Paris: The top-seeded players had early starts at the French Open on Wednesday, and both Novak Djokovic and Victoria Azarenka made it to the third round without a problem. A short time later, 2009 champion Roger Federer joined them, earning his record-breaking 234th victory at Grand Slam tournaments.
Djokovic was first up on Court Suzanne Lenglen, and he was barely troubled by Blaz Kavcic of Slovenia, winning 6-0, 6-4, 6-4 for his 23rd straight Grand Slam victory. "I gave him the opportunity to come back to the match after a perfect first set, first seven games," Djokovic said. "But, look, this is tennis."
In the main stadium at Roland Garros, Azarenka defeated Dinah Pfizenmaier of Germany 6-1, 6-1 — two days after struggling to win her opening match. "Being No. 1 is a difficult job, because everybody want to catch you, everybody want to move you from the spot," Azarenka said. "Nothing is going to come easy just because you're No. 1. You actually have more people ... motivated trying to beat you."
Djokovic is looking to win his fourth straight Grand Slam title, and first at Roland Garros. Last year, the Serb lost to Federer in the semi-finals, ending his 43-match winning streak.
On Wednesday, Djokovic was broken once by Kavcic, but otherwise had little trouble. He did, however, finish the match with 34 unforced errors, almost twice as many as Kavcic's 21.
"He was defending really well in the second and third set, especially in the second," Djokovic said. "He wasn't missing as many balls as in the first set."
Federer had an easy run in the first two sets, but then wasted two match points in the third. He saved all six break points to beat Adrian Ungur of Romania 6-3, 6-2, 6-7 (6), 6-3 on Court Philippe Chatrier.
The 16-time Grand Slam champion broke a tie with Jimmy Connors for most career wins at major tournaments in the Open era, which began in 1968. He is now 234-35 in tennis' top four tournaments, an .870 winning percentage. No. 9 Juan Martin del Potro beat Edouard Roger-Vasselin of France 6-7 (5), 7-6 (3), 6-4, 6-4.
Azarenka, who took over the No. 1 ranking after winning the Australian Open, easily advanced against Pfizenmaier, a 20-year-old German who was making her Grand Slam debut. In the first round, Azarenka struggled early before winning 12 of the final 14 games to advance. She committed 60 unforced errors in that opening match, but brought that number down to only 11 on Wednesday.
"Definitely played much better today," said Azarenka, who reached the quarterfinals at Roland Garros last year, matching her best performance at the clay-court Grand Slam. US Open champion Sam Stosur also advanced, beating Irina Falconi of the United States 6-1, 6-4.
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