By Martyn Herman
PARIS (Reuters) -Spain’s raging bulls Rafa Nadal and Carlos Alcaraz blazed into the quarter-finals of the Olympics men’s doubles as the temperature reached boiling point at Roland Garros on Tuesday.
Once again the dynamic duo received top-billing on the schedule and they did not disappoint a fevered crowd as they fought off Dutch team Tallon Griekspoor and Wesley Koolhof to claim a 6-4 6-7(2) 10-2 victory.
Earlier, as the mercury soared into the mid 30s Celsius (90s Fahrenheit) leaving spectators and players desperately trying to stay cool, the women’s singles draw was blown wide open, although top seed Iga Swiatek stayed on course for gold with a 6-3 6-4 win against injury-hampered Chinese player Wang Xiyu to book her place in the last eight.
American second seed Coco Gauff failed to convert two set points in the opening tiebreak against Croatia’s Donna Vekic and the 20-year-old paid the price as she wilted to a 7-6(7) 6-2 defeat.
Italian fourth seed Jasmine Paolini, runner-up at both the French Open and Wimbledon in the build-up to the Olympics and a big medal prospect, was edged out by Slovakia’s Anna Karolina Schmiedlova, losing 7-5 3-6 7-5.
Defending men’s singles champion Alexander Zverev managed to stay cool in the oven-like heat though as the third seed stayed on course for a repeat of his Tokyo title with a 6-3 7-5 defeat of Czech player Tomas Machac to reach the third round.
There was only one place to be on a tropical evening alongside the Bois de Boulogne though — the claustrophobic Court Suzanne Lenglen for the latest edition of the Nadalcaraz series.
Up against a former doubles world number one in Koolhof, the Spaniards found themselves involved in a red-dirt dogfight as the Dutch showed scant regard for reputations and threatened to spoil the party by deservedly levelling the match.
But the 38-year-old Nadal and 21-year-old Alcaraz have 26 Grand Slam singles titles to their name for a reason, and they caught fire again in the deciding tiebreak with some electrifying tennis moving them to within three victories of delivering a dream gold medal.
Gauff, like Alcaraz an Olympic debutant, still has medal hopes but not in the singles after a shock exit.
She was left in tears at a crucial juncture of the second set when an over-ruled line call saw her slip 4-2 behind, the American becoming embroiled in a lengthy argument with umpire Jaume Campistol and the tournament supervisor in which she was heard to say “I’m being cheated”.
Gauff had grounds for complaint as a call of “OUT” on a Vekic shot was quickly overruled but the American insisted it had affected her swing. Vekic, the 13th seed, remained focussed to seal a superb victory and become the first Croatian woman to reach the Olympic singles quarter-finals since 1996.
“Afterwards they apologise, but ‘Sorry’ doesn’t help you once the match is over,” Gauff said.
Zverev reached the French Open final this year and looked perfectly at home on the Parisian clay as he maintained a strong start to his bid to repeat his Tokyo gold.
He was pushed hard by Machac but turned on the afterburners at 5-5 in the second set with two searing forehands earning him a break of serve before he ended the contest a game later.
Germany’s Angelique Kerber, a singles silver-medallist in Rio de Janeiro, will retire after the Olympics but moved in sight of a spectacular final chapter to her career as she beat Canada’s Leylah Fernandez 6-4 6-3 to reach the quarter-finals where China’s Zheng Qinwen awaits.
The line-up for the women’s singles quarter-finals is complete with Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk to face Vekic, Schmiedlova up against Czech Wimbledon champion Barbora Krecikova and Swiatek up against American Danielle Collins.
In the men’s singles, two Americans reached the third round with Taylor Fritz beating Britain’s Jack Draper 6-7(3) 6-3 6-2 and Tommy Paul overcoming Czech Jakub Mensik 6-3 6-1.
Fritz will face Italy’s 11th seed Lorenzo Musetti after he beat Argentina’s Mariano Navone. Felix Auger-Aliassime also reached round three by thrashing Germany’s Maximilian Marterer 6-0 6-1 but Swiss three-time Grand Slam champion Stan Wawrinka lost to Australia’s Alexei Popyrin
(Reporting by Martyn Herman; additional reporting by Sybille de La Hamaide; Editing by Hugh Lawson and Toby Davis)
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