Brilliant Nadal into last eight
RAFAEL NADAL continued his superb form with a dominant 6-1 6-2 6-2 win over Roberto Bautista Agut to move easily into the French Open quarter-finals.
The Spaniard, 31, is looking to become the first man to win 10 titles at a single Grand Slam event.
His victory was not quite as simple as Friday’s incredible 6-0 6-1 6-0 defeat of Nikoloz Basilashvili but fourth seed Nadal has not dropped a set yet.
He will now face either Milos Raonic or Pablo Carreno Busta in the last eight.
Margaret Court is the only player to have won 10 or more titles at one Grand Slam event, winning the Australian Open on 11 occasions between 1960 and 1973.
Nine-time winner Nadal now has a 76-2 winloss record at Roland Garros with his only defeats coming against Robin Soderling in the fourth round in 2009 and Novak Djokovic in the 2015 quarter-finals.
It is the 11th time he has reached the quarterfinals at the French Open - a record shared with Roger Federer.
Japan’s eighth seed Kei Nishikori survived a scare to beat unseeded South Korean Hyeon Chung in five sets.
Nishikori, 27, needed almost four hours to win 7-5 6-4 6-7 (4-7) 0-6 6-4 in a third-round match finished yesterday after the previous day’s rain delay.
“I think the rain helped me a lot, because I was really down in the fourth set and mentally I wasn’t ready,” said Nishikori, whose only Grand Slam final appearance came when he lost at the 2014 US Open.
“I knew I had to change something to beat him, so I think I made some adjustments to make it a little better than yesterday.” — BBC Sport