It used to be the guillotine that terrorised Paris now Rafael Nadal is the scourge of the French capital and Lleyton Hewitt is next in line for the chop. The former world No 1, and two-times Grand Slam title winner, qualified for a third round crack at the Spanish top seed and title holder with a rock solid 6-4, 6-3, 6-1 win over Kazakhstan's Andrey Golubev on Friday.
Nadal had already gone through by crushing Russia's Teimuraz Gabashvili 6-1, 6-4, 6-2, a record 30th consecutive win at Roland Garros as he seeks to become the first man to win the French Open title five times in a row.
Hewitt, who is unseeded after two years blighted by injuries, can look to the fact that he is one of the rare players on the circuit who does not have a losing record against the world No 1 having won four of their eight matches.
“He's the man to beat here, and he has been for the last four or five years, but I'll go out there and play my game, and hopefully I can have one of my best matches,” he said.
“You've got to play a complete match against him. Obviously over five sets it probably makes it a bit tougher again than beating him in a best of three set match on this surface. My game can matchup against him if I'm executing the way I want to, which I'm gonna have to do.”
{{/usCountry}}“You've got to play a complete match against him. Obviously over five sets it probably makes it a bit tougher again than beating him in a best of three set match on this surface. My game can matchup against him if I'm executing the way I want to, which I'm gonna have to do.”
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