Rafael Nadal passed his French Open second-round test with flying colours on Thursday, showing flashes of his intimidating best in a 6-2, 6-2, 6-3 win over talented Austrian youngster Dominic Thiem. The eight-time champion from Spain applauded his 20-year-old opponent after being tested on court Philippe Chatrier more than the scoreline suggested.
“I think I played a solid match today. Dominic is a dangerous player and I knew that if I wasn’t playing well then I’d be in trouble. His ball is so high that he was able to hit strong. He has got everything to become a champion,” said the world No.1, who for the first time, arrived at Roland Garros having lost three matches on his favoured clay this season.
Seventh seed Andy Murray of Great Britain wasted little time in defeating Markino Matosevic 6-3, 6-1, 6-3.
In other action, the fifth-seeded women’s doubles pair of India’s Sania Mirza and Zimbabwe’s Cara Black breezed past their first-round opponents while the Indo-Pak pair of Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi were shown the door in the men’s doubles on Thursday.
Sania and Cara scored a 6-3, 6-3 win over Slovakia’s Daniela Hantuchova and Israel’s Shahar Peer and will next play Gabriela Dabrowski (Canada) and Alicja Rosolska (Poland).
On the other hand, the unseeded pair of Jonathan Erlich and Marcelo Melo put it across Bopanna and Qureshi 6-3, 6-4.
Eight-time winner Nadal, bidding to be the first man to clinch five Roland Garros titles in a row, had been expected to face a severe test from the 20-year-old world No. 57. But Thiem, who trains for big matches by running through forests carrying tree trunks to build stamina, ran out of steam despite showing occasional glimpses of potential as Nadal took his career record in Paris to 61 victories.
Nadal is on a quarterfinal collision course with last year’s runner-up and compatriot David Ferrer, the fifth seed. Ferrer, one of three men to beat Nadal on clay this season, wasted little time in demolishing Simone Bolelli 6-2, 6-3, 6-2.
Ferrer has made the quarterfinals of all of his last nine Majors and such was the ease of his fifth win in five against Bolelli that the most challenging part of his day was fielding questions over his grooming.
In other matches, Croatian 16th seed Ivo Karlovic reached the third round with a 7-5, 6-3, 6-4 win over Andreas Haider-Maurer while American Donald Young knocked out Spanish 26th seed Feliciano Lopez in straight sets.
THE RESULTS
Men: Singles: Second round: 23-Gael Monfils (Fra) bt Jan-Lennard Struff (Ger) 7-6(4), 6-4, 6-1; 12-Richard Gasquet (Fra) bt Carlos Berlocq (Arg) 7-6(5), 6-4, 6-4; 28-Philipp Kohlschreiber (Ger) bt Denis Istomin (Uzb) 6-3, 7-6(5), 6-2.
1-Rafael Nadal (Esp) bt Dominic Thiem (Aut) 6-2, 6-2, 6-3; 10-John Isner (USA) bt Mikhail Kukushkin (Kaz) 6-7(6), 7-6(4), 6-3, 7-6(4); 17-Tommy Robredo (Esp) bt Kenny De Schepper (Fra) 6-2, 6-3, 6-3; Ivo Karlovic (Cro) bt Andreas Haider-Maurer (Aut) 7-5, 6-3, 6-4.
5-David Ferrer (Esp) bt Simone Bolelli (Ita) 6-2, 6-3, 6-2; Donald Young (USA) bt 26-Feliciano Lopez (Esp) 6-3, 7-6(1), 6-3.
19-Kevin Anderson (RSA) bt Axel Michon (Fra) 6-2, 6-3, 6-2; Dusan Lajovic (Srb) bt Jurgen Zopp (Est) 6-2, 6-4, 6-4; Leonardo Mayer (Arg) bt Teymuraz Gabashvili (Rus) 6-2, 4-6, 6-4, 6-4; Guillermo Garcia-Lopez (Esp) bt Adrian Mannarino (Fra) 6-4, 6-3, 4-6, 6-0; 32-Andreas Seppi (Ita) bt Juan Monaco (Arg) 6-2, 6-4, 6-4; 7-Andy Murray (GBr) bt Markino Matosevic (Aus) 6-3, 6-1, 6-3.
Doubles: First round: Jonathan Erlich (Isr) & Marcelo Melo (Bra) bt 6-Rohan Bopanna (Ind) & Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi (Pak) 6-3, 6-4.
Women: Singles: Second round: 27-Svetlana Kuznetsova (Rus) bt Camila Giorgi (Ita) 7-6(5), 6-3; 22- 4-Simona Halep (Rom) bt Heather Watson (GBr) 6-2, 6-4.
23-Lucie Safarova (Cze) bt Casey Dellacqua (Aus) 6-1, 5-7, 6-3; Paula Ormaechea (Arg) bt Monica Niculescu (Rom) 2-6, 7-5, 6-2; Pauline Parmentier (Fra) bt Yaroslava Shvedova (Kaz) 1-6, 6-3, 6-3; 27-Svetlana Kuznetsova (Rus) bt Camila Giorgi (Ita) 7-6(5), 6-3; 15-Sloane Stephens (USA) bt Polona Hercog (Slo) 6-1, 6-3.
6-Jelena Jankovic (Srb) bt Kurumi Nara (Jpn) 7-5, 6-0; Silvia Soler-Espinosa (Esp) bt Yanina Wickmayer (Bel) 6-2, 6-4; 3-Agnieszka Radwanska (Pol) bt Karolina Pliskova (Cze) 6-3, 6-4.
Julia Glushko (Isr) bt 21-Kirsten Flipkens (Bel) 6-4, 3-6, 6-4; Kiki Bertens (Ned) bt 24-Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (Rus) 5-7, 6-4, 3-0 (retd.); Pauline Parmentier (Fra) bt Yaroslava Shvedova (Kaz) 1-6, 6-3, 6-3; Maria Teresa Torru Flor (Esp) bt Magdalena Rybarikova (Svk) 6-2, 2-6, 6-2; 10-Sara Errani (Ita) bt Dinah Pfizenmaier (Ger) 6-2, 6-4.
28-Andrea Petkovic (Ger) bt Stefanie Voegele (Sui) 6-2, 4-6, 6-2; Kristina Mladenovic (Fra) bt Alison Riske (USA) 7-6(5), 3-6, 6-3; 22-Ekaterina Makarova (Rus) bt Coco Vandeweghe (USA) 6-4, 6-3; 5-Petra Kvitova bt Marina Erakovic 6-4, 6-4.
Doubles: First round: 5-Cara Black (Zim) & Sania Mirza (Ind) bt Daniela Hantuchova (Svk) & Shahar Peer (Isr) 6-3, 6-3.
Mixed doubles: First round: Sania Mirza (Ind) & Horia Tecau (Rou) bt 4-Kveta Peschke (Cze) Marcin Matkowski (Pol) 4-6 6-3 (10-7).
