French Open 2016: Thursday Results, Highlights, Scores Recap from Roland Garros

Tennis’ biggest stars continue to dominate the proceedings at the 2016 French Open as Serena Williams, Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal headlined a high-profile group of players who cruised into the third round during Thursday’s action.  

There were no major upsets during the second half of Round 2. The highest seed to get eliminated from either draw was No. 20 Bernard Tomic on the men’s side, and his defeat by Croatian rising star Borna Coric wouldn’t even qualify as a minor surprise.

So let’s check out the complete list of mostly chalk results from Roland Garros. That’s followed by a recap of the day’s top storylines and a quick glance toward Friday’s action.

Men’s Draw Recap

While it’s impossible to draw any definitive conclusions from the first two matches at a major, the signs from Nadal are highly encouraging. He’s brushed aside Sam Groth and Facundo Bagnis, dropping just nine combined games in the process.

He’s always the most dangerous on clay, as evidenced by his nine French Open titles, but he failed to advance beyond the third round in a major since last year’s visit to Roland Garros. Those lackluster results raised questions about his ability to contend on the sport’s biggest stages.

Those concerns are fading away with each convincing victory. He won 55 percent of the points when receiving serve and registered just 18 unforced errors in the blowout of Bagnis. Both numbers suggest his trademark clay-court defense is getting back on track.

The win marked his 200th in Grand Slam events, but he said afterward that there’s still room for improvement if he wants to contend for another title, per Ravi Ubha of CNN.

“I need to keep playing better if I want to have chances in the next rounds,” Nadal said. “I know there are still things I can improve, so I’m still practicing and working on them.”

Djokovic has also moved through to the third round without dropping a set. Steve Darcis did challenge him in the first set Thursday, but the Serbian sensation came up with a timely break and avoided any further drama.

It wasn’t the cleanest match for the top seed, who finished with 29 winners and 42 unforced errors, but he was able to create constant pressure on Darcis’ serve. He generated 12 break points and converted five by overpowering the veteran Belgian.

Like Nadal, it was a milestone triumph for Djokovic, as noted by the International Tennis Federation:

Djokovic becomes 3rd player in the Open Era to record 50 wins at all 4 majors after Federer & …

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