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Nadal cruises as Murray completes comeback; Kerber crashes out

Rafa Nadal could win his tenth French Open. (AAP Image/Mark Dadswell)
Roar Guru
24th May, 2016
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Two of the contenders for the men’s crown at the 2016 French Open have progressed through to the second round, but while one cruised, the other was forced to come back from the dead just to stay alive at Roland Garros.

Nine-times champion Rafael Nadal kick-started his bid for a record tenth title by easily defeating Sam Groth in straight sets, dropping just three games for his equal-biggest victory at the French Open.

Clocking in at one hour and 22 minutes, it was also his fastest ever victory at Roland Garros, beating his previous record of 1:33 against Dusan Lajovic in the fourth Round 2 years ago by eleven minutes.

It is the strongest indication yet that the Spaniard, who is currently enduring the longest Grand Slam drought of his career having not saluted since winning his ninth French Open title in 2014, is not yet the spent force many feared he’d become.

But while he isn’t the favourite with the bookies this year, he might as well be on paper. He looms as the biggest threat to Novak Djokovic reaching the final for the fourth time in the past five years, with the pair drawn to face off in the semi-finals.

In stark contrast to Nadal’s walk in the park, world number two and recent Rome Masters champion Andy Murray had to gather all his fighting qualities to get past Czech veteran Radek Stepanek in a thrilling first round match.

The Scot, three times a semi-finalist at Roland Garros, fell into deep trouble when he dropped the opening two sets before starting his comeback by winning the third set 6-0, and then leading 4-2 in the fourth when bad light stopped play on Monday.

The pair resumed on Tuesday morning (Paris time) and Murray took the fourth set 6-3 to take the match into a fifth and deciding set, which was to be one of the most intense in Murray’s Grand Slam career.

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Stepanek, a quarter-finalist at Wimbledon in 2006, was attempting to become just the third man in the past decade (after Novak Djokovic, twice, and Fernando Verdasco) to defeat Murray in a best-of-five match at Grand Slam level.

The deciding set appeared evenly poised and at one stage the Czech veteran was two points away from victory in the tenth game. At this point Murray was on the brink of his first Grand Slam first round defeat since the 2008 Australian Open, and first at the French Open since 2006.

However, the Scot would hold in that tenth game then would establish the crucial break in the next to put himself into the position of serving for the match in the twelfth game.

Despite being taken to deuce, Murray would successfully serve out the match to secure his safe passage into the second round for the eighth consecutive time dating back to 2008 (he missed the French Open in 2013 due to a back injury).

It marks the third time in the last three years that he has come back from two sets to love down at a Grand Slam tournament, doing so against Fernando Verdasco at Wimbledon in 2013 and against Adrian Mannarino at last year’s US Open.

It was also his first comeback from two sets to love down at Roland Garros since 2011, when Viktor Troicki was on the receiving end. He was also forced to climb out of the canvas against Richard Gasquet in the opening round in 2010.

Murray now faces French wildcard Mathias Bourgue for a place in the third round.

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2010 semi-finalist Tomas Berdych also advanced, defeating Canada’s Vasek Pospisil in straight sets, 6-3, 6-2, 6-1. Just a fortnight ago, the Czech suffered the humiliation of a double-bagel defeat at the hands of David Goffin in the quarter-finals of the Rome Masters.

Seeded players Lucas Pouille and Bernard Tomic also advanced courtesy of straight-sets victories over Julien Benneteau and Brian Baker respectively.

Meanwhile, there has been another upset in the women’s draw, with reigning Australian Open champion Angelique Kerber crashing out in the first round following a three-set defeat to Dutchwoman Kiki Bertens.

Bertens took the opening set 6-2 but Kerber was quick to hit back, taking the second 6-3 to force a deciding set. However, the 24-year-old would hold her nerve to knock out the third seed and thus notch up the first top five victory of her career.

It follows a week in which she won her second career title in Nurenburg, where she also notched up her first career top ten victory at the expense of Italian veteran Roberta Vinci.

The defeat eliminates Kerber from contention for the world number one ranking, which will now be decided between defending champion Serena Williams and second seed Agnieszka Radwanska.

2010 champion Francesca Schiavone and three-times semi-finalist Jelena Jankovic were also early casualties as they went down to Kristina Mladenovic and Tatjana Maria in straight and three sets respectively.

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2010 finalist Samantha Stosur progressed after she completed her suspended tie against Misaki Doi, winning in three sets, while former Grand Slam finalists Dominika Cibulkova and Eugenie Bouchard also made it through to Round 2.

At the time of this article going to print, both men’s and women’s world number ones Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams, 2008 champion Ana Ivanovic and former world number one and two-time Australian Open champion Victoria Azarenka were still to play their first round matches.

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