Djokovic, Murray progress to French Open third round
PARIS, France (AFP) — Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray reached the French Open third round yesterday, setting up intriguing clashes with next generation Australians, Thanasi Kokkinakis and Nick Kyrgios.
Top seed Djokovic survived a worrying injury scare before coasting to a 6-1, 6-4, 6-4 win over Gilles Muller of Luxemburg.
Djokovic will face 19-year-old Kokkinakis who saved three match points to beat fellow Australian Bernard Tomic 3-6, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4, 8-6.
Djokovic’s win over 33-year-old Muller was his 24th consecutive victory this year as he took another step towards a first ever Roland Garros title and a career Grand Slam.
However, he needed a medical timeout leading 5-4 in the second set for treatment on what appeared to be a right groin strain.
It didn’t affect him too much as he quickly wrapped up the second set with a service game to love.
He eventually wrapped up the tie on Court Suzanne Lenglen after just an hour and 45 minutes, hitting an impressive 35 winners.
Kokkinakis, making his Roland Garros debut on a wildcard, came back from 2-5 down in the decider to defeat his 27th-seeded compatriot Tomic.
He fired 19 aces and 71 winners despite taking a medical timeout after a nasty fall.
Murray, the third seed, went into the last 32 with a 6-2, 4-6, 6-4, 6-1 win over Joao Sousa of Portugal.
The Scot took his record to 12-0 on clay this season and he will meet 20-year-old Kyrgios who enjoyed a walkover into the third round when scheduled opponent Kyle Edmund of Britain withdrew with a stomach injury.
Defending champion and sixth seed Rafael Nadal, chasing a 10th Paris title, enjoyed a 6-4, 6-3, 6-1 breeze past Spanish compatriot Nicolas Almagro.
Nadal will next face Andrey Kuznetsov after the Russian defeated Austria’s Jurgen Melzer 6-1, 5-7, 7-6 (7/0), 7-5.
The 28-year-old Nadal now has 68 wins at the tournament and just one loss.
Croatia’s Borna Coric also struck a blow for the next generation when the 18-year-old became the youngest player to make the third round since Marat Safin in 1998.
Coric, the world 46 who beat Nadal in Basel in 2014 last year and Murray in Dubai this year, saw off 33-year-old Spaniard Tommy Robredo, a four-time quarter-finalist 7-5, 3-6, 6-2, 4-6, 6-4.
In women’s action, Serena Williams and Petra Kvitova survived big scares at the, both needing to come back from a set down to reach the third round.
Williams, 19 times a Grand Slam winner, survived an almighty fright before finally seeing off the challenge of world number 105 Anna-Lena Friedsam of Germany.
The 33-year-old, top-seeded American dropped the first set and faced break points against her unheralded 21-year-old opponent in the second, but she rallied just in time to go through 5-7, 6-3, 6-3.
It had not been her best tennis, she agreed.
She will next face two-time Australian Open champion Victoria Azarenka of Belarus who eased past Lucie Hradecka of the Czech Republic 6-2, 6-3.
Azarenka, who has given Williams trouble in the past, is back in business after losing much of last year to a bout of depression and injuries.
Azarenka had three match points against Williams in Madrid earlier this month but lost in three sets.
In a day marked by cold, blustery conditions, fourth seed Kvitova made it through to the last 32 with a 6-7 (4/7), 6-4, 6-2 win over Spain’s Silvia Soler-Espinosa.
But it was another nervy showing from the Wimbledon champion who was taken to the limit in her opening match against New Zealander Marina Erakovic.
The Czech Fed Cup winner, a semi-finalist at Roland Garros in 2012, dropped serve twice in the opening set before the more consistent Soler-Espinosa took the tie-break 7/4.
Kvitova was hanging on early in the second set, but finally started to find her range with her groundstrokes and broke to take a 4-3 lead.
That was short-lived, however, as Soler-Espinosa battled back onto level terms in the next game, but Kvitova took the next two to level the set scores.
The fourth seed took command early on in the deciding set and back-to-back breaks saw her safely past the post and into the third round.
Kvitova will go up against Irina-Camelia Begu for a place in the last 16, the Romanian 30th seed defeating Ana Konjuh of Croatia.
At one stage on the tournament’s fifth day it looked like five out of the top 10 seeds could have departed the stage by the end of the day, third seed Simona Halep and sixth seed Eugenie Bouchard already having lost.
But as it turned out, only fifth seed Caroline Wozniacki was packing her bags for home after the Dane lost 6-4, 7-6 (7/4) to an impressive Julia Goerges of Germany.
Like Kvitova, German 10th seed Andrea Petkovic had stared defeat in the face only to bounce back from for a 4-6, 6-4 6-4 win over Lourdes Dominguez Lino of Spain.
Meanwhile, Sara Errani, who lost to Maria Sharapova in the 2012 final, also had to claw her way back from being down to defeat German youngster Carina Witthoeft 6-3, 4-6, 6-2.