• French Open, Day Three

Nadal takes risk in returning to pink

ESPN staff
May 29, 2012

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Men's round-up: Nadal does the job
Murray eventually puts Ito away
Watson wins opening bout with Vesnina
Women's round-up: Maria wins every game

Day Two Gallery
What They Said

Elementary, my dear Watson
Heather Watson became the first British woman in a whole year to make the second round of the French Open, after, er, Heather Watson won in the first round 12 months ago. The 20-year-old is quickly showing herself to be an adept clay court player, and could yet cause an upset against Julia Goerges in their second round meeting. Regardless, the Guernsey girl could be inside the world's top 100 by the time Wimbledon rolls around.

The pink panther
Rafael Nadal kicked off his defence of the French Open title wearing a rather garish pink number - although we guess when you are that good on clay you can pretty much wear what you want (cue ladies everywhere screaming: "No top! How about no top!?!?"). But maybe it was the colour of the clay we should all have been focusing on - having failed to get to grips with the blue stuff used at the Madrid Masters, Nadal was right at home on the reddish stuff.

As Nadal gets so caught up in the colour of things, however, a note of caution - the last time Nadal wore pink at Roland Garros, in 2009, he suffered his only ever defeat in the event. A bad omen?

Double-bagel
Maria Sharapova is one of the favourites to walk away with the women's trophy come next Saturday - to be fair, that's usually the case with second seeds - and she underlined her credentials with a 6-0 6-0 victory over Romania's Alexandra Cadantu. Perhaps surprisingly, it's only the second time she has 'double-bagelled' an opponent at a grand slam - she inflicted the same pain on Beatrice Capra in the third round of the 2010 US Open.

Cadantu, however, is either a remarkably sporting person or has a perverse enjoyment of pain. Asked about the experience afterwards, she said: "I enjoyed it a lot."

Junior, senior
Question: Who do you think would win in a match - the winner of the Wimbledon senior title, or the winner of the Wimbledon junior title? If you said 'senior', it seems you would be right - on Tuesday, the 2011 SW19 champion Petra Kvitova easily dealt with the All England Club junior champion of the same year, Ashleigh Barty. So now you know.

Olympic dreams, so hard to achieve
Anne Keothavong could not match compatriot Watson to make it into the second round of the competition - the fourth such failure in a row - but the defeat, an emphatic loss to the lower-ranked Melinda Czink, came with a further blow. The result means Keothavong remains behind Elena Baltacha in the race for Britain's one wildcard for London 2012, as she runs out of time in her bid to visit Wimbledon twice this summer.

Sneaking up on the blindside
We demand to know how Tatsuma Ito, Andy Murray's unfortunate opponent on Tuesday, is ranked at No. 68 in the world. Not just because - to put it bluntly - the Japanese produced two woeful sets of tennis on Tuesday, but also because he hardly ever seems to reach the later rounds of ATP Tour events. Does the ATP have a glitch in the system?!

A tearful exit
You had to wonder where Serena Williams' head was at during her first-round match with Virginie Razzano. Tipped as one of the tournament favourites, Williams looked on course for a straight-sets victory when she led 5-1 in the second-set tiebreaker. However, when Razzano won six straight points to force the match into a decider, Williams returned to her stool... and began to cry! Defeat followed, but only after Razzano had wasted seven match points.

An incredible match!

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