Murray fells Del Potro to reach last 16 at French Open

Top seed Andy Murray eased into the last-16 of the French Open with a 7-6 (8), 7-5, 6-0 win on Saturday over a flagging Juan Martin Del Potro.

Murray did enough to keep his nose in front throughout, while the giant Argentine was unable to reprise the heroics that saw the pair produce such magic in last year’s Rio Olympics gold medal match.

While Murray won that affair too – and their only previous grand slam meeting – Del Potro had triumphed in their most recent clash, so the Scot had been alert to the dangers.

“Yeah, it was obviously an important win for me and a big match, because Juan, when he’s playing well, is one of the best players in the world,” Murray said.

“To be playing him this early on in the slam is obviously not easy, but it can be a very positive thing.

“You play someone that good, maybe you’re a little bit more switched on. Your focus is maybe a little bit higher.”

Meanwhile, world No. 3 Stan Wawrinka cruised into the fourth round against an outof-sorts Fabio Fognini on Saturday, winning 7-6 (2), 6-0, 6-2 as the Italian’s game fell apart after a strong first set.

The 2015 champion in Paris has yet to drop a set in the 2017 tournament, but this time he came close to conceding the first, which the unpredictable Italian failed to serve out before losing in a one-sided tiebreak.

Fognini, seeded 28, had won two of his three matches against top-five opponents this year, beating then fourthranked Kei Nishikori in Miami and No. 1 Andy Murray in Rome.

But on a murky Court Suzanne Lenglen where the weather matched his own darkening mood, the Italian lost the second set without taking a game, punctuating wild forehands with a clutch of double faults before getting treatment on his left knee.

Wawrinka will next play the winner of the all-French clash between Gael Monfils and Richard Gasquet in the fourth round.

Women’s title contender Simona Halep pulled through against young pretender Daria Kasatkina in a rollercoaster on Saturday, winning 6-0, 7-5 after at first threatening to dismantle the 20-year-old Russian.

The third-seeded Romanian – a beaten finalist in Paris in 2014 – is being tipped as a title favorite after a stellar run-up on clay to this year’s tournament.

She romped through the first set of Saturday’s third round match in 30 minutes, with an ankle injury she sustained in mid-May giving her no more than a single twinge.

“I felt it a little bit at one backhand, because I turned too much...But doesn’t bother me much, so I’m not thinking about it. I can run, I can slide,” she told a news conference.

Halep will play Spain’s Carla Suarez Navarro in the fourth round. (Reuters)