French Open: Nadal and Federer see off qualifiers

Eleven-time champion Rafael Nadal and 20-time Grand Slam winner Roger Federer both saw off German qualifiers to reach round three at the French Open on Wednesday.

The pair were joined by Greek sixth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas, Japanese seventh seed Kei Nishikori and Stan Wawrinka.

The 114th-ranked Yannick Maden broke Nadal twice in a fiercely contested third set before eventually succumbing 6-1 6-2 6-4 in two hours and nine minutes.

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“It was a good match for the first two sets. Not unbelievable, but with positive feelings. Then in the third I think I lost a little bit of concentration and intensity. And then the match became difficult. That’s all,” Nadal said.

“That’s just about concentration, my feeling, because the feeling on the match had been positive. Positive thing is every time that I had the mistake, then I had the break again, and that’s the good news.”

Flawless Federer ????@rogerfederer manages a 6-4 6-3 6-4 win against Oscar Otte to reach his 15th Roland-Garros 3R.#RG19 pic.twitter.com/9jGQaKLi8b

— Roland-Garros (@rolandgarros) May 29, 2019

Nadal’s victory raised his astonishing Roland Garros record to 88-2 and set up a third-round date with Belgian 27th seed David Goffin, a 6-2 6-4 6-3 winner over Serbia’s Miomir Kecmanovic.

Shortly afterwards German lucky loser Oscar Otte refused to be intimidated by the packed 15,000-seat centre court or Federer’s aura, the world No.114 impressing with huge groundstrokes and big serves before losing 6-4 6-3 6-4.

The Swiss great, back at the tournament for the first time since 2015, broke once in the deciding stage of each set to progress into the last 32 against Norway’s Casper Ruud.

“I didn’t know his game at all. It was very complicated. I am very relieved,” Federer said in an on-court interview.

Meanwhile, Tsitsipas beat Bolivian Hugo Dellien 4-6 6-0 6-3 7-5 to become the first Greek man to reach the French Open third round since 1967.

The sixth seed, tipped as the youngster most likely to have a title run this year, said the surface of the Court Simonne Mathieu felt slow, forcing him to engage in long rallies with a player well grooved in the art of grinding it out on the dirt.

Nishikori shook off a slow start to topple local favourite Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 4-6 6-4 6-4 6-4, while 2015 champion Wawrinka recorded an impressive 6-1 6-4 6-0 win over Chile’s Cristian Garin.

Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov came from a set behind to outlast 11th seed Marin Cilic 6-7(3) 6-4 4-6 7-6(2) 6-3 in their heavyweight clash.