A lack of sunshine, inferior opponents in his face and now a rant at the French Open schedule – things are not going as planned for defending champion Rafa Nadal despite a belated second-round victory at Roland Garros on Friday.
The Spaniard finally got his challenge for a record eighth title moving again after being bogged down by dismal weather, seeing off Slovakia’s Martin Klizan after being outplayed for a set, but the 26-year-old was not happy.
Women's champion Maria Sharapova needed only 15 minutes on a cool, but mercifully dry, Chatrier Court as she polished off her second-round opponent Eugenie Bouchard having been a set and 4-2 ahead when rain stopped play on Thursday.
Top seed Serena Williams is making rapid headway and moved into the fourth round with a 6-0 6-2 crushing of Romanian Sorana Cirstea. The American has dropped a mere six games so far and her winning streak now stands at 27 matches.
“Every slam is really my priority,” said the 15-times major winner but only once French Open champion. “I would love to win this one, but there is still a lot of people in the draw that would love to win this tournament.”
Nadal's clash with Klizan was one of several second-round matches from the top half of the men's draw which is lagging behind the bottom half occupied by second seed Roger Federer, who remained untroubled with a win against Julien Benneteau.
Federer needed only 90 minutes to win 6-3 6-4 7-5 having taken the match by the scruff of the neck with a burst of 14 straight points towards the end of the opening set.
Nadal labelled the tournament’s schedule “a joke” after being forced to play catch-up after his match against Klizan was rained off the previous day.
“Today I was playing almost three hours on court, and my opponent was watching the TV in the locker room,” he said after a 4-6 6-3 6-3 6-3 victory set up a tricky third round against Fabio Fognini, who won his second round match a day earlier.
“I can only smile and try to win my match and try to be ready for tomorrow. But that’s not the right thing and I hope they accept the mistake.”
Nadal, who said he lacked “motivation” in a poor first set against fellow left-hander Klizan, was particularly annoyed that Fognini had been scheduled to play Lukas Rosol after one very brief women’s singles match on rain-hit Thursday while he kicked his heels waiting for a men’s and a women’s tie to complete.
“The excuse they told me was because Rosol had to play doubles. I am sorry, but that’s a joke,” he said.
Including Friday, Nadal, who still plays with tape on his suspect knee after months out, will have to win six matches in 10 days to become the first man to win the same Grand Slam title eight times.
Sympathy was in short supply from Federer who has been immaculate so far, dropping no sets in three rounds and only 26 games en route to the last 16 where he will play either France’s Gilles Simon or American Sam Querrey.
“Either you’re lucky or you’re not sometimes,” said Federer, who has avoided the worst of the gloomy Paris weather. “But then I understand that he’s frustrated. That’s comprehensible. He would like to play the second day like any other day. But 50 per cent of the players couldn’t play.”
There is a growing perception that Nadal is vulnerable against opponents who go for broke and Klizan did just that, rattling the Mallorcan with some mighty ground strokes on his way to taking the first set with a single break of serve.
For a while Klizan looked as though he might have reason to finish the tattoo on his right calf.
“It’s not finished because I am waiting for some big moments in my life,” the 23-year-old Slovak said.
After dropping the first set in lacklustre fashion, Nadal responded to win the next three although it was never comfortable and he has yet to catch fire on the damp clay.
It was a good day for seeded men with number four David Ferrer moving under the radar into the last 16 by seeing off fellow Spaniard Feliciano Lopez while sixth seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga beat fellow Frenchman Jeremy Chardy.
Janko Tipsarevic (8), Tommy Haas (12), John Isner (19), Jerzy Janowicz (21) and Mikhail Youzhny (29) all won delayed second-round matches. Germany’s Haas, still a class act at 35, put a hole in the American challenge when he picked apart 20-year-old qualifier Jack Sock in straight sets.
Isner won an all-American clash with Ryan Harrison, coming back from two sets down to win 8-6 in the fifth – a year to the day after losing in five sets to local favourite Paul-Henri Mathieu in a 76-game epic.
Last year’s women’s runner-up Sara Errani maintained her impressive form, the Italian fifth seed overcoming Germany’s Sabine Lisicki for the loss of four games.
A round back, another Italian, 2010 champion Francesca Schiavone, showed she is still a force on clay by knocking out Belgium 21st seed Kirsten Flipkens.
