Tennis: Djokovic, Murray subdue new generation at French Open

Grand Slam old guard Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray put next generation hopefuls Thanasi Kokkinakis and Nick Kyrgios firmly in their place Saturday with comfortable French Open third round wins.

World number one and top seed Djokovic reached the last-16 for the sixth straight year with a 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 win over 19-year-old Kokkinakis.

Third-seeded Murray, twice a semi-finalist in Paris, cruised to a 6-4, 6-2, 6-3 victory over Kokkinakis’s 20-year-old Australian compatriot Kyrgios.

Djokovic, bidding for a first Roland Garros title to complete a career Grand Slam, will face either South African 15th seed Kevin Anderson or French 20th seed Richard Gasquet for a place in the quarter-finals.

There was no sign of the hip problem which bothered him in his second round tie against Gilles Muller as he swept past his world number 84 opponent.

He fired 34 winners and didn’t face a single break point in his one-hour, 49-minute win over the highly-rated wildcard.

“Thanasi has a lot of talent and strength. He is still a teenager and he has plenty of time to do great things,” said Djokovic after winning his 25th successive match this season.

“I hope he does as he has a lot of qualities.”

Kyrgios, the 29th seed and bidding to add a first French Open last-16 place to his runs to the 2014 Wimbledon and 2015 Australian Open quarter-finals, wasn’t helped by requiring a medical timeout for an elbow injury late in the second set against Murray.

Murray, who fired 12 aces and 45 winners while Kyrgios was undone by 37 unforced errors, goes on to face unseeded Frenchman Jeremy Chardy who surprised 17th seeded Belgian David Goffin 6-3, 6-4, 6-2.

Chardy is the fourth Frenchman to make the last-16.

It was 28-year-old Murray’s third successive win over Kyrgios, all without dropping a set, as he took his record on clay this year to 13-0.

“I used variety and slice, tried to mix it up to break his rhythm and it seemed to work,” said Murray who said he knew Kyrgios wasn’t serving at his full power as the match progressed.

“At the beginning he was serving big, over 200 kilometres an hour, and then started slowing down to 170, 180, and not really going for aces.”

After a tight first set, Murray carved out a double break in the second to put himself firmly in the driving seat.

Despite his bandaged right forearm, Kyrgios broke for a 2-1 lead in the third before surrendering the advantage in the next game.

His frustration caused him to launch a ball out of Court Suzanne Lenglen which led to a warning for a code violation.

“Andy is one of the best defenders at the moment,” said Kyrgios, who knocked Rafael Nadal out of Wimbledon last year and beat Roger Federer in Madrid this month.

“But I wasn’t near 100% percent today.”

Defending champion Nadal, chasing a 10th Roland Garros crown, takes on Russia’s Andrey Kuznetsov, the world number 120.

Kuznetsov had never won a match at the French Open before this year.

The winner of that clash will face either Jack Sock, the last American man in the draw, or 18-year-old Borna Coric.

World number 46 Coric is looking to become the youngest player to make the fourth round of a major since Marat Safin reached the last-16 in Paris in 1998.

Marin Cilic, the ninth-seeded US Open champion, continued his quiet progress to reach the fourth round for the third time.

The 26-year-old eased past Leonardo Mayer, the Argentine 23rd seed, 6-3, 6-2, 6-4 and will take on either 2013 runner-up David Ferrer or Simone Bolelli for a quarter-final slot.

Cilic has dropped serve just once in 40 games so far.