ROGER FEDERER SURVIVED another awkward French Open assignment today to book a last 16 match-up with Belgium’s David Goffin, the first lucky loser in 17 years to make a Grand Slam fourth round.
Federer, the champion in Paris in 2009, overcame battling French world number 89 Nicolas Mahut 6-3, 4-6, 6-2, 7-5, being pushed to four sets for the second match in succession.
Goffin is the first lucky loser from qualifying to make the last 16 of a major since compatriot Dick Norman at Wimbledon in 1995 and the first at Roland Garros since 1978.
The 21-year-old achieved the feat by beating Poland’s Lukasz Kubot 7-6 (7/4), 7-5, 6-1, having originally lost in the final qualifying round last week.
He was then handed a lifeline when French star Gael Monfils pulled out on the eve of the event.
“I’ve seen him around,” said Federer, who caught a glimpse of the young Belgian in his second round win over Arnaud Clement.
“He has a nice game, he’s a smooth ball-striker and talented, obviously, otherwise he wouldn’t be coming this far in the tournament.”
Top seed Novak Djokovic, bidding to become just the third man in history and first since Rod Laver in 1969 to hold all four Grand Slam titles at the same time, breezed past French qualifer Nicolas Devilder 6-1, 6-2, 6-2.
In a match-up of the highest-ranked and lowest-ranked men in the tournament, the 32-year-old Devilder, the world number 286, who missed three years of action because of an ankle injury, was swept aside.
Djokovic next faces Italian 22nd seed Andreas Seppi, who reached the last 16 of a Grand Slam at the 29th time of asking.
Seppi, who won the Belgrade claycourt title in the run-up to Roland Garros, stunned Spain’s 14th seed Fernando Verdasco 7-5, 3-6, 6-3, 4-6, 6-2.
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, the fifth seed, did his part to keep alive home hopes of a first men’s champion since 1983 when he defeated colourful Italian Fabio Fognini 7-5, 6-4, 6-4.
Next up for Tsonga is Stanislas Wawrinka, the 18th-seeded Swiss, who edged French 11th seed Gilles Simon 7-5, 6-7 (5/7), 6-7 (3/7), 6-3, 6-2.
It was Tsonga’s second win in two meetings with Fognini, who reached the quarter-finals last year only for a thigh injury to force him to withdraw and hand Djokovic a walkover into the semi-finals.
“I have had some difficult moments here, now I am happy to be having some good ones,” said Tsonga, who has now matched his best performances of fourth round runs in 2010 and 2011.
Seventh-seeded Czech Tomas Berdych ended Kevin Anderson’s hopes of becoming the first South African man to reach the last 16 of a Grand Slam for nine years in a third round slugfest which ended 6-4, 3-6, 6-7 (4/7), 6-4 6-4. Berdych, a semi-finalist in Paris in 2010, will next take on ninth seed Juan Martin Del Potro of Argentina, the 2009 US Open champion, who put out Marin Cilic, the Croatian 21st seed 6-3, 7-6 (9/7), 6-1.
French Open favourites Victoria Azarenka and Maria Sharapova both made smooth progress on, but it was the end of the road for number three seed Agnieszka Radwanska.
The Pole was given a lesson in claycourt tennis from former champion Svetlana Kuznetsova, the Russian winning 6-1, 6-2 in third round action.
Sharapova swept aside Japan’s Ayumi Morita 6-1, 6-1 in what was a second round match held over from Thursday because of the marathon clash between Paul-Henri Mathieu and John Isner.
The second seed, who won on clay in Stuttgart and in Rome in the buildup to Paris, will have a one-day turnaround before taking on China’s Peng Shuai for a place in the last 16.
Top seed Azarenka was on late in the day, re-scheduled to Court One, and she hammered out a 6-4, 6-4 win over Canada’s Aleksandra Wozniak just before sunset.
Radwanska was the highest seed to fall in the tournament so far as she had no answer to the all-court game of Kuznetsova, who won at Roland Garros in 2009, five years after she won the US Open, her only other Grand Slam title.
Since then, the Russian has had a torrid time with injuries and loss of form, while Radwanska has smoothly made the transfer out of the junior ranks and up the WTA rankings, winning three tournaments this year already.
But all that was cast aside as the Russian took command of the match from the start with a 5-0 lead and offered her opponent no chance after that to get back into it.
“I have not played so well in a long time, so I am really happy about that,” Kuznetsova said.
“I have not had this feelng for quite a time. I have started to do things the right way off the court in practice. I am confident I am getting back to my game that brought me the victories I had.”
There was no such revival in fortunes for Ana Ivanovic, another former champion at Roland Garros who has found the going tough since her triumph in 2008.
The Serb, a former world number one, but seeded just 13th this year, looked comfortable in the first set against claycourt specialist Sara Errani, but her game started to unwind in the second as the little Italian retrieved everything that came her way to run out a 1-6, 7-5, 6-3 winner.
Errani, who has won three claycourt titles this year already, will next take on Kuznetsova with the prize for the winner being a place in the quarter-finals.
Australian sixth seed Samantha Stosur, the runner-up here in 2010, coasted past Russia’s Nadia Petrova 6-3, 6-3 and will next play American teenager Sloane Stephens.
Stephens kept the Stars and Stripes flying in the tournament with a third round 6-3, 6-2 win over Mathilde Johansson, the last Frenchwoman left in the draw.
The Florida youngster was one of just three Americans to make it into the third round along with Christina McHale and Uzbekistan-born Varvara Lepchenko, following the early exits of Serena and Venus Williams.
For 19-year-old Stephens it was the first time she has reached the last 16 of a Grand Slam tournament in four appearances, ensuring she will continue her rise up the world rankings.
Asked about the influence on her of the Williams sisters, Stephens replied: “Yeah, they definitely inspire.
“I mean – race has nothing to do with it – but they inspire everyone to play tennis. They’re two of the best tennis players to ever play the game. I think they’re a really great inspiration to everyone. I like them. I think they’re funny.”
Other qualifiers in the top half of the draw for the last 16 were 15th seed Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia who defeated Maria Jose Martinez of Spain 6-2, 6-1 and Petra Martic of Croatia who beat Anabel Medina Garrigues of Spain 6-2, 6-1.