Top seeds roll; Federer makes history
The top-seeded players had early starts in the French Open on Wednesday in Paris, and Novak Djokovic and Victoria Azarenka advanced to the third round without problems.
A short time later, 2009 champion Roger Federer joined them, earning his recordbreaking 234th victory in a Grand Slam tournament.
Djokovic was first up on Court Suzanne Lenglen, and he was barely troubled by Blaz Kavcic of Slovenia, winning 6-0, 6-4, 6-4 for his 23rd consecutive Grand Slam victory.
“I gave him the opportunity to come back to the match after a perfect first set, first seven games,” Djokovic said. “But, look, this is tennis.”
In the main stadium at Roland Garros, Azarenka defeated Dinah Pfizenmaier of Germany 6-1, 6-1, two days after struggling to win her opening match.
“Being No. 1 is a difficult job, because everybody wants to catch you, everybody wants to move you from the spot,” Azarenka said.
“Nothing is going to come easy just because you’re No. 1. “You actually have more people . . . motivated trying to beat you.”
Djokovic is looking to win his fourth consecutive Grand Slam singles title and first at Roland Garros.
The Serb lost to Federer in the semifinals last year, ending a 43-match winning streak.
Djokovic was broken Wednesday once by Kavcic but otherwise had little trouble. Djokovic did, however, finish the match with 34 unforced errors, compared with 21 by Kavcic.
“He was defending really well in the second and third set, especially in the second,” Djokovic said. “He wasn’t missing as many balls as in the first set.”
Federer had an easy run in the first two sets but wasted two match points in the third. He saved all six break points to beat Adrian Ungur of Romania 6-3, 6-2, 6-7 (6-8), 6-3 on Court Philippe Chatrier.
“Instead of being aggressive, I let him show me what he could do,” Federer said of the tiebreaker. “He played two beautiful shots, and then I started not playing very well.”
The 16-time Grand Slam tournament champion broke a tie with Jimmy Connors for career wins at major tournaments in the Open era, which began in 1968. He is 23435 in tennis’ top four tournaments, an .870 winning percentage.
Azarenka, who took over the No. 1 ranking after winning the Australian Open, easily advanced against Pfizenmaier, a 20-yearold German who made her Grand Slam debut.
In the first round, Azarenka struggled early before winning 12 of the final 14 games to advance.
She committed 60 unforced errors in her opening match but cut that number to 11 Wednesday.
“Definitely played much better today,” said Azarenka, who reached the quarterfinals at Roland Garros last year, matching her best performance in the Grand Slam clay-court event.