Rafael Nadal is through to the French Open third round following two routine victories, and he will try to engineer more of the same against Nikoloz Basilashvili on Friday. Grigor Dimitrov and Pablo Carreno Busta are also in action.
Nikoloz Basilashvili vs. (4) Rafael Nadal
Nadal’s 2016 French Open campaign ended abruptly prior to the third round, but that exit was beyond his control. Rather than losing, the nine-time champion was felled by a wrist injury that also kept him out of Wimbledon. Now, Nadal has once again produced straight-set beatdowns in each of his first two matches and will look to progress farther–much farther–in the draw than he did last year. The fourth-ranked Spaniard improved to 74-2 lifetime at Roland Garros and 19-1 on clay this season with a 6-1, 6-4, 6-1 victory over Benoit Paire and 6-1, 6-4, 6-3 rout of Robin Haase.
Up next for Nadal on Friday is a first-ever showdown against Basilashvili. The Georgian has already equaled his previous Grand Slam match win total in his entire career (two, both at Wimbledon in 2013) by beating Gilles Simon in four sets and Viktor Troicki in three straight tiebreakers. In his only other comparable major matchup, and only other one against anyone in the top 15, Basilashvili got blown out by Roger Federer 6-2, 6-1, 6-2 at the 2016 Australian Open. An improved world No. 63 should be slightly more competitive in this one, but he is also unlikely to close to stealing a set.
Pick: Nadal in 3 losing 8-10 games
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(20) Pablo Carreno Busta vs. (11) Grigor Dimitrov
Dimitrov and Carreno Busta will be squaring off for the fourth time in their careers at the ATP level on Friday. Carreno Busta leads the head-to-head series 2-1, avenging a 2014 Madrid loss by prevailing once in both 2015 (Paris Masters) and 2016 (Madrid). Although they have split their two previous clay-court encounters, the surface is obviously more advantageous to Carreno Busta. Five of his six career ATP finals and two of his three titles have come on the red stuff, a surface on which he has earned 19 of his 25 match victories in 2017. Carreno Busta booked his spot in the last 32 this fortnight with a straight-set blowout of Florian Mayer and a four-set win at the expense of Taro Daniel.
Although Dimitrov is not exactly a pushover on clay, he has to be satisfied already with a third-round performance at Roland Garros. After all, the 13th-ranked Bulgarian had previously been 3-6 lifetime at this tournament with three consecutive first-round exits. He brought a four-match French Open losing streak into this year’s event, a stretch that saw him go 2-12 in total sets. So far this week, however, Dimitrov has not dropped a single set or even been pushed to a tiebreaker while taking out Stephane Robert and Tommy Robredo. This time, though, he not facing opponent well past his prime. On the contrary, Carreno Busta playing the best tennis of his life and feels right at home on this particular surface.
Pick: Carreno Busta in 4
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Wow! Well deserved set for Diego! What a fighter he is!
mira just leaving you a message as i dropped in for a moment.
hope you are really well honey.
take good care!! xx
ps saw rafa play today and against haase. i thought he was amazing. haven’t seen him hit his forehand like that since forever.
Amy!!!!You’re here!!!Hahahha…so happy to ‘hear’ from u!!!….How r u amy??Okay??
Sorry!..late to reply amy!!…Btw i’m okay amy!..Just missed u so d@#$ much!!!hahaha!…About rafa…oh well!…Thank God so much for all that we’ve already seen this CC season….Hopefully this wonderful moment will last forever!!Hehehe…Really miss u amy!!
glad you’re ok mira. although rafa has been incredible i won’t get ahead of myself as i am very superstitious. he’s a joy to watch right now.
missed you too mira.
Yeah!!Me too amy!!…I actually really afraid with this all talk about he may win his la Decima…My personal experience,if we’re get too excited about something..it usually end up with the not so happy news at the end….I really hope Rafa can win tho…and nothing happen to him for days to come…
am exactly the same mira. i never ever count my chickens before they are hatched!! there’s a nice animal metaphor for you!!!
never really understand why people say they are sure someone is going to win as it’s such a horrible letdown if they end up losing.
Amy!!Hahaha..cow,chicken!…i’m fine with it amy!!..But..oh my God!If it’s really happen i will go your house and will hug and kiss u senseless!!hahaha…virtualy that is!!hahaha..
yes i remembered your cow story mira!!! thought you would like that one…
Lovely to see you here Amy 😉
i only just dropped in for a moment alison. lovely to see you though. hope you are well alison??
Miss and think of you Amy. Hope you are well.
Just woke up so I missed all the action. Poor Basilashvili only got one game 😉 I though he’d get 3 games.
rc,
You missed one heck of a match with Kiki and Rogers! You were right in your assessment of Rogers. It was a three set battle with Kiki having to come from behind in the third set to get the win. The atmosphere was insane with the crowd urging her on and chanting her name.
What a match! Now Kiki gets Mugu next!
Nny,
Thanks. Can’t wait to see the replay of that battle and find out what happened to my favorite Belgian.
miss you too rc. i’m pretty good thanks. just wrote a satire attacking trump this afternoon. god i hate him.
i’ll be back to talk wta with you soon. was so great to see petra back early and i think she could do well at wimby. really hope so.
Oh really? I’d love to read it, amy!
I’ll be joining a protest march this weekend. There’s so many issues to protest but dropping from the Paris Accord is intolerable. Every day he remains president – democracy is under threat.
Novak appears to be in for a long one with Diego.
bit difficult to show you rc as it’s for publication so i can’t write it out here unfortunately.
there are a lot of protests against trump here as well. i don’t even know what to say about paris. there was a great cover in a german magazine with a picture of the earth saying f*** you to trump. i agree totally that democracy is under threat and the whole gop pretty much is utterly venial and craven.
miss talking to you rc.
Please ignore Mary, amy.
yeah amy…Just deaf your ears to mary’s rant…
mira and rc don’t worry i don’t care what she says.
oh so she’s bashing rc as well now. well rc is class like margot and that’s what drives her mad with envy so not surprising.
Thanks, amy. But I think it was the mutual dislike between Mary and myself was inevitable. And she’s found my weakness ….LOL I’m not smart!
Amy,rc…if we’re not careful..our comments will get deleted by Ricky after this[like a while ago]…So,before that happen..i just wanna say..amy..please come again okay?Don’t mind Mary…there’s plenty of pure soul here who loves to chat and traded comments with u..okay?
mira, we are not misbehaving mary is. she gets away with murder on this site and there is no reason we should put up with it. i will come here to see you again mira…i promise!!! i know you have a pure soul.
I know amy…i just don’t like to see u been treated like this by Mary…i have no idea that someone could hate another human being like Mary…i will wait for your return amy…always will!
it’s because i called her out for her bullying mira. you can’t appease bullies like mary and i don’t think that one should anyway. i lost my temper before because i was ill but i did believe the part in it in which i said that people shouldn’t collaborate with trolls. i do believe that very strongly.
you are the exact reverse as you have such a big heart.
Don’t be back troll queen. The site is better off without vivious Muzz fans posing as Rafa fans.
…vicious Muzz fan
The troll may not enjoy her return though as she will find it difficult to bash Rafa. If anyone here recalls, she was rooting for Delpo to win RG. A passionate fan of Rafa? I think not.
And her real idol is struggling.
#Retribution
Ms know all tells the troll to ignore me. I recall Ms know all also had attacked me viciously in support of the troll
#trollsbandtogether
So what? For me you are the vicious troll – NOT amy!
And when it comes to being a know it all, there’s no one that comes close to you, Mary.
Well good luck in troll land Ms know all.
Troll queen attacked me viciously and then attacked you for not being vicuious enough
#trollsbandtogether
That wasn’t an attack – amy is not capable of the viciousness to which you stoop, Mary.
Amy was right. I had failed to speak out. But no more silence on the matter from me.
rc i am sorry for what i said. i was just ill and very tired or i wouldnt have lost my temper. i know you are a good person. oh and as per above, i think you are smart! and you write really well imo. i studied eng lit at university so that is one thing i do know something about.
Novak needs Pepe in his box lol
Can we take the personal stuff to the non-tennis forum please?
This topic thread is about the Novak/Diego match.
ok, you are right.
Can’t believe Jim Courier is speculating Novak is struggling because Agassi has had to leave
?????!!!!!
Hahaha ?
Please tell me that Jim Courier did not say that!
Promise you. He really did say that 🙂
This is going to be a dogfight
It looks like Diego came to play. This is why I have said that Novak is not back. At 5-5 in the first set, that’s when you have to be mentally focused. You don’t see Novak bailing out with poor drop shots.
Novak may ultimately prevail here, but it could be quite the battle.
Bet Novak is praying hard the rain comes back so play is stopped.
Rafa’s dropped 15 games in 9 sets. that is about 1.6 games per set..
It was about 2.1 games per set at this stage in 2008
???
Novak, here’s a tip – lose the drop shots!
Pretty impressive and encouraging numbers. But Rafa needs to face a real challenge now. Although it’s great of course that he could save so much precious energy during the early stages. And I think his aura is back.
I agree about Rafa needing to face a real challenge now. These guys can’t give Rafa a match. It is good that he has conserved energy in the early rounds.
Love the comment about his aura being back!
Diego comes back from 0-30 to make it 30-30.
Now break point for Novak.
They said the rain had picked up.
I think RBA will give Rafa more of a match than he’s had so far.
This is a battle for this service game.
Novak is playing better now.
Novak breaks.
Novak wins the second set.
You can bet your bottom dollar he’ll refuse to play if it does start raining heavily. Last year after arguing with the officials he just turned and walked off the court.
Nole, even when he is in form, is not invincible on clay. He has trained to beat Rafa but there are others who can take him out.
Diego is quite possibly too much for Novak to handle today. This clearly would be so huge a win for him. I know many fans want a Rafole but I don’t mind him losing to Diego. However I see Novak putting in a decent effort – still this could go on and on.
Novak would fight till the end rc…and i still think he will win today…
I don’t think Novak is done here. I agree with MA that Novak will fight to the end.
0-40!!!
When Rafa was struggling in 2015 & 2016 they were beginning to call him ‘arguably, the King of Clay’. Yesterday, Chris Bradnam upgraded him to ‘God of Clay’. 😉 😉 😉
Wow! Diego breaks! He has a chance now to serve for the third set!
What a rally!
Diego struggling here.
Well, if Novak is indeed back, he be able to fight through this battle until the end and figure out a pattern for winning. But I’m not even sure he has the will to make that much of an effort. And this is a huge opportunity for Diego.
Sort of cheering for Diego at this point. Make the stronger man win!
This is unreal! Deuce!
Wow! Diego goes up two sets to one! Novak is going to have to do it in five!
So Diego really wins two sets from Djoko! Djoko will really have to up his game and hope that Diego not keeping up his level.
Diego played some gutsy, fearless tennis to get that third set.
I think Novak will fight to run this. Diego has to stay strong if he wants to get this upset.
Novak will fight to win this! *
Djoko is going to make it a 5 setter.
Diego is running out of steam as expected. Not easy to go toe to toe with Djoko for three or four sets, don’t even need to talk about five sets!
Agree Lucky!..If Diego can stay with Novak in 5th and be able to win it somehow…i will applaud and salute him like he deserves…let’s see how Diego will handle his emotion now…it’s not easy to stay with Novak..even he is in so called slumping mood atm..
Djoko on track to bagel Diego
Riveting battle. Agree Nole will find the way to win . Nevertheless he needs to cut out the errors and not just rely on
Swarz, who has not had that much experiencer of five-setters, fading.
When it comes down to the nitty gritty, the elite players are mentally tougher in tight situations ….
Also Djoko has more stamina.