Highlights - Nadal sees off Hewitt French Open
Venue: Roland Garros, Paris Date: 23 May-6 June
Coverage: Live video streamed from 1000 BST on BBC Sport website (UK only) and BBC red button; commentary on BBC 5 live sports extra; also live on Eurosport; text commentary on BBC Sport website Details of BBC coverage Second seed Rafael Nadal made comfortable progress into the French Open fourth round with a 6-3 6-4 6-3 win over Australia's Lleyton Hewitt. The Spaniard, who has won the event in four of his five appearances, will next face Brazil's Thomasz Bellucci. USA's Andy Roddick became the biggest seed to fall so far as he lost 6-4 6-4 6-2 to qualifier Teimuraz Gabashvili. Spain's David Ferrer suffered a surprise defeat to Jurgen Melzer, but Novak Djokovic beat Victor Hanescu. Although short of his best form and occasionally outworked by a tenacious Hewitt, Nadal recovered from losing his opening service game to win in two hours and 28 minutes. "When I was at home I always watched Lleyton on TV and he was one of my idols, so playing against him now is always a pleasure," said Nadal. But despite his dominance in Paris, Nadal insists he still has a long way to go before he can be compared to world number one Roger Federer.  | 606: DEBATE |
"If someone says I'm better than Roger, I think they know nothing about tennis," he said. "You see his titles, you see my titles. There's no comparison. "It's difficult to compare Roger with me right now. He has 16 Grand Slams, I have six. Roger's records might be impossible to beat." In contrast to Nadal's record, the best Roddick has managed in eight appearances in Paris is a last-16 defeat by Gael Monfils in 2009. The 27-year-old never looked like reaching that stage this time around. "I got outplayed from the first ball," said Roddick. "He has pretty big swings and gets good length on the ball. I'm a little shorter and wasn't able to penetrate the court quite as well. "He was getting in control of the rallies most of the day." As Gabashvili secured the crucial break in the seventh game of the opening set, Roddick's frustration boiled over as he threw his racket towards his entourage. But the American could not rouse himself to respond and a single break proved enough for Gabashvili in the second as well. Roddick, who was involved in several tense exchanges with the umpire, then conceded his first two service games of the third as another early departure from the tournament was sealed.  Roddick was comprehensively beaten in the day's opening men's match |
Gabashvili will hope to add 22nd seed Melzer to his scalps when they meet in the fourth round. The last 16 is also unchartered territory for the Austrian whose 6-4 6-0 7-6 (7-1) win over clay-court specialist Ferrer took him beyond the third round for the first time. The winner of their encounter could play Djokovic in the quarter-finals after the Serbian third seed briefly wobbled before battling through 6-3 3-6 6-3 6-2 against Romania's Hanescu. First Djokovic has to negotiate USA's Robby Ginepri who beat former world number one Juan Carlos Ferrero 7-5 6-3 3-6 6-2. It was the second successive early exit for the Spanish 16th seed Ferrero who was was beaten in straight sets by Colombian world number Santiago Giraldo at the Rome Masters in April. There was no such problem for Ferrero's countryman Fernando Verdasco who recovered from losing the opening set to overhaul Germany's Philipp Kohlschreiber 2-6 6-3 6-3 7-6 (7-1). Brazil's Bellucci, who has scored notable wins over John Isner and Fernando Gonzalez already this season, added Croatian 14th seed Ivan Ljubicic to the list with a 7-6 (7-4) 6-2 6-4 win. Elsewhere Spain's Nicolas Almagro eased past Ukraine's Alexandr Dologopolov 6-3 6-3 6-4, after 11th seeded Russian Mikhail Youzhny had beaten Viktor Troicki 2-6 7-6 (7-4) 6-2 6-3. Britain's Ross Hutchins' mixed doubles campaign came to an end as he and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova were beaten by the fifth seeded pair of Alisa Kleybanova and Max Mirnyi.
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