French Open 2011: Novak Djokovic beats Juan Martin del Potro for his 42nd straight win and advances to the 4th round of the French Open
2nd-seed Novak Djokovic beat No. 25 Juan Martin del Potro 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 Saturday in the French Open’s third round to stretch his winning streak to 42 matches.
The match was suspended because of darkness after the second set Friday night.
Djokovic is 40-0 in 2011, the second-best start to a season in the Open era, which began in 1968. He also won his last two matches of 2010, making his overall run tied for the third-longest, behind Guillermo Vilas’ record of 46 in a row in 1977.
Bidding for his third Grand Slam title — and first at Roland Garros — Djokovic will play No. 13 Richard Gasquet of France next.
Del Potro was a French Open semifinalist in 2009, and won the U.S. Open later that year.
Rafael Nadal breezed into the fourth round, regaining his dominant form by dispatching Croatian qualifier Antonio Veic 6-1, 6-3, 6-0.
The five-time champion at Roland Garros needed five sets to win his opening match, and was then pushed to tiebreaker in the deciding third set of his next match.
But against Veic, Nadal had only 18 unforced errors and managed to break his opponent nine times.
Andy Murray also moved into the next round despite an injury scare in the second set when he twisted his right ankle.
He eventually beat Michael Berrer 6-2, 6-3, 6-2.
Nadal has been dominant at Roland Garros since his debut in 2005, when he won the first of four straight titles. His only loss at the clay-court Grand Slam came in 2009, when he was defeated by Robin Soderling in the fourth round.
But Nadal started off slowly this year, needing five sets to beat John Isner. In the second round, Nadal looked shaky in defeating Pablo Andujar 7-5, 6-3, 7-6 (4).
On Court Suzanne Lenglen, Murray was playing Berrer when he twisted his right ankle and dropped to the ground in pain.
The fourth-seeded Brit called for a trainer and had his ankle taped before returning to the court and breaking his German opponent on the next point.
Murray will next play Viktor Troicki of Serbia, who beat No. 21 Alexandr Dolgopolov of Ukraine 6-4, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4.
Source: ESPN
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