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Roland Garros: Nadal, Muguruza Cruise Into Round-Of-16

Jun 2nd 2017

Nine-time Roland Garros champion Rafael Nadal and defending champion Garbine Muguruza stormed into the fourth round in Paris on Friday.

Nadal served notice that it will take an exceptional performance to prevent him from winning his 10th French Open title as he rolled past Nikoloz Basilashvili 6-0, 6-1, 6-0. In the near flawless match, Nadal gave up just one game in the hour 90-minute encounter.

Once again, the Spaniard’s forehand led the way, wreaking havoc to the Georgian’s game. Basilashvili struck just 5 winners to 34 unforced errors in the match.

Rafael Nadal

Nadal wasn’t ready to label the match as perfect, however. “Perfection? I don’t know about that,” he said. “I think I played very well today. The most important thing is to be through and I played my best match in a while.”

The veteran turns 31 on Saturday and mentioned that he did have birthday plans. “Tomorrow at 8.45 I'm going to be in front of the TV for sure supporting my team, hoping that Real Madrid will win another time”, he said.

Basilashvili had no advice for future opponents of Nadal afterward, “He is playing unbelievably good at this moment with everything. So, I don't know what advice I can give,” he said. “I cannot go into the locker room and stay in there and not come out. The score is quite embarrassing, you know, but I have to accept it.”

Nadal will face fellow Spaniard and 17-seed Roberto Bautista Agut in the round-of-16.

Meanwhile, the defending champion in the women’s draw Garbine Muguruza, cruised through to the fourth round with a 7-5, 6-2 win over Yulia Putintseva on Philippe-Chatrier Court.

Garbine Muguruza

The Spaniard, who conceded that she was not very confident entering Paris, took a positive stride towards defending her title on Friday. The match was competitive early but the four-seed broke Putintseva’s serve three times in the second set to take a stranglehold on the match. Muguruza won 73 percent of her first serves on the day.

“I'm happy I went out there without any kind of fear,” Muguruza said. “I wanted the match. I tried to just do what I had to do and keep that during the whole match.”

The win sets up an interesting fourth-round match against Kristina Mladenovic who came back to defeat American Shelby Rogers 7-5, 4-6, 8-6. Mladenovic, who was picked as a dark horse in the tournament by many, will have the home crowd behind her with a spot in the quarterfinals at stake.