RAFAEL Nadal produced another dominant display to race into his 11th French Open quarter-final.
The title favourite maintained his record of never having lost to another Spaniard at Roland Garros with a 6-1 6-2 6-2 win over 17th seed Roberto Bautista Agut.
Nadal, who lost just one game in beating Nikoloz Basilashvili in round three, has dropped only 20 games in the tournament so far – one more than his best over four rounds, set here in 2012.
Nadal, who celebrated his 31st birthday on Saturday, has looked supremely confident with his forehand in this tournament and it was the same again. He hit 31 winners in the match compared to just 12 for Bautista Agut and clinched victory after an hour and 50 minutes.
Meanwhile, eighth seed Kei Nishikori looked in trouble against young Korean Chung Hyeon when rain stopped play on Saturday, but recovered to win in five sets. The Japanese had been two sets up but Chung fought back and was 3-0 up in the fourth when play was called off.
The 21-year-old went on to win that set to love but Nishikori hit back to triumph 7-5 6-4 6-7 (4/7) 0-6 6-4. He plays Fernando Verdasco next.
He said: “I think the rain helps me a lot, because I was really down in the fourth set and mentally I wasn’t ready.
“I knew I had to change something to beat him today, so I think I made some adjustments to make it a little better than [on Saturday].”
Russian Karen Khachanov became the youngest man to reach the fourth round at Roland Garros – since Marin Cilic in 2009 – by defeating John Isner.
The 21-year-old will now face Andy Murray in the fourth round after his 7-6 (7/1) 6-3 6-7 (5/7) 7-6 (7/3) victory.
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