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PARIS: Roger Federer cruised into the French Open second round
Monday while rival and triple champion Rafael Nadal was left kicking
his heels in the locker room as torrential rain swamped Roland
Garros.
The world number one then had the unexpected
bonus of seeing potential quarterfinal landmine Richard Gasquet pull
out of the tournament because of a knee injury.
Top seed Federer, still missing a Roland Garros
title from his collection of 12 Grand Slam trophies, saw off
America’s world number 40 Sam Querrey 6-4, 6-4, 6-3 and will now
face either Spain’s Albert Montanes or close friend Kristof
Vliegen of Belgium for a place in the last 32.
Frustratingly for Nadal, the heavy rain, which
eventually allowed just 26 of the day’s scheduled 58 matches to be
completed, arrived just as he was preparing to come on court to
tackle Brazilian qualifier Thomaz Bellucci.
Nadal is hoping to make history by joining Bjorn
Borg as the only four-in-a-row winner of the men’s title.
The second seeded Spaniard comes into Roland
Garros boasting a perfect record of 21 wins in 21 matches here and
an intimidating run of 108 wins in 110 claycourt outings since April
2005.
He has also defeated Federer in the last two
finals.
Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis, the 17th seed who
spent his formative years in Paris, was knocked out 6-2, 6-4, 6-2 by
Italy’s Simone Bolelli, who goes on to face Argentina’s Juan
Martin del Potro.
Guillermo Coria, the 2004 runner-up who is
slowly trying to rebuild his career after a year on the sidelines
because of a shoulder injury, gave Spanish 12th seed Tommy Robredo a
scare when he took the first set.
But Robredo, three times a quarterfinalist,
eventually wrapped up a 5-7, 6-4, 6-1, 6-4 win and will next face
either Serbia’s Victor Troiki or Marc Gicquel of France.
Coria’s fellow Argentine Guillermo Canas, the
29th seed, was also beaten losing 7-6 (8/6), 7-6 (7/5), 7-6 (10/8)
to American wildcard Wayne Odesnik.
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