French Open: Nadal shows no mercy in third-round win

Defending champion on course for successful title defence

PARIS: Rafa Nadal’s attempt to win the French Open for a 10th time picked up pace with a 6-1, 6-3, 6-2 third round demolition of unseeded Russian Andrey Kuznetsov at Roland Garros on Saturday.

The Spanish defending champion, seeded a lowly sixth this year after a run of patchy form, showed the quality that has made him the dominant force on clay for a decade, brushing aside his opponent with relative ease.

He moves into the second week with an unblemished record and seems to be finding his best form in time for a likely quarter-final blockbuster with world number one Novak Djokovic — the man he has beaten in two of the last three finals.

Before that can become a reality, he will have to beat American Jack Sock in the last-16.

“Things are going better,” said Nadal. “Against [Nicolas] Almagro [in the last round], I played a good match and today I played well and had positive feelings. Fourth round is very good news for me.”

Apart from a dropped service game, the first set was perfect for Nadal as he overpowered the lightweight Russian.

Kuznetsov did not hold serve until he was 3-0 down in the second set and although he began to make more of a match of it, he was outclassed as Nadal improved his record at Roland Garros to 69-1.

Djokovic, Murray subdue new generation

Grand Slam old guard Djokovic and Andy Murray put next generation hopefuls Thanasi Kokkinakis and Nick Kyrgios firmly in their place with comfortable third-round wins.

Top seed Djokovic reached the last-16 for the sixth straight year with a 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 win over 19-year-old Kokkinakis.

There was no sign of the hip problem which bothered Djokovic in his second-round tie against Gilles Muller as he swept past his world number 84 opponent.

He fired 34 winners and didn’t face a single break point in his one-hour, 49-minute win over the highly-rated wildcard.

Third-seeded Murray, twice a semi-finalist in Paris, cruised to a 6-4, 6-2, 6-3 victory over Kokkinakis’s 20-year-old Australian compatriot Kyrgios.

Murray, who fired 12 aces and 45 winners while Kyrgios was undone by 37 unforced errors, goes on to face unseeded Frenchman Jeremy Chardy, who surprised 17th seeded Belgian David Goffin 6-3, 6-4, 6-2.

“I used variety and slice, tried to mix it up to break his [Kyrgios’] rhythm and it seemed to work,” said Murray, who said he knew Kyrgios wasn’t serving at his full power as the match progressed.

Meanwhile, at the women’s front, Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova powered into the last-16, finally finding her form after earlier struggles at Roland Garros.

The fourth seed from the Czech Republic outplayed Romanian Irina-Camelia Begu 6-3, 6-2 in just 58 minutes, taking the last five games at a canter. “I think it was for sure the best match which I played here so far, so I’m really glad for it,” said Kvitova.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 31^st, 2015.

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