Nadal won an easy match against Basilashvili, while Djokovic had to fight for more than three hours before prevailing over Schwartzman.
PARIS – On day six at the French Open, the No. 4 seed and overall tournament favorite Rafael Nadal conceded only one game in his 6-0,6-1,6-0 over 25-year-old Nikoloz Basilashvili from Tbilisi, Georgia in a match that lasted only 90 minutes.
The No. 2 seed Novak Djokovic had a much more challenging task in a five-set thriller against No. 41-ranked Diego Schwartzman of Argentina. Djokovic smashed a racquet, received a time violation and a verbal abuse violation in a marathon of a match, that saw him commit many more mistakes than usual. He made an astonishing 55 unforced errors against one of the shortest players on tour – Schwartzman is 5’ 7” tall.
Djokovic squandered a 4-1 lead in the first set, which he ended up losing while his new coach Andre Agassi was busy with his own promotional activities for Lavazza and Longines. The American tennis legend finally made it to Djokovic’s box at 4-3 in the second set and the Serb immediately regained his composure and closed out the set with ease. “We agreed that Andre’s commitment would end on Thursday. He is the right coach for me, but we haven’t made any long-term plans yet,” Djokovic explained in his post-match press conference. Apparently, Agassi told Boris Becker that he hasn’t asked to be paid yet.
Novak had another mental break in the third set and was lucky that his Argentinian opponent was not used to competing at these stages of Grand Slam tournaments. Schwartzman struggled physically in the fourth and fifth set, and called a medical time out for a back problem. The final score was 5-7,6-3,3-6,6-1,6-1 in Djokovic’s favor.
Novak seemed to be very positive despite his lackluster performance: “I think it is a good thing that I was able to stay out there for five sets, I haven’t played such a long match in a while.”
Saturday’s order of play features a blockbuster third round encounter between Andy Murray and Juan Martin del Potro, who is looking for revenge after losing the Olympic final against the Scot.
(Article translation provided by T&L Global – Translation & Language Solutions – www.t-lglobal.com )
