Paris: Former World No.1 Novak Djokovic and Alexander Zverev had to toil hard while Japanese Kei Nishikori found it easy as all of them advanced into the quarterfinals of the French Open tennis tournament here, Friday.
However, Grigor Dimitrov’s French Open hopes bit the dust as the fourth seed was outplayed by Spanish veteran Fernando Verdasco suffering a 6-7(4-7), 2-6, 4-6 straight-set defeat.
Dimitrov was pushed to five sets by American Jared Donaldson in the previous round and once he failed to convert four set points in the 12th game of the opener against Verdasco and lost the ensuing tie-break, he looked flat.
Verdasco has now reached the last 16 in Paris for the seventh time and will hope to finally break through that barrier having fallen at that stage on six occasions.
Serbian 20th seed Djokovic, on the other hand, scraped past 13th seed Spaniard Roberto Bautista Agut 6-4, 6-7(6-8), 7-6(7-4), 6-2.
Second seed Zverev saved a match point on his way to a grinding five-set win over Bosnian Damir Dzumhur 6-2, 3-6, 4-6, 7-6(7-3), 7-5, securing his first trip to the last 16 at Roland Garros.
It was the first victory for Zverev against a top 50 player in a Grand Slam, breaking a poor run of form in the majors that had left some commentators wondering whether the much-hyped wonderkid would live up to the high expectations around him.
In the women’s category, fourth seed Elina Svitolina suffered a stunning defeat as the Ukrainian went down to Romanian Mihaela Buzarnescu in their round of 32 match, Friday.
However, second seed Caroline Wozniacki found no difficulties as the Danish sailed into the last 16 with a dominating 6-0, 6-3 win over an unseeded French Pauline Parmentier. Madinson Keys, seeded 13th, also made it into the last 16 with a 6-1, 7-6(9-7) win over Japanese Naomi Osaka.
In other match on the day, a vicious topspin forehand modelled on her idol Rafa Nadal’s weapon-of-choice got Daria Kasatkina out of a spot of bother in a topsy-turvy third-round match against her Greek opponent Maria Sakkari. The 14th seeded Russian registered 6-1, 1-6, 6-3 over the unseeded Sakkari.
Bhambri-Sharan bow out
Paris: Indias men’s doubles pair of Yuki Bhambri and Divij Sharan crashed out of the French Open, going down to second seeds Oliver Marach and Mate Pavic here Friday. In the round of 32 match, which lasted around an hour and 17 minutes, the Indian pair was outplayed in straight sets 5-7, 3-6.
