The top-seeded players had early starts at the French Open yesterday, and both Novak Djokovic and Victoria Azarenka made it to the third round without a problem.
A short time later, 2009 champion Roger Federer joined them, earning his record-breaking 234th victory at Grand Slam tournaments.
Djokovic was first up on Court Suzanne Lenglen, and he was barely troubled by Blaz Kavcic of Slovenia, winning 6-0, 6-4, 6-4 for his 23rd straight Grand Slam victory.
Photo: Reuters
“I gave him the opportunity to come back to the match after a perfect first set, first seven games,” Djokovic said. “But, look, this is tennis.”
In the main stadium at Roland Garros, Azarenka defeated Dinah Pfizenmaier of Germany 6-1, 6-1 — two days after struggling to win her opening match.
“Being No. 1 is a difficult job, because everybody want to catch you, everybody want to move you from the spot,” Azarenka said. “Nothing is going to come easy just because you’re No. 1. You actually have more people ... motivated trying to beat you.”
Photo: EPA
Djokovic is looking to win his fourth straight Grand Slam title, and first at Roland Garros. Last year, the Serb lost to Federer in the semi-finals, ending his 43-match winning streak.
Djokovic was broken once by Kavcic, but otherwise had little trouble. However, he did finish the match with 34 unforced errors against Kavcic’s 21.
“He was defending really well in the second and third set, especially in the second,” Djokovic said. “He wasn’t missing as many balls as in the first set.”
Federer had an easy run in the first two sets, but then wasted two match points in the third. He saved all six break points to beat Adrian Ungur of Romania 6-3, 6-2, 6-7 (6), 6-3 on Court Philippe Chatrier.
The 16-time Grand Slam champion broke a tie with Jimmy Connors for most career wins at major tournaments in the Open era, which began in 1968. He is now 234-35 in tennis’ top four tournaments, an .870 winning percentage.
No. 9 Juan Martin del Potro beat Edouard Roger-Vasselin of France 6-7 (5), 7-6 (3), 6-4, 6-4.
Azarenka, who took over the No. 1 ranking after winning the Australian Open, easily advanced against Pfizenmaier, a 20-year-old German who was making her Grand Slam debut.
In the first round, Azarenka struggled early before winning 12 of the final 14 games to advance. She committed 60 unforced errors in that opening match, but brought that number down to only 11 yesterday.
“Definitely played much better today,” said Azarenka, who reached the quarter-finals at Roland Garros last year, matching her best performance at the clay-court Grand Slam.
US Open champion Sam Stosur also advanced, beating Irina Falconi of the US 6-1, 6-4.
On Tuesday, former champion Serena Williams shocked the crowd and herself by losing to Virginie Razzano in the first round, her earliest exit from a Grand Slam in the 47 appearances in an outstanding career.
Razzano was two points from defeat in the second-set tiebreak, but she battled back to knock out the fifth-seeded American 4-6, 7-6 (7/5), 6-3 in a little over three hours.
Williams had been the pre-tournament favorite and her shock exit overshadowed Tuesday’s other events, with men’s defending champion Rafael Nadal, fourth seed Andy Murray and former women’s winner Francesca Schiavone among those winning easily.
Three days of watching the favorites cruise through the first round in the sunshine had lulled the Roland Garros fans into a gentle doze and Williams, last up on the Philippe Chatrier show court at the end of another summer day, was supposed to swiftly dispatch local heroine Razzano and complete the second-round lineup.
Razzano, though, had other ideas. She woke up the drowsy fans with her battling play and, by the time she got to her eighth match point in a 25-minute final game, the crowd were in a frenzy.
As Razzano skipped around the court in delight after her win, a dejected Williams gathered her bag and headed straight for a press conference to try to explain what had happened.
“There is no excuse,” the 13-time Grand Slam champion said. “I just didn’t play at all the way I have been practicing.”
Razzano, whose fiance died from a brain tumor last year, was struggling with a cramp as she served in the extraordinary final game, which went to deuce 12 times.
The Frenchwoman, ranked No. 111 in the world, saved five break points and squandered seven match points, before Williams hit a ground-stroke out on the eighth.
“It’s the most beautiful victory in my career,” Razzano, 29, said in a courtside interview.
Nadal had bad news for anyone thinking of thwarting his bid for a record seventh French Open title — this year he feels even better than he did when he won his sixth, 50 weeks ago.
After speeding into the second round with a 6-2, 6-2, 6-1 thrashing of Italian Simone Bolelli, Nadal, who came to Roland Garros with three clay-court victories behind him this season, declared his confidence to be sky-high.
“I feel fresher than last year. My attitude is more positive,” the Spanish world No. 2 told his post-match press conference. “Last year, my attitude was good because I wanted to fight for it, but I was perhaps not positive enough. I was not cool enough, cool-tempered, whereas this year I’m extremely motivated. I feel a lot better when I’m out on the courts.”
Nadal, who won in Rome this month, and in Barcelona and Monte Carlo last month, was certainly in impressive form as he saw off the world No. 111 in just under two hours.
He was soon joined in the second round by fourth seed Murray, who comfortably beat Roland Garros debutant Tatsuma Ito of Japan 6-1, 7-5, 6-0 on the Suzanne Lenglen court.
Scot Murray is set to play Finn Jarko Nieminen, while Nadal faces Uzbekistan’s Denis Istomin.
In the women’s singles, former world No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark had a straight-sets win over Greece’s Eleni Danilidou.
In the men’s draw, Serbian eighth seed Janko Tipsarevic recovered from losing his focus when an elderly spectator, overcome by the heat, was helped from the court in mid-play to beat Sam Querry of the US 2-6, 6-4, 7-6 (7/3), 6-3.
In the first round of the women’s doubles, Taiwan’s Chan Yung-jan and Chan Hao-ching defeated Kiki Bertens of the Netherlands and Hungary’s Katalin Marosi 6-3, 6-2.
Also in the first round, Taiwan’s Chuang Chia-jung and her partner Vera Dushevina of Russia advanced when their opponents, Slovenia’s Polona Hercog and Poland’s Urszula Radwanska, retired while Chuang and Dushevina were leading 4-1 in the first set.
Additional reporting by staff writer
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