ROLAND GARROS Day Three Men’s Singles: Rafael Nadal makes Easy Work of Sam Groth

After two rain-interrupted days, the third day at the French Open was relatively uneventful far as the weather was concerned, even as the matches provided plenty of entertainment.

Nine-time former champion and world no. 5 Rafael Nadal won his first round match against Sam Groth in a thumping fashion. Nadal lost just three games before clinching victory off the Australian’s serve in the seventh game of the final set. The manner of Nadal’s win will not only boost the Spaniard’s confidence, but will also substantiate his status as one of the favourites to regain back much coveted trophy. Nadal was at his dominant best and there wasn’t much that Groth could do. A telling statistic of the match was that Nadal had only three unforced errors for the entirety of the match to Groth’s total of 28 unforced errors. Second seed Andy Murray came back from behind two sets to finally get his first round win over qualifier Radek Stepanek. The first round match-up billed as one of the opening round ‘thrillers’ lived up to the billing especially as the Scot, second favourite to win the title here after his recent exploits on clay, looked out of sorts against the wily veteran. But Murray’s rebounding into the match began in the third set, and as Stepanek showed signs of fatigue, Murray pocketed the third set 6-0. Bad light halted play on Monday evening with Murray leading 4-2 in the fourth set. On Tuesday, the Scot continued on with his momentum and saving three break points in the eighth game went on to win the set and level the match at two sets apiece. The final set saw both players play brilliantly, but in the 11th game it was the 37-year old, who blinked first giving Murray a much-needed break to try and serve for the match. It wasn’t however an easy consolidation for the match for the 2015 semi-finalist, though he will be glad to have escaped a first round ouster. Earlier, seventh seed Tomas Berdych …

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