Paris, June 2: All streaks are meant to be broken, but not for Rafa Nadal at Roland Garros as the World No.1 continued his march towards an unprecedented 11th French Open title at the clay-court Grand Slam with a dominant 6-3, 6-2, 6-2 rout of longtime rival Richard Gasquet here, Saturday.
He advances to the pre-quarterfinals at a major for the 40th time, becoming just the sixth player to achieve the feat in the Open Era.
With the victory, Nadal extended a pair of staggering streaks. He has now won his last 34 completed sets at Roland Garros, breaking his own personal best of 32 in a row from 2007-09. Only Bjorn Borg, who won 41 consecutive sets in 1979-81, has recorded a longer streak here.
In addition, victory for Nadal saw the Spaniard notch his 16th match win against Gasquet at the tour-level. The Spaniard now owns a ruthless 16-0 stranglehold on their head-to-head record. It is just the seventh match-up in the Open Era in which a player has recorded as many wins without a defeat.
Earlier, Fabio Fognini booked his place in the last 16 at Roland Garros for the second time, beating Kyle Edmund 6-3, 4-6, 3-6, 6-4, 6-4. The Italian joined countryman Marco Cecchinato in the fourth round.
Bopanna-Edouard advances
Paris: Rohan Bopanna and his French partner Edouard Roger-Vasselin shocked top seeded Marcelo Melo and Lukasz Kubot in straight sets to reach the men’s doubles quarterfinals of the French Open here, Saturday. The 13th seeded Indo-French team beat the Brazilian-Polish combo 6-4, 7-6(7-1) in one hour and 30 minutes in the third round. It’s the third time that Bopanna has reached the quarterfinal stage at Roland Garros after 2011 and 2016.