Don’t look now, but Daniil Medvedev has a chance to clinch No. 1 in the FedEx ATP Rankings at Roland Garros. And he doesn't need to lift the Coupe des Mousquetaires to do it.

Coming into the clay-court major, it was known that Medvedev had a mathematical chance of becoming the 27th player to reach World No. 1. But given that the Russian had never won a round at Roland Garros in four prior attempts, the discussion seemed more academic than grounded in reality.

But once current No. 1 Novak Djokovic was drawn in the same half as 13-time champion Rafael Nadal, Medvedev's stock rose as the Serb's path to the final became tougher.

On day one, Dominic Thiem, who reached two consecutive finals in Paris in 2018-19, crashed out in the first round, throwing the bottom half of the draw even wider open. Then, Medvedev, treating the terre battue more like hard court, claimed his first Roland Garros win over Alexander Bublik and backed that up Wednesday with a four-set win over Tommy Paul to move into the third round.

The reigning Nitto ATP Finals champion, who is the only player on the bottom half of the draw who has made multiple Grand Slam finals (2019 US Open, 2021 Australian Open), is now eyeing a run all the way to the final, which might be good enough for him to replace Djokovic at No. 1.