A quick look at the French Open:
Friday’s Winners
Seeded winners in the men’s third round: No. 2 Novak Djokovic, No. 4 Rafael Nadal, No. 5 Milos Raonic, No. 6 Dominic Thiem, No. 17 Roberto Bautista Agut, No. 19 Albert Ramos-Vinolas, No. 20 Pablo Carreno Busta.
Seeded winners in the women’s third round: No. 4 Garbine Muguruza, No. 8 Svetlana Kuznetsova, No. 10 Venus Williams, No. 13 Kristina Mladenovic, No. 23 Sam Stosur, No. 30 Timea Bacsinszky.
Friday’s Losers
Seeded losers in the men’s third round: No. 10 David Goffin, No. 11 Grigor Dimitrov, No. 16 Lucas Pouille, No. 25 Steve Johnson.
Seeded losers in the women’s third round: No. 27 Yulia Putintseva, No. 32 Zhang Shuai.
Stat of the Day
1 — Number of games lost by Nadal in his 6-0, 6-1, 6-0 victory over Nikoloz Basilashvili, the fewest in the Spaniard’s 100 career best-of-five-set clay-court matches.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rY2Y_t3gFo
Quote of the Day
“The score is quite embarrassing.” — Basilashvili.
Lookahead to Saturday
The most-anticipated matchup of Day 7 is No. 1 Andy Murray against No. 29 Juan Martin del Potro in a rematch of the final at last year’s Rio Olympics. Murray owns three major championships; del Potro has one. Murray is as supreme a defender as they come; del Potro possesses the most intimidating forehand around these days (although his two-handed backhand is still somewhat problematic, on account of a series of operations on his left wrist). Murray has won six of their previous nine matchups, including for the gold medal in Brazil and their only previous Grand Slam meeting, way back at the 2008 U.S. Open. “It’s a tough match. Not easy third round. He’s, in my opinion, one of the best players in the world, you know, when he’s fit and healthy,” said Murray, the runner-up at Roland Garros a year ago. “But I definitely feel like I’m capable of winning that match. I mean, I’m playing way better than I was two weeks ago.” A couple of other intriguing men’s matches: No. 15 Gael Monfils vs. No. 24 Richard Gasquet in an all-French pairing, and 2015 champion Stan Wawrinka vs. No. 28 Fabio Fognini.
