Follow live updates from the French Open as the third round gets underway on another packed day at Roland Garros. Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic will look to take a step closer to a quarter-final meeting as they return to action on day six. Nadal and Djokovic, who have combined to win the last six French Open titles, remain on a collision course and have yet to drop a set in their opening two matches.
Nadal will find himself on Court Suzanne-Lenglen today as he faces the Dutchman Botic van de Zandschulp, while Djokovic returns to Philippe Chatrier and will play Aljaz Bedene in the second match of the day. Later on, Britain’s last remaining hope Cameron Norrie will look to reach new ground as the men’s No. 1 attempts to advance to the second week of a grand slam for the first time against Karen Khachanov.
Elsewhere, Coco Gauff continued her impressive form as the American dismissed Kaia Kanepi 6-3, 6-4. The 18-year-old is looking to take advantage of an open bottom half of the bracket, as is the US Open finalist Leylah Fernandez after she battled past Olympic gold medalist Belinda Bencic 7-5, 3-6, 7-5 on Philippe Chatrier. Former world No. 1 Angelique Kerber saw her career grand slam hopes come to an end for another year at the hands of Aliaksandra Sasnovich, who defeated Emma Raducanu on Wednesday.
An ace down the middle from Van de Zandschulp forces Nadal to serve it out, where he will face Felix Auger-Aliassime in the fourth round after his victory over Filip Krajinović.
Van de Zandschulp, where have you been? The Dutchman plants a backhand winner on the line to seal his hold. Nadal remains a break ahead but this is the best Van de Zandschulp has played all match.
Hello! Van de Zandschulp whips a lovely winner off his forehand to set up break point on the Nadal serve, and an error from the Spaniard delivers the break! Didn’t see that coming.
That could have been it for Van de Zandschulp, but he saves break point on deuce and then serves out to finally get on the board in this third set. Well played.
Like Djokovic before him, Nadal is making hay off the first serve. He’s dropped just two points from it in the match and has successfully landed it 67% of the time.
So, Novak Djokovic is into the next round and over on Court Suzanne-Lenglen, Rafael Nadal looks set to join him.
He’s already broken Botic van de Zandschulp in the third set and has taken a 0-40 lead against the serve.
The Dutchman recovers to win the next point as Nadal stretches out his right hamstring. A backhand smash from the back corner of the court sees Van de Zandschulp send a volley out of play and the Spaniard moves to within three games of victory.
Two match points for Novak Djokovic. Bedene faults on his first serve but an overly enthusiastic Djokovic overdoes a backhand and sends it out of play.
He’s got another chance though. This time the focus is on keeping the ball in play and Bedene does the rest. He sends the ball into the net and the reigning champion marches on!
Aljaz Bedene is serving to stay in contention in the face of a masterclass from the world no. 1. The first point goes to Djokovic and so does the second as a desperate Bedene tries to pull off a drop shot from the baseline.
Djokovic has probably decided it’s quicker to win games on his own serve and after another hold from the Serb, Bedene takes the next game.
It’s not going to plan for the world no. 1 though as the Slovenian has worked himself up to 30-30. Another touch of pressure hits Djokovic but he sweeps a forehand to the corner and before serving out wide to claim the game.
The second set goes to Rafael Nadal as well! Van de Zandschulp held serve to collect another game but couldn’t keep out the Spaniard who is on course for a spot in the fourth round.
This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
Strictly Necessary Cookies
Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.
If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.
Africana55 Radio 
