Business as usual for seeds; Watson ousted

The fifth seed is regarded as one of the most dangerous players in the draw at Roland Garros and he showed more signs that he could have an extended run at the tournament with a comfortable win over Kuznetsov. 

The Russian player started the stronger of the two but Nishikori soon found his rhythm to take the first set and that laid the foundations for him to ease through the following two sets. 

Nishikori broke serve a total of six times during the match to eventually seal a 6-3, 6-3, 6-3 victory, which has secured a third-round clash with Fernando Verdasco. 

Former finalist Simona Halep survived a first-set wobble to reach the third round for only the second time in her career with a 7-6(5), 6-2 win over Kazakhstan’s Zarina Diyas on Wednesday. 

The Romanian sixth seed surrendered her serve twice in the opening four games to trail 4-1 but delved into her wealth of experience to finally subdue her 90thranked opponent 7-5 in the tiebreak. 

More exchanges of breaks followed in the second set before Halep finally found her groove to take a 5-2 lead and set up three match points on Diyas’ serve. Later, Petra Kvitova has booked her place in the last 32 after registering a straightsets triumph over Hsieh Su-Wei. 

The two-time Wimbledon champion has endured a relatively disappointing start to 2016 but he showed signs of a return to form with a routine 6-4, 6-1 win over the world number 80. 

Britain’s Heather Watson bowed out of the French Open after losing 6-1, 6-3 to Svetlana Kuznetsova at Roland Garros. It was a tough draw for Watson against a player who won the title in 2009 and has reached at least the quarter-finals on six other occasions. 

Watson competed well in the second set, but her serve was vulnerable throughout and she went down 6-1 6-3 in and hour and 12 minutes on Wednesday. 

The British number two did not hold her serve for the first 48 minutes of the match, losing her first five service games. Kuznetsova was much the stronger in the opening set and Watson bounced her racket angrily on the ground in the third game as she struggled to gain a foothold.