A schedule backlog caused by rain created a parade of champions on the sixth day of the French Open. Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Venus and Serena Williams were among those who advanced.
Four-time champion Nadal lost serve only once as he beat Horacio Zeballos of Argentina 6-2, 6-2, 6-3.
Nadal won with steady play from the baseline, committing only 12 unforced errors, and he also won 16 points at the net.
Seeded-second Nadal improved to 33-1 at Roland Garros, with his lone loss a fourth-round upset against Robin Soderling last year. He is 17-0 on clay this year.
Nadal has lost only 13 games through two rounds and next faces two-time Grand Slam champion Lleyton Hewitt, who outlasted Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan 1-6, 6-3, 6-4, 2-6, 6-2.
Hewitt improved to 30-14 in five-set matches.
The top-ranked Federer reached the fourth round by beating qualifier Julian Reister of Germany 6-4, 6-0, 6-4.
Federer never faced a break-point and lost only five points on his first serve.
Djokovic, a two-time semi-finalist, overcame nine double-faults for a second-round win over Kei Nishikori of Japan, 6-1, 6-4, 6-4.
No. 9 David Ferrer was leading 6-2, 6-2, 2-0 when Xavier Malisse retired with a left hamstring injury. No. 19 Nicolas Almagro of Spain, No. 22 Jurgen Melzer of Austria and No. 31 Victor Hansecu of Romania also advanced.
In women’s play, Maria Sharapova and Justine Henin set up a third-round showdown by winning matches suspended overnight because of darkness.
Sharapova finished off Kirsten Flipkens of Belgium 6-3, 6-3, while four-time champion Henin beat Klara Zakopalova of the Czech Republic 6-3, 6-3.
Now the champions start playing each other.
Henin has a 6-3 record against Sharapova, but the Russian won their most recent meeting in the quarter-finals of the 2008 Australian Open.
That was Henin’s last Grand Slam match before she retired. Now the Belgian is mounting a career comeback and playing at Roland Garros for the first time since 2007.
Henin, seeded 22nd, has French Open winning streaks of 23 matches and 39 sets. The No. 12-seeded Sharapova is seeking the only Grand Slam title she has yet to win.
Venus Williams reached the fourth round at Roland Garros for the first time since 2006 by beating No. 26 Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia 6-3, 6-4. Once again wearing the lacy corset that has created the tournament’s biggest buzz, Williams hit six aces and lost only four points on her first serve.
The top-ranked Serena Williams won nine consecutive games and advanced to the third round by beating Julia Goerges of Germany 6-1, 6-1.
Williams held every service game and sprinted forward several times to finish off points with swinging volleys.
The 12-time Grand Slam champion has won 41 consecutive second-round matches in major tournaments since losing in that round in her Grand Slam debut in 1998 to her sister Venus.
Russian qualifier Anastasia Pivovarova, ranked 187th, upset No. 25 Zheng Jie of China 6-4, 6-3. No. 13 Marion Bartoli and No. 29 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova also won.
On Thursday, Andy Roddick and Andy Murray ground down feisty opponents to reach the French Open third round, while the rain did a more convincing job, giving organizers a headache by tearing the schedule asunder.
Only 17 singles matches, several of which were held over after Wednesday’s downpours, were completed.
While Roddick and Murray were relieved to have seen off their opponents before gloom enclosed Roland Garros once again, former champion Ana Ivanovic went out with barely a whimper, while Kimiko Date Krumm’s fairytale week fizzled out.
Not often does big-serving American Roddick have his greatest weapon broken seven times in a match, but the dashingly named Blaz Kavcic from Slovenia showed he had little respect for reputations in his first Roland Garros campaign.
Unfortunately for Kavcic, one of two Slovenian men to have broken through to the second round here, he had his own service foiled 10 times and he finally succumbed in a topsy-turvy match 6-3, 5-7, 6-4, 6-2 in three minutes short of three hours.
Murray faced the frustration of his contest with Juan Ignacio Chela stretching to a third day after rain halted play in the second set on Wednesday, but the British fourth seed saw off the seasoned Argentine in four sets with a mix of guile and superior fitness.
Ivanovic offered little resistance to a bulldozing display from Russian 28th seed Alisa Kleybanova, bowing out 6-3 6-0.
Date Krumm’s challenge ran out of steam in a 6-0, 6-3 rout by Australia’s Jarmila Groth.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB