Rafael Nadal beats Richard Gasquet to march on at French Open
Rafael Nadal continued his march to win his 11th French Open with a comfortable win over Richard Gasquet.
Rafael Nadal continued his bid for an 11th French Open title on Saturday by brushing aside home favourite Richard Gasquet to claim a 16th consecutive win over his childhood friend and reach the fourth round.
The 16-time Grand Slam champion has still never lost to his old junior rival at Tour level, after easing to a 6-3, 6-2, 6-2 victory on Court Philippe Chatrier.
The 31-year-old took his run of consecutive completed sets at the French Open to 34, just seven shy of the record held by Bjorn Borg between 1979 and 1981.
Nadal, who lost only two points in the first five games, will next play Germany’s world number 70 Maximilian Marterer, who beat Estonian lucky loser Jurgen Zopp.
Mischa Zverev losses
Mischa Zverev couldn’t keep up with younger brother Alexander at the French Open, ending their bid to become the first siblings in 27 years to reach the fourth round at the same Grand Slam tournament.
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The 64th-ranked Mischa lost in the third round to 2017 U.S. Open runner-up Kevin Anderson 6-1, 6-7 (3), 6-3, 7-6 (4) on Saturday.
The sixth-seeded Anderson won all 21 of his service games and compiled a 56-19 advantage in winners, including 18 aces. He broke Mischa three times.
The Zverevs could have been just the third pair of brothers to reach the round of 16 at the same major in the 50-year Open era. Gene and Sandy Mayer did it at Wimbledon in 1979, and Emilio and Javier Sanchez followed suit at the 1991 U.S. Open.
Alexander, who is seeded No. 2 at Roland Garros, won his third-round match Friday.
Anderson is into the fourth round in Paris for the fourth time; he’s never made it past that stage. He’ll next face No. 11 seed Diego Schwartzman, a 7-5, 6-3, 6-3 winner against Borna Coric.