• French Open, Day Six

Nadal marches on in Paris

Rafael Nadal had his serve broken once, but it was a rare blip © Getty Images

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Women's round-up: Day six
Day six gallery

Rafael Nadal breezed into the third round of the French Open with an impressive 6-2 6-2 6-3 win over Horacio Zeballos.

Zeballos is a decent tool on clay, but Nadal is on a different plane to most tennis players and the Argentine was simply overwhelmed.

The world No. 44 made a bright start, hitting clean winners on the backhand wing, but Nadal quickly asserted himself and secured a break in the fourth game.

Zeballos adopted drop shots as a tactic against the Spaniard with some success, but Nadal found a way to counter to take the opening set.

Nadal survived a break point early in the second set and Zeballos was made to pay as the No. 2 seed upped the tempo to reel off five games on the spin to extend his advantage.

The Spaniard sensed a quick win and a cracked backhand down the line set up three break points at the start of the third set and a whipped crosscourt forehand secured the break.

Such was Nadal's dominance, Zeballos resorted to winning points by hitting the ball down into his own half of the court. A drop shot went horribly wrong and came off the frame straight down before creeping over the net - but the umpire did not spot the infringement.

Zeballos secured a break to cut the deficit to 4-3 and get back on serve, but it proved only a brief respite as a wretched game from the Argentine handed Nadal an immediate break back and he wrapped up the match on his own serve.

Roger Federer produced some sublime play at times in his 6-4 6-0 6-4 win over Julian Reister. Reister kept Federer honest for eight games, but the Swiss star turned it on in game nine and duly broke to love as his opponent dumped a backhand volley into the net and he went on to wrap up the set.

The No. 1 seed raced through the second set to love, driving Reister mad at times with his subtle angle changes, and he secured a break in the third before keeping his rival at bay. Federer proved he is human by serving a double fault at match point, but he quickly regrouped and a forehand winner sealed victory.

Federer will face No. 20 seed Stanislas Wawrinka next in an all-Swiss clash. Warwrinka's appearence in the fourth round at Roland Garros will be the first of his career.

Lleyton Hewitt was pushed all the way by Denis Istomin before sealing his place in the third round © Getty Images

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2006 semi-finalist Ivan Ljubicic had to battle back from the jaws of defeat more than once against Mardy Fish but held on to secure a 6-2 6-7(8) 4-6 6-2 10-8 win. The Croat will face fellow seed Thomaz Bellucci in the third round. The Brazilian was also forced to work hard as Pablo Anduiar pushed him all the way in a five-set thriller.

Spain has a strong hand at the French Open and 2003 champion Juan Carlo Ferrero, David Ferrer and Nicolas Almagro all proved this by powering through with the minimum of fuss.

Novak Djokovic could be a major obstacle for Nadal to overcome and the Serb showed his class with a 6-1 6-4 6-4 win over an admittedly limited Kei Nishikori. The Serb will face No. 31 seed Victor Hanescu next. The Romanian sealed his progress with a comfortable 6-3 6-4 6-2 win over Yuri Schikin.

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga put the Philippe Chatrier crowd through the ringer as he lost the first set against Holland's Thiemo De Bakker. The 18th seed had enough in the locker though to turn things around and eventually got the job done, winning 6-7(6) 7-6(4) 6-3 6-4.

Last year's losing finalist Robin Soderling also lost a set in his third-round match with Albert Montanes but always had the measure of his Spanish opponent as he recorded a 6-4 7-5 2-6 6-3 win. Soderling will have to beat the highly-rated Marin Cillic to continue his run after the Croatian right-hander beat Argentina's Leonardo Mayer in five sets.

There was a major shock on Friday as the No. 12 seed and classy clay-court operator Fernando Gonzalez was toppled 6-3 6-4 6-3 by rising star Oleksandr Dolgopolov Jr.

Lleyton Hewitt nearly joined Gonzalez in making a premature exit, but he battled through in five against Denis Istomin 1-6 6-3 6-4 2-6 6-2.

No. 7 seed Fernando Verdasco continued his fine clay-court season by ousting Florent Serra 6-2 6-2 0-6 6-4 to secure a third-round clash with Philipp Kohlschreiber, who defeated Andreas Seppi 7-6(5) 6-3 7-5.

Jurgen Melzer broke French hearts when he sent Nicolas Mahut out of the tournament on home soil. The No. 22 seed was entirely dominant behind his serve, winning close to 80% of the points on his first delivery.

No. 15 seed Tomas Berdych dropped five games as he downed John Isner in straight sets to set up a fourth-round encounter with Andy Murray, while Robby Ginepri showed his quality as he recovered from losing the first set to surprise Potito Starace 3-6 6-4 6-3 6-3.

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