Flying starts for big guns
Paris, May 26: Rafael Nadal began his campaign for a 10th French Open with a 6- 3, 6- 3, 6- 4 win over world no. 296 Quentin Halys on Tuesday.
The brutal, quickfire demolition of the 18- year- old Frenchman threw down the gauntlet to top seed Novak Djokovic, who followed Nadal onto Court Philippe Chatrier to face Finnish veteran Jarkko Nieminen.
Nadal, seeded a humble six this year — his lowest for a decade — needed just one hour and 50 minutes to record his 67th career win at Roland Garros.
The 28- year- old Spaniard, who is seeded to meet Djokovic in the quarterfinals, came into the tournament without a European claycourt title for the first time since 2005 and with many in the sport writing him off as a spent force.
But in a cheeky riposte to his critics, the 14- time major winner played with the number ‘ 9’ stitched into the heels of his tennis shoes to remind people of his astonishing record at the tournament where he has only ever lost once.
Nadal, meanwhile, goes on to face either compatriot Nicolas Almagro or Ukraine’s Alexandr Dolgopolov for a place in the last 32.
Djokovic, bidding to win a first Roland Garros and become just the eighth man to achieve the career Grand Slam, is scheduled to face Nadal in the quarter- finals.
On Tuesday, Djokovic beat Finnish veteran Jarkko Nieminen 6- 2, 7- 5, 6- 2.
He wobbled in the second set, having to pull out some of his sliding, rubber- limbed best to avoid going 5- 1 down against the 33- year- old who had one previous victory against the Serb. Wimbledon champion and fourth seed Petra Kvitova needed two and a half hours to see off New Zealand’s world number 80 Marina
KEY RESULTS Erakovic 6- 4, 3- 6, 6- 4, getting broken six times and committing 47 unforced errors.
The 25- year- old goes on to face Silvia Soler- Espinosa of Spain. Kvitova was a semifinalist in Paris in 2012 and had clinched the claycourt title in Madrid earlier this month.
Croatia’s Marin Cilic, the ninth- seeded US Open champion, defeated Robin Haase of the Netherlands 6- 2, 6- 4, 6- 2.
Fifth seed and former world number one Caroline Wozniacki won through to the second round, beating Italy’s Karin Knapp 6- 3, 6- 0.
Canadian sixth seed Eugenie Bouchard, a semifinalist in 2014, crashed out of this year's French Open in the first round at the hands of France’s Kristina Mladenovic.
Bouchard went down 6- 4, 6- 4 to the world number 44, a defeat which will lead to a dent in her world rankings. The Indo- Australian pair of Mahesh Bhupathi and Nick Kyrgios failed to cross the opening hurdle of the men’s doubles event, suffering a 3- 6, 1- 6 defeat against Lucas Pouille and Thanasi Kokkinakis .