French Open 2018: Rafael Nadal continues dominance over friend Richard Gasquet as reaches round four

Nadal will next play Germany’s Maximilan Marterer in the next round

Nadal is now 16-0 against his good friend (Getty Images)

Richard Gasquet has been one of Rafael Nadal’s closest tennis friends ever since they grew up together on the European junior circuit, but the 31-year-old Frenchman must dread coming face to face with him on a court.

Nadal’s 6-3, 6-2, 6-2 victory over Gasquet here on Saturday in the third round of the French Open was the Spaniard’s 16^th win in their 16 tour-level meetings. Gasquet won a set in four of their first five matches but has not won any in the 11 they have played since the summer of 2008.

In all the match-ups between players in the history of open tennis, only four have been more one-sided than Nadal-Gasquet. Roger Federer has a 17-0 head-to-head record against both Mikhail Youzhny and David Ferrer, while Bjorn Borg and Ivan Lendl also had 17-0 records against Vitas Gerulaitis and Tim Mayotte respectively.

“I tried to play my game,” Gasquet said 13 years after his only other French Open defeat to Nadal. “It’s not easy to find another game. I tried my best. I tried to serve well, but I think it's tough for me, because my best stroke is the backhand. With him, I'm going on his forehand and on the diagonal he’s just better than me. That is a big key for me. That’s why it’s very difficult for me to play against his game.”

Nadal, who will next play Germany’s Maximilan Marterer, described his victory as “a nice experience”. He explained: “Richard is a good friend and a nice person.We’ve grown up together. We used to talk a lot when we were kids. Now we're older, that's all.It was a great feeling. I think it was an emotional thing for me to play him here on this court.”

Lucas Pouille, who beat Britain’s Cameron Norrie in the previous round, was another player to lose in front of his home crowd. Karen Khachanov’s big-hitting game proved too much for the world No 16, who was beaten 6-3, 7-5, 6-3. The Russian now faces Alexander Zverev in the fourth round.

Gael Monfils completed a hat-trick of French defeats in the men’s singles when he was beaten 6-7, 6-3, 4-6, 7-5, 6-3 by David Goffin after failing to take four match points when the Belgian served at 4-5 in the fourth set. Thereafter Monfils allowed himself to become distracted by a row with the umpire, who had warned him for taking too much time between points.

(AFP/Getty Images (AFP/Getty Images)

Goffin, who will meet Italy’s Marco Cecchinato in the fourth round, served for the match at 5-2 in the fifth set only for Monfils to stage one final show of defiance by breaking the Belgian. However, it was only delaying the inevitable as Goffin broke back immediately to complete his victory.

There will be a height difference of more than a foot when South Africa’s Kevin Anderson takes on Argentina’s Diego Schwartzman in the fourth round. Anderson, who stands at 6ft 8in, beat Mischa Zverev 6-1, 6-7, 6-3, 7-6, while the 5ft 7in Schwartzman beat Borna Coric 7-5, 6-3, 6-3.

Marin Cilic, the No 3 seed, will take on Fabio Fognini in the next round. Cilic beat Steve Johnson, of the United States, 6-3, 6-2, 6-4.