NICK Kyrgios wasn't the only Australian young gun issued with a sharp reminder yesterday of the distance they still must travel in order to mix it with the best in world tennis.
His pal Thanasi Kokkinakis, playing here on a wild card, was powerless to prevent world No 1 Novak Djokovic booking his place in the last 16 for the sixth successive year. The 19-year-old from Adelaide went down 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 to the Serb, unable to generate so much as a solitary break point in the process.
But then just being here on Court Philippe Chatrier was a success story for the lanky 6ft 5in right hander with the big forehand.
This was his first time in the third round of a Grand Slam, a feat secured by a five-set win against his countryman Bernard Tomic from two sets down. Moreover, the world No 84 was coming off a fortuitous couple of weeks. He warmed up for Roland Garros by winning his first Challenger title as a qualifier at Bordeaux, having only entered the tournament due to a fire at Rome Airport which prevented him flying to compete in qualifying.
Typically for this level-headed youngster, there was no beating himself up about it after his defeat. "It just shows kind of where I need to get to," he said.
Djokovic, who has lost just two matches all year, is so good these days that he doesn't even need to practise any more. As he pursues the only Grand Slam title to elude him, at a venue where he has suffered two final defeats to Rafael Nadal, he didn't hit a single ball before playing yesterday, after a minor issue with his groin against Gilles Muller the day before. He now faces Richard Gasquet, who was a popular winner when he saw off Kevin Anderson 4-6, 7-6 (7-4), 7-5, 6-4.
"I think that tennis needs players like Thanasi, who is a teenager but still able to come out on centre court and play with courage and play with power and believe in himself," said Djokovic. "I thought he served well. But I made the three breaks each set, and that was enough for the win."
The most eagerly-awaited quarter- final in modern tennis history remains on track after Nadal's pursuit of La Decima continued with him making short work of Andrey Kuznetsov, of Russia. The Mallorcan admitted he was chuffed with his tournament after his 6-1, 6-3, 6-2 win. "It would be not fair if I say that I am not happy about what happened this first week, being in the fourth round without losing a set and playing solid, consistent [tennis]," said Nadal. "That's what I needed to do. Then the second week arrives, and you know that you have to go that extra step."
Nadal now faces Jack Sock, the 22-year-old from Nebraska who is the advance party of that aspiring young generation. He was a 6-2, 6-1, 6-4 winner against Croatian teenager Borna Coric, while seventh seed David Ferrer survived a scare against Simone Bolelli, of Italy, to remain a formidable obstacle in Andy Murray's path. Ferrer will face US Open champion Marin Cilic for the right to be his potential quarter-final opponent.
In the mixed doubles, Jamie Murray and his partner Elina Svitolina, of Ukraine, went down 6-3, 6-3 to Mike Bryan and Bethanie Mattek-Sands, of the USA.
Another item of interest to British tennis was an ITF ruling which will preclude Aljaz Bedene, the naturalised Slovenian player, from competing for Great Britain in the Davis Cup. The LTA are appealing.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article