Nadal, Djokovic Advance To Third Round; Dolgopolov Stuns Gonzalez

© Getty ImagesDavid Ferrer has twice reached the quarter-finals at Roland Garros.

Four-time former Roland Garros champion Rafael Nadal cruised into the third round Friday with a 6-2, 6-2, 6-3 victory over Argentine Horacio Zeballos. The match is one of 14 second-round matches to be carried over from Thursday, when rain severely delayed play.

In much sunnier conditions Friday on Court Philippe Chatrier, Nadal needed just one hour and 45 minutes to dispatch the No. 44-ranked Zeballos, who was voted ATP Newcomer of the Year in 2009. The Spaniard hit 23 winners to just 12 unforced errors and capitalised on six of 10 break point chances, while only losing serve once in a late comeback attempt by Zeballos.

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"[Today] was a little bit of improvement," said Nadal. "That's always important to play a little bit better every day. Today I'm happy for the victory. Never easy. He's a good player. He's a young player and he's coming well. So it's a good win for me, and I'm happy for that. But I hope to keep improving."

The 23-year-old Nadal is bidding for a historic “Clay Slam” at Roland Garros after completing a clean sweep of the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 clay-court tennis tournaments in Monte-Carlo (d. Verdasco), Rome (d. Ferrer) and Madrid (d. Federer) in a phenomenal lead up to the second Grand Slam of the year. He has a perfect 17-0 clay-court record this season.

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In a re-match of the 2009 third-round, Nadal will face former World No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt, after the Australian No. 28 seed battled past Denis Istomin 1-6, 6-3, 6-4, 2-6, 6-2 in just over three hours. Nadal, who leads his head-to-head series with Hewitt 5-4, dropped just five games as he dismissed Hewitt in last year’s meeting, one round before suffering his first-ever loss at Roland Garros to Robin Soderling.

"I got nothing to lose out there," said Hewitt. "It's a matter of going out there and playing my game, and hopefully I can hit the ball well. That's the reason you play tennis, to get opportunities to play the best players in the world. In the Grand Slams, I feel like I've put myself in a position my whole career that's it's taken the best players most times in a Grand Slam to beat me. Hopefully I can give him a good match tomorrow."

Two more Spaniards joined Nadal in the third round as David Ferrer and Nicolas Almagro both impressed in second-round wins. No. 9 seed Ferrer was leading 6-2, 6-2, and by a break of serve at 2-0 in the third set when Belgian Xavier Malisse was forced to retire. No. 19 seed Almagro reached the third round for the third year in a row as he eased past another Belgian, Steve Darcis, 6-3, 6-0, 7-5 in one hour and 40 minutes.

Almagro next will face the No. 56-ranked Alexandr Dolgopolov, who stunned 2009 semi-finalist and No. 12 seed Fernando Gonzalez 6-3, 6-4, 6-3 to reach the third round on his debut in the main draw of a Grand Slam championship.

World No. 3 Novak Djokovic was a comfortable 6-1, 6-4, 6-4 winner over Japan’s Kei Nishikori as he secured his third-round berth in two hours and 40 minutes. The Serbian broke serve six times from 14 opportunities. For a place in the fourth round, Djokovic will challenge Romanian No. 31 seed Victor Hanescu, who was untroubled in a 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 victory over Kazakhstan’s Yuri Schukin.

"It was a tough two sets in the second and third," reflected Djokovic. "The first set I won quite comfortably, and then the second and third took one hour each set. So even though it was 6-4, 6-4, you can't really say that it was a cruise for me, because I was facing a lot of break points in my service games. He was playing well. He's a very talented player."

The 23-year-old Djokovic has twice reached the semi-finals at Roland Garros, losing out to Rafael Nadal both times in 2007 and 2008. The Belgrade native, one of six Grand Slam champions in the main draw after his 2008 Australian Open triumph, won his 17th tour-level title in Dubai (d. Youzhny) earlier in the year.

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