28th May, 2011
Novak Djokovic finished strongly to beat Juan Martin del Potro in their third-round French Open tie this evening, taking his unbeaten run to 42 matches.
Del Potro looked set to rock the world number two with two break points for a 3-2 lead in the third set.
But Djokovic held his serve and powered on to win 6-3 3-6 6-3 6-2 to set up a meeting with Richard Gasquet.
Also, world number one Rafael Nadal eased past Croatian Antonio Veic 6-1 6-3 6-0.
Nadal will next face Ivan Ljubicic or Fernando Verdasco as his quest to join Bjorn Borg on a record-equalling six French Open wins gets back on track
Andy Murray also recovered from a dramatic fall to beat Germany’s Michael Berrer in straight sets of 6-2 6-3 6-2 in two hours and seven minutes. and reach the fourth round of the French Open.
In the women singles, fourth seed Victoria Azarenka swept aside Roberta Vinci 6-3 6-2 to reach the fourth round.
The leading seeds have been falling fast in the women’s draw during the first week but Azarenka rarely looked troubled against her Italian opponent.
The 21-year-old from Belarus wrapped up her win in 66 minutes and will play Russia’s Ekaterina Makarova next.
Sixth seed Li Na also made easy progress, seeing off Romania’s Sorana Cirstea 6-2 6-2 in only 61 minutes.
Maria Sharapova and Agnieszka Radwanska are among the other players in action this evening, looking to join them in the last 16 of a tournament which appears to be wide open.
Meanwhile, the exit of Kim Clijsters and then Caroline Wozniacki on Thursday and yesterday means this is the first Grand Slam since the Open era began in 1968 in which the top two women’s seeds have failed to reach the fourth round.