You are here: Home > Sports >

Watchful: Spain’s Rafael Nadal is all concentration against Italy’s Flavio Cipolla during the French Open second round yesterday PARIS: Twice champion Spain’s Rafael Nadal showed no mercy on Italian qualifier Flavio Cipolla, sweeping him aside 6-2, 6-1, 6-4 to reach the third round of the French Open yesterday. World No 2 Nadal, attempting to become the first man to win three successive titles at Roland Garros since Bjorn Borg in 1980, was in control straight away, opening up a 3-0 lead in the first set. One-sided Leading 5-1, the Spaniard was then broken, but he underlined his determination by capturing Cipolla’s serve immediately to take the set in 34 minutes. The second set was even more one-sided, Nadal going 3-1 up. A superb cross-court forehand winner on the first ended Cipolla’s suffering in a one-sided contest that laster under two hours. “I was not able to play my best tennis but it was a good warm-up,” Nadal said after the match. Getting better “I’m playing better and better every day and I’ll fight every day a bit more,” he added. “There’s only one way you can eliminate pressure and that’s by playing well.”  Important results: Men’s singles Marcos Baghdatis bt Kristian Pless 7-5, 6-3, 6-4 Lleyton Hewitt bt Gaston Gaudio 4-6, 3-6, 6-2, 6-4, 6-2 Carlos Moya bt Florent Serra 6-4, 6-2, 6-4 Women’s singles Maria Sharapova bt Jill Craybas 6-2, 6-1 Serena Williams bt Milagros Sequera 6-0, 7-6 (7/3)