Paris: Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal eased closer to a French Open quarterfinal showdown on Tuesday but women’s tour poster girl Eugenie Bouchard was a first-round casualty. Top seed Djokovic, bidding to win a first French Open and become just the eighth man to complete the career Grand Slam, defeated experienced Jarkko Nieminen 6-2, 7-5, 6-2. The victory over 33-year-old Finn, who was playing in his 50th major, was Djokovic’s 23rd consecutive win this year.
The 28-year-old Serb, seeded to meet nine-time champion Nadal in the last eight, will next face either Luxembourg’s Gilles Muller or Paolo Lorenzi of Italy. Nadal opened his bid for a 10th title with a 6-3, 6-3, 6-4 win over world number 296 Quentin Halys. Canadian sixth seed Bouchard, a semifinalist in 2014, crashed out at the hands of France’s Kristina Mladenovic.
Bouchard went down 4-6, 4-6 to the world number 44, her eighth defeat in her last nine matches. Mladenovic, 22, goes on to face either Danka Kovinic of Montenegro or Klara Koukalova of the Czech Republic. Wimbledon champion and fourth seed Petra Kvitova needed two-and-a-half hours to see off New Zealand’s world number 80 Marina Erakovic 6-4, 3-6, 6-4, getting broken six times and committing 47 unforced errors.
Serbian 25th seed Jelena Jankovic, a three-time semi-finalist, suffered her first opening-round loss in a decade when she went down 6-3, 6-4 to qualifier Sesil Karatantcheva.Svetlana Kuznetsova, the 2009 champion, beat Dutchwoman Kiki Bertens 6-1, 4-6, 6-2 and fifth seed and former world number one Caroline Wozniacki went through to Round Two, beating Italy’s Karin Knapp 6-3, 6-0.
