Defending champion Rafael Nadal blasted French Open schedulers as a “joke” on Friday as long-time rival Roger Federer remained on Roland Garros easy street.
Spanish third seed Nadal, chasing an unprecedented eighth Paris title, saw off Slovakia’s Martin Klizan 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, 6-3 to record his 54th win in 55 matches at the tournament.
For the second round in succession, the 26-year-old dropped the first set as he struggled in the cold, heavy conditions where the temperature just nudged over the 12-degree mark.
He then launched a blistering attack on tournament chiefs who he described as a “joke” and claimed he was being treated unfairly.
Nadal’s match had been held over from Thursday after torrential rain swamped Paris.
He had been placed third on the Court Suzanne Lenglan schedule, following one men’s match and a women’s singles.
His third round opponent, Fabio Fognini, meanwhile, had been scheduled second on Court Three to follow just one women’s singles match which took only an hour to complete.
“The schedule was wrong, it was a bad decision,” said Nadal.
With third seed Nadal having to play his third round match on Saturday, second seed Federer had already ensured his place in the last 16.
His 6-3, 6-4, 7-5 win over France’s 30th seed Julien Benneteau, who was restricted by a leg injury, marked his best start to the tournament.
Spanish fourth seed David Ferrer, who made the semi-finals in 2012, continued his low-key run.
Ferrer beat compatriot Feliciano Lopez, 6-1, 7-5, 6-4 to set-up a fourth round clash against either Canadian 14th seed Milos Raonic or 23rd seed Kevin Anderson of South Africa.
Croatia’s 10th seed Marin Cilic was the biggest name to fall, losing 7-6 (14/12), 6-4, 7-5 to Serbia’s Viktor Troicki.
In the women’s competition, Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova stayed firmly on course for a showdown in the final by swatting aside overmatched opponents.
Defending champion and second seed Sharapova was first up, needing only four games and a handful of minutes to finish off her second round tie 6-2, 6-4 against Canadian teenager Eugenie Bouchard.
Williams, playing in the opening tie of the third round, needed just 61 minutes to dispose of Romania’s Sorana Cirstea 6-0, 6-2.
Meanwhile, Sania Mirza and her Swedish partner Robert Lindstedt crashed out in the first round of the mixed doubles event, suffering a 2-6, 3-6 defeat at the hands of Cara Black and Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi.