in her first Grand Slam match since Wimbledon last year. Sharapova returned to the tour this week after missing nearly 10 months with a shoulder injury and is not seeded.

Britain's Melanie South will start her qualifying attempts today, though one Briton whose tournament is already over is Katie O'Brien after she lost her third qualifying round match 6-4, 7-6 to with Arantxa Rus at Roland Garros.

O'Brien was defeated in straight sets by the 18-year-old left-hander from the Netherlands. After going down in the first, the Brit took her opponent to a tie-breaker in the second set but could not wrap it up.