Problems for Nadal but Serena makes haste

American Serena Williams reacts after a shot during her French Open third round match against Sorana Cirstea of Romania at Roland Garros in Paris yesterday. Williams defeated Cirstea 6-0, 6-2.

Reuters/Paris

A lack of sunshine, inferior opponents in his face and now a rant at the French Open schedule - things are not going as planned for defending champion Rafa Nadal despite a belated second-round victory at Roland Garros yesterday..

The Spaniard finally got his challenge for a record eighth title moving again after being bogged down by dismal weather, seeing off Slovakia’s Martin Klizan after being outplayed for a set, but the 26-year-old was not happy.

Women’s champion Maria Sharapova needed only 15 minutes on a cool, but mercifully dry, Chatrier Court as she polished off her second-round opponent Eugenie Bouchard having been a set and 4-2 ahead when rain stopped play on Thursday.

Top seed Serena Williams is making rapid headway and moved into the fourth round with a 6-0 6-2 crushing of Romanian Sorana Cirstea. The American has dropped a mere six games so far and her winning streak now stands at 27 matches.

“Every slam is really my priority,” said the 15-times major winner but only once French Open champion. “I would love to win this one, but there is still a lot of people in the draw that would love to win this tournament.”

Nadal’s clash with Klizan was one of several second-round matches from the top half of the men’s draw which is lagging behind the bottom half occupied by second seed Roger Federer, who remained untroubled with a win against Julien Benneteau.

Federer needed only 90 minutes to win 6-3 6-4 7-5 having taken the match by the scruff of the neck with a burst of 14 straight points towards the end of the opening set. Nadal labelled the tournament’s schedule “a joke” after being forced to play catch-up after his match against Klizan was rained off the previous day.

“Today I was playing almost three hours on court, and my opponent was watching the TV in the locker room,” he said after a 4-6 6-3 6-3 6-3 victory set up a tricky third round against Fabio Fognini, who won his second round match a day earlier.

“I can only smile and try to win my match and try to be ready for tomorrow. But that’s not the right thing and I hope they accept the mistake.”

Nadal, who said he lacked “motivation” in a poor first set against fellow left-hander Klizan, was particularly annoyed that Fognini had been scheduled to play Lukas Rosol after one very brief women’s singles match on rain-hit Thursday while he kicked his heels waiting for a men’s and a women’s tie to complete.

It was a good day for seeded men with number four David Ferrer moving under the radar into the last 16 by seeing off fellow Spaniard Feliciano Lopez while sixth seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga beat fellow Frenchman Jeremy Chardy.

Janko Tipsarevic (8), Tommy Haas (12), John Isner (19), Jerzy Janowicz (21) and Mikhail Youzhny (29) all won delayed second-round matches. Germany’s Haas, still a class act at 35, put a hole in the American challenge when he picked apart 20-year-old qualifier Jack Sock in straight sets.

Isner won an all-American clash with Ryan Harrison, coming back from two sets down to win 8-6 in the fifth - a year to the day after losing in five sets to local favourite Paul-Henri Mathieu in a 76-game epic.

Last year’s women’s runner-up Sara Errani maintained her impressive form, the Italian fifth seed overcoming Germany’s Sabine Lisicki for the loss of four games.

A round back, another Italian, 2010 champion Francesca Schiavone, showed she is still a force on clay by knocking out Belgium 21st seed Kirsten Flipkens.