Meanwhile, Venus Williams joined sister Serena in the third round of the French Open for the first time since 2010.
Advertisement
Back in 2002, when neither was yet 22, the American siblings contested the final at Roland Garros, one of their eight all-in-the-family Grand Slam title matches – and they haven’t played each other at any stage in Paris since.
That improved Djokovic’s career record in the clay-court tournament to 50-11.
Nadal was set to play Djokovic in what would have been a highly anticipated semifinal, one that would have either gotten Nadal one step closer to becoming the first player to have double-digit wins at the same Slam or Djokovic to the elusive career Slam.
Losing Nadal drains the French Open of more star power, following the pre-tournament withdrawal of 17-time major champion Roger Federer because of a bad back. That she is a player known for her theatrics only made the situation more fraught.
Nadal, who turns 30 a week from today, will not win his 10th French Open this year.
Despite his latest setback, the charismatic Spaniard said he will keep playing although his participation at Wimbledon next month is now in serious doubt.
There were landmark wins for Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic in the second round of the French Open while a familiar face is showing form again at last.
Nadal fell behind 2-0 against 99th-ranked Facundo Bagnis of Argentina, then cleaned up his act and took 14 of the next 15 games Thursday en route to winning 6-3, 6-0, 6-3 in the second round of the French Open.
Darcis, 32, had to qualify for the tournament but he does have Grand Slam pedigree having dumped Rafael Nadal out of Wimbledon in 2013.
Djokovic dropped serve twice against the world number 161 but eventually his class told as he set up a third-round meeting with Brit Aljaz Bedene, who beat Pablo Carreno Busta 6-3 4-6 5-7 6-2 earlier in the day.
In the men’s draw seventh-seeded Czech Tomas Berdych, a former semi-finalist, moved through to the third round by beating Tunisian Malek Jaziri 6-1 2-6 6-2 6-4.
But Nadal remains optimistic he will be at Wimbledon, saying: “We’re going to work hard to be ready for Wimbledon”.
The last Tunisian to reach the third round at Roland Garros was Mustafa Belkhodjia in 1963.
The pullout, in relation to this French Open, will be a huge boost to world No. 1 Novak Djokovic, who is bidding to complete his grand slam collection in Paris.
Footage from The Associated Press archives – dated exactly 84 years ago – of Borotra playing Fred Perry shows how dramatically tennis has changed.
Bouchard, however, lost to an excellent player, eighth seed and last year’s semifinalist Timea Bacsinszky 6-4 6-4. She broke her opponent’s serve in the very next game at advantage and followed this up with a convincing hold of service.
“Whether she competes or not should be decided by the end of the first week of Roland Garros”. That’s just part of the early-rounds set-up, the top seed said.
His struggles at recent grand slams have led some to consider Nadal a sentimental favorite, and that seems to include Andre Agassi.
Roger Federer recently was forced to pull out of the Roland Garros.
Advertisement
There were also, of course, smaller milestones that nevertheless meant a lot to the players concerned.
