Tennis – French Open: World number one Rafael Nadal stitched up a straightforward 6-1 6-3 6-1 victory over Lleyton Hewitt to keep on track his bid for a record fifth consecutive Paris Open crown. What had on paper looked like a interesting third-round match quickly became a drab affair as the Australian former world number one put up little resistance.
Nadal pocketed the first set in half an hour when the Australian netted a backhand before taking an early break in the second. Hewitt briefly fought back with his own break in the fourth game of the second before letting Nadal regain control.
Nadal's pink shirt and yellow sweatbands were the match's main bright spots as former Wimbledon and U.S. Open champion Hewitt seemed resigned to his fate from the outset, going out to an ace after one hour and 51 minutes.
Andy Murray plans to go deep into the tournament after being given an easy ride into the fourth round this evening.
The British number one was ahead 7/6 (7/3) 6-3 in his round-three match against Janko Tipsarevic when the Serb retired with what he has confirmed as an injury to his right hamstring.
Tipsarevic, who has now withdrawn because of injury in five of his 21 Grand Slams, revealed after the match he first felt problems at the start of the first set, even though he went 5-2 up in that opener.
Murray, who takes on 13th seed Marin Cilic next, will not care a jot. He is now in uncharted territory at Roland Garros, the best previous performance here coming last year when he was eliminated in the third round by Spaniard Nicolas Almagro, and he plans to go much further.
Earlier in the day, a tortured and tormented Venus Williams whimpered out of the women’s singles while Portuguese teenager Michelle Larcher de Brito made a very noisy departure from the big stage.
After labouring through her first match, surviving a match point in the second, American third seed Williams was finally put out of her misery in the third round when she was tossed out by rising Hungarian Agnes Szavay 6-0 6-4.
But the tournament's first real shock could not match the commotion created by a 16-year-old grand slam debutante.
Fans scrambled for their earplugs at Roland Garros when the decibel level went up several notches before France's Aravane Rezai finally silenced Larcher de Brito 7-6 6-2.
While Larcher de Brito deafened fans, top seed Dinara Safina and Serbs Ana Ivanovic and Novak Djokovic made serene progress.
Russian Safina set up a last-16 date with Rezai by thundering past teenage compatriot Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-2 6-0 and holder Ivanovic pulled off an equally emphatic 6-0 6-2 drubbing of Czech Iveta Benesova.