Paris: World number one Novak Djokovic and nine-time champion Rafael Nadal racked up personal Grand Slam milestones on Thursday as they moved into the French Open third round. Timea Bacsinszky’s love affair with Roland Garros continued when she swept aside struggling Canadian Eugenie Bouchard 6-4, 6-4 to reach the third round. A semifinalist last year where she lost to eventual champion Serena Williams, the Swiss eighth seed trailed 1-4 in the first set before she took control, winning 10 games in a row to serve for the match at 5-0 in the second.
Bouchard, a French Open semi-finalist in 2014, the year she rose to fifth in the world, staved off defeat by winning that game and she saved a match point on her own serve to pull back to 5-2. The fight-back continued with another break of serve and a hold to get to 5-4, but Bacsinszky finally held firm on her serve at the third time of asking to seal the win. Nine-time champion Nadal became just the eighth man to rack up 200 Grand Slam match wins as he saw off Argentina’s world number 99 — and fellow left-hander — Facundo Bagnis 6-3, 6-0, 6-3.
Top seed Djokovic, looking for a Roland Garros title to complete a career Grand Slam, claimed his 50th win at the tournament by seeing off Belgian qualifier Steve Darcis 7-5, 6-3, 6-4. It was the Serb’s third win in three career meetings with Darcis, a player nicknamed ‘Shark’ who dumped Nadal out of Wimbledon in 2013. Top seed and defending champion Serena cruised into the third round with a 6-2, 6-1, win over Teliana Pereira of Brazil.
The 34-year-old American will next go up against the winner of the tie between France’s Kristina Mladenovic and Timea Babos of Hungary with a place in the last 16 at stake. Serbian 14th seed Ana Ivanovic, the 2008 winner, defeated Japan’s Kurumi Nara 7-5, 6-1. Paes-Hingis win Leander Paes and Martina Hingis entered mixed doubles pre-quarters with a 6-4, 6-4 win over Anna-Lena Groenefeld and Robert Farah.
