Top seed Novak Djokovic eased into the third round of the French Open on Thursday, defeating Belgian veteran Steve Darcis 7-5, 6-3, 6-4.
It was the Serb's 50th win at Roland Garros as he attempts to complete his collection of all four Grand Slam titles having previously won Wimbledon and the Australian and US Opens. Djokovic will next go up against Slovenia-born Briton Aljaz Bedene who edged Pablo Carreno Busta of Spain in a five-set thriller 7/6 (7/4), 6-3, 4-6, 5-7, 6-2.
Women's top seed and defending champion Serena Williams also cruised into the third round with a 6-2, 6-1 win over Teliana Pereira of Brazil.
It was a routine victory for the world number one that keeps her on course to win a 22nd Grand Slam title and equal the modern day record of 22 set by Steffi Graf in Paris in 1999. The three-time winner of the French Open needed just 66 minutes to see off the challenge of the world number 81, who was bidding to reach the third round of a Grand Slam tournament for the first time.
The 34-year-old American will next go up against the winner of the tie between France's Kristina Mladenovic and Timea Babos of Hungary with a place in the last 16 at stake.
Nine-time French Open champion Rafael Nadal became just the eighth man to win 200 Grand Slam matches when he defeated Argentina's Facundo Bagnis to reach the last 32.
Nadal, 29, dropped the first two games against the world number 99 but then won 18 of the next 22 to ease through 6-3, 6-0, 6-3. He next plays either Spanish compatriot Marcel Granollers or Nicolas Mahut of France.
Bacsinszky defeats Bouchard
Timea Bacsinszky's love affair with Roland Garros continued on Thursday when she swept aside struggling Canadian Eugenie Bouchard 6-4, 6-4 to reach the third round of the French Open. A semi-finalist last year where she lost to eventual champion Serena Williams, the Swiss eighth seed trailed 1-4 in the first set before she took control, winning 10 games in a row to serve for the match at 5-0 in the second.
Bouchard, a French Open semi-finalist in 2014, the year she rose to fifth in the world, staved off defeat by winning that game and she saved a match point on her own serve to pull back to 5-2.
The fight-back continued with another break of serve and a hold to get to 5-4, but Bacsinszky finally held firm on her serve at the third time of asking to seal the win. The Swiss No.1 will next play either France's Pauline Parmentier or Irina Falconi of the United States for a place in the last 16.
