Nadal brushes aside Isner to enter third round

Rafael Nadal demolished John Isner in a comfortable straight-sets win to enter the third round of the Italian Open.

The opening set swung in Spaniard’s favour in the eighth game when the 10-time Italian Open champion broke the world number 27 Isner before serving out to take one set lead. In the second set, he was even more dominant winning it in a commanding fashion to seal the match 6-3 6-1 in his favour. The 21-time grand slam champion will next face Denis Shapovalov of Canada.

The Canadian World no. 16 beat Georgia’s Nikoloz Basilashvili 6-4 7-6 (7-5) in his second-round match.

Fourth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece saved two match points and went on to beat Grigor Dimitrov 6-3 5-7 7-6 (7-4) to enter the third round. The Greek will now take on Karen Khachanov of Russia.

On the other hand, second seed Alexander Zverev of Germany beat Argentina’s Sebastian Baez 7-6 (8-6) 6-3. The reigning Olympic men’s singles champion will now lock horns against Alex de Minaur of Australia.