Frustrating battle

Djokovic struggles, rallies in 5 sets; Nadal rolls to win

PARIS — From a tiff with the chair umpire to the big deficit he created and then needed to overcome in a steady rain, Novak Djokovic had an all-around difficult day at the French Open.

Rafael Nadal’s journey to the fourth round, in contrast, could hardly have been easier.

The stark numbers on the scoreboards at Court Philippe Chatrier revealed plenty about how differently things went in the back-toback contests Friday for defending champion Djokovic and nine-time champion Nadal. First up in the main stadium at Roland Garros was Nadal, who won 82 points and conceded merely 36 in a 6-0, 6-1, 6-0 victory over 63rd-ranked Nikoloz Basilashvili.

“The score is quite embarrassing, you know,” Basilashvili acknowledged, “but I have to accept it.”

Djokovic followed in the main stadium and found himself in trouble right away against 41st-ranked Diego Schwartzman before emerging to win 5-7, 6-3, 3-6, 6-1, 6-1.

While it took Basilashvili 12 games and 49 minutes just to claim a single game — which spectators greeted with a roar as he stood motionless and straightfaced — Schwartzman not only took the second game of his match against Djokovic, he grabbed the opening set, too. And then the third, to go up by two sets to one.

The No. 2-seeded Djokovic’s biggest problem was himself. He had 55 unforced errors to 43 winners, and issues on his backhand wing, which produced 33 of those miscues.

As the match wore on, Djokovic became more assertive and more accurate.

Still, there were distractions.

In the fourth set, with Djokovic leading 4-0 and serving at 30-all, he was given a fault by chair umpire Carlos Ramos for multiple time violations. After the ensuing point, Djokovic stared in Ramos’ direction. Moments later, just about to face a break point, Djokovic yelled at himself, mostly in Serbian. Then, facing Ramos, Djokovic briefly lifted his racket overhead, before using it to flip a ball backward toward a ball boy.

After a confrontation with Ramos, Djokovic found his composure and closed out Schwartzman.