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Nadal, Thiem tackle outsiders looking in at Roland Garros

Published : Monday, 5 October, 2020 at 12:00 AM  Count : 258

PARIS, OCT 4: Rafael Nadal and Dominic Thiem take great leaps into the unknown on Sunday when they tackle opponents ranked outside the top 200 for place in the Roland Garros quarter-finals.
Second seed Nadal, the 12-time champion, faces world number 213 Sebastian Korda whose father Petr was runner-up in 1992.
World number three and US Open champion Thiem, runner-up to Nadal for the last two years, meets Hugo Gaston, ranked at 239.
Korda, 14 years younger than 19-time Slam winner Nadal, admits that he was in awe of the great Spaniard growing up.
"I named my cat Rafa after him. That says a lot about how much I love the guy," said 20-year-old Korda who came through qualifying and prior to this week had never won a match on the main tour. However, sport runs deep in his DNA.
Petr Korda won the Australian Open in 1998. His mother Regina Rajchrtova is a former top 30 WTA player while sisters Nelly and Jessica are respectively the world number two and 22 on the LPGA golf rankings.
Nadal has barely moved out of first gear so far, dropping just nine games in his last two rounds.
His record in Paris now stands at 96 wins against just two losses since his 2005 debut.
"I know he's playing great. He's a very young kid with a lot of power. I think he has an amazing future - hopefully not yet," said the world number two of Korda. Korda and Gaston are the first men outside the top 200 to reach the last 16 in Paris since 2002. Gaston is the only French player left in the men's tournament from the 18 who started out.
Having defeated 2015 champion Stan Wawrinka in five sets in the third round, the wildcard has to take on Thiem.   -AFP






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