French Open Round Up | Roger Federer creates Grand Slam record as Rafael Nadal survives scare

06/01/2019

37-year-old Roger Federer, on Friday, became the oldest man to make it to the fourth round of the French Open in 47 years as he got the better of Norway’s Casper Ruud in his 400th Grand Slam match. His nemeses, Rafael Nadal, however had to stretch to the fourth set against David Goffin.

Federer continued his winning run in the French Open against World No. 63 with an easy 6-3, 6-1, 7-6 (10/8) win at Court Suzanne Lenglen although the last set saw the Swiss sweating it out. Nadal, on the other hand, started off well to win the first two sets before Goffin won the third one to make things trickier.

Nadal is contending for his record-extending 12th French Open title and the third set loss reminded many of his shocking 2009 exit after losing to Robin Soderling 10 years back. However, the Master of Clay came back to win the match 6-1, 6-3, 4-6, 6-3, thereby taking his incredible Roland Garros win-loss record to 89-2.

In another intense match, Japan’s Kay Nishikori managed to get the better of Laslo Djere on Friday in a battle that saw it stretching to five sets 6-4, 6-7 (6/8), 6-3, 4-6, 8-6 and lasting for four hours and 26 minutes, which was the second longest match of the tournament.

There were other high octane matches as well like Grigor Dimitrov vs Stan Wawrinka and Stefanos Tsitsipas vs Filip Krajinovic, both of which got suspended owing to bad light. And with the winners of the matches facing each other they wouldn’t be getting an extra day’s rest now as they have to finish the match on Saturday. While Tsitsipas was leading Krajinovic 7-5, 6-3, 5-5 on Court Philippe Chatrier on Friday night, Wawrinka had just taken 7-6(5), 7-6(4) lead when the play stopped.

Other Results

Second Round: Martin Klizan (SVK) bt Lucas Pouille (FRA x22) 7-6 (7/4), 2-6, 6-3, 3-6, 9-7

Third Round : Benoit Paire (FRA) bt Pablo Carreno Busta (ESP) 6-2, 4-6, 7-6 (7/1), 0-0 – retired