Saturday 30th May 2009 - 09:49:34
An impressive performance by world number one defending champion Rafael Nadal saw him comfortably progress into the fourth round.
Dominant from the off the Spaniard breezed through the first set again former Wimbledon champion Lleyton Hewitt wrapping it up 6-1 in just thirty minutes.
But the steely Aussie but up a better fight in the second breaking Nadal to take a 3-2 lead however it wasn't to be enough as Rafael powered back and Hewitt soon found himself two sets down.
Some flawless tennis saw Nadal run away with the third as he produced his best performance of the tournament so far as he demonstrated why he is the defending champion winning 6-1 6-3 6-1.
Nadal, who took over the number one position from Federer after that epic Wimbledon final last summer, is going for his fifth straight title at Roland Garros, the Spaniard has never been beaten in Paris as he stretched his unbeaten run at the tournament to thirty one matches.
Novak Djokovic had to return to court yesterday to complete his second round match against Sergiy Stakhovsky.
Already two sets to the good the world number four, who has had a great clay court season so far getting to the final of both the Rome and Monte Carlo Masters, saw off his opponent in just thirty five minutes 6-3 6-4 6-1.
But there was a first set scare for British number one Andy Murray as Janko Tipsarevic stormed to an early 5-2 lead.
The Serb underdog played some great stuff against Murray who struggled to find his length and wobbled on his serve. But when it looked like Tipsarevic was one set to the good he failed to hold his nerve to serve it out.
Murray, growing in confidence with every point, made a remarkable comeback to take the set to a tie break as more set points passed Tipsarevic by.
With one set under his belt Murray looked like a different player as he began to apply some pressure as he broke the Serb at the start of the match.
Things began to look increasingly good for the world number three as Tipsaravic called for the trainer to apply some treatment to his thigh.
After Murray took the second set comfortably 6-3 his opponent retired with a back injury. Murray will now play 13th seed Marin Cilic who saw off 18th seed Radek Stepanek 6-1 7-6 (7-4) 6-3.
There was also a third round win for Spaniard Fernando Verdasco, who was the first man into the fourth round, as he saw off Nicolas Almagro 6-2 7-6 (7-4) 7-6 (10-8).
Unlike his previous matches the eighth seed struggled to close out the match as Almagro fought back to take the third set to a tie-break.
Nikolay Davydenko also progressed beating Stanislas Wawrinka in four sets 6-3 4-6 6-3 6-2.
The big story in the women's competition came as former world number one Venus Williams crashed out of the French open losing in straight sets to Agnes Szavay.
It was an inspired start from the twenty ninth seed as she took the opening seven games, winning the first set 6-0.
Although Williams did fight back in the second set she never looked comfortable on court making error after error that handed her opponent the straight set victory 6-0 6-4.
However there was no such trouble for the top seed Dinara Safina who continued her impressive run at Roland Garros by dropping just four games against her fellow Russian opponent.
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova started well but her resistance soon fell away as Safina, possibly favourite to win the title next weekend, ran away to a 6-2 6-0 win.
It was a similar easy win for defending champion Ana Ivanovic as she overcame Iveta Benesova 6-0 6-2.
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw
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