Fifth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas marched into the French Open third round on Wednesday with a 6-3, 6-4, 6-3 victory over Spaniard Pedro Martinez, while Alexander Zverev booked his spot in the third round for for the fourth straight year.
The German sixth seed, a two-time quarter-finalist, trailed 1-3 in the second and third sets but saw off Russian qualifier Roman Safiullin 7-6 (7/4), 6-3, 7-6 (7/1).
Kei Nishikori reached the third round having won back-to-back five-setters over a total of eight hours on court and admitted: “I feel like I’ve played five matches already.”
The 31-year-old needed four hours to see off Russian 23rd seed Karen Khachanov 4-6, 6-2, 2-6, 6-4, 6-4 on Court Philippe Chatrier. In the first round, he also needed four hours to beat Italian qualifier Alessandro Giannessi.
The three-time quarter-finalist set a last-32 encounter with Swiss qualifier Henri Laaksonen.
Tsitsipas, who lost an epic semi-final at Roland Garros to Novak Djokovic last year, next…