That’s because he’s never won the title on the clay at Roland Garros before.
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The Spaniard had the slightly more comfortable win of the two as he needed just 1 hour 46 minutes to crush the challenge of the Argentine.
Nadal should progress to the fourth round, though, given he hasn’t dropped a set in four matches against his next challenger, Marcel Granollers, and cruised past his countryman in Barcelona in April.
The former No. 1 and French Open champion penned a short but heartfelt letter to Nadal – anyone can do so via a Nike store in Paris – in which he called the soon-to-be 30-year-old “inspiring”. He reeled off 14 of 15 games to seize control along the way to winning 6-3, 6-0, 6-3. This was his 100th victory at a Major.
And talking of ace machines, while Karlovic and Isner set up their habitual lead for tournament aces, it was Bedene, with a total of 36 from his two matches, who sat third.
The top seeds on the day, Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams, had no issues winning their matches on Thursday and are now into the third round.
“He’s the best newcomer coming now, so it will be an incredible match for me”, the ninth-seeded Gasquet said about his 21-year-old opponent. “Of course I like to win and I prepare for wins, but it’s been lovely to do what I love for a long time”.
Another teen – the 47th ranked Borna Coric also entered the third round.
“I know spotlight, I know fading away, I know playing centre court, I know playing Court 18 here where nobody brings you to court and where your coaches don’t get a seat on your court”. Roger Federer, who had earlier withdrawn from the tournament due to a back injury, tops the all-time list of Grand Slam matches won on 302.
Rafael Nadal is a nine-time champion at theFrench Open, and yet there was still the subdued sight of empty seats as the Spaniard booked his place in the third round of this year’s competition.
Ana Ivanovic reached the third round for the 10th time, beating Kurumi Nara 7-5, 6-1.
The elder sister will play Alize Cornet in the next round after the Frenchwoman won a controversial three-setter against Germany’s Tatjana Maria 6-3, 6-7 (5/7), 6-4. “Very low slice. It’s not easy, because he’s very quick, and he anticipates the play very well.The matches will get tougher, and it’s kind of expected at the beginning that you are a bit rusty on the court, and hopefully things will get better”. In fact, the nine-time champion enjoyed a stretch in which he won 17 of 19 games from trailing 2-0 in the opening set to leading 5-1 in the third. The drama was far from over after that as the World No. 47 tried to claw her way back into the match and grabbed four consecutive games to close in on 4-5.
However, the 2014 semi-finalist could not maintain it and went on to lose 10 successive games as the eighth seed prevailed 6-4 6-4.
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But Bacsinszky managed to hold her nerves and pocket the win soon after that.
