French Open: Djokovic, Nadal, Tsonga into round three

Omnisports

May 26, 2016 3:45 AM

Top seed Novak Djokovic progressed at the French Open despite 42 unforced errors, while Jo-Wilfried Tsonga battled past Marcos Baghdatis.

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Novak Djokovic's quest for a career grand slam at the French Open remains on course after his 11th win on clay in 2016, the top seed beating Steve Darcis 7-5 6-3 6-4.

The world number one was not at his fluent best, though, racking up a host unforced errors en route to setting up a third-round meeting with Aljaz Bedene – the Briton beating Pablo Carreno-Busta in a five-set thriller.

It was a good day for the seeds at Roland Garros as 10 of the 12 in action all progressed, although Jo-Wilfried Tsonga did it the hard way against Marcos Baghdatis.

The Frenchman – spurred on by the vocal home support – recovered from two sets down to force a decider and he duly took the fifth set up a match with Ernests Gulbis.

Nine-time champion Rafael Nadal had fewer problems against Facundo Bagnis, while Dominic Thiem continued his impressive form on clay to advance at the expense of Guillermo Garcia-Lopez.

DJOKOVIC PROFITS DESPITE ERROR-STREWN DISPLAY

Djokovic's victory may appear to have been straightforward judging by the score, but the top seed was uncharacteristically wasteful against Darcis.

In all three sets he broke the Belgian early, but 42 unforced errors allowed his opponent to come back and give Djokovic a tougher day than he would have liked.

Eventually he progressed in straight sets, but the Serbian was far from the top of his game.

NADAL JOINS 200 CLUB

Nadal loves Roland Garros so it is fitting he reaches the latest milestone in his career in Paris, the Spaniard's win over Bagnis being his 200th grand slam triumph.

He becomes the eighth player to achieve that feat, joining the likes of Roger Federer, Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras.

NEXT GENERATION FIND THEIR FEET

Much of the talk at Roland Garros revolves around the likes of Djokovic, Nadal, Andy Murray and Stan Wawrinka, but in the background the next generation are making ground.

Teenagers Borna Coric and Alexander Zverev booked third-round places on Thursday, as did Nick Kyrgios and Thiem.

Thiem's 7-5 6-4 7-6 (7-3) win over Garcia-Lopez was his 22nd of the clay-court season, more than any other player on the ATP Tour.

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