French Open: Djokovic advances into Round of 16; Venus survives scare against Cornet to move into fourth round

novak djokovic 5PARIS, France: World No. 1 Novak Djokovic advanced into the Round of 16 at Roland Garros, beating Aljaz Bedene 6-2, 6-3, 6-3. The top seed took over two hours to beat Bedene. He fired 39 winners in total, including five aces, to secure his 10th appearance in the fourth round of French Open. 

In other matches, David Ferrer came out firing, reeling off four straight games to clinch a 6-4, 7-6(6), 6-1 third-round victory over fellow Spaniard Feliciano Lopez at Roland Garros, while seventh seed Berdych notched his first win over Uruguay's Pablo Cuevas, rallying from a set down to prevail 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, 7-5 in nearly three hours.

In the women's section, No.9 seed Venus Williams got the better of Alizé Cornet to win a sixth straight match against the Frenchwoman, 7-6(5), 1-6, 6-0, to reach the second week of Roland Garros for the first time in six years.

Now Venus will lock horns with No.8 seed Tima Bacsinszky for a spot in her first French Open quarterfinal in 10 years. Bacsinszky, who ended Pauline Parmentier's hopes with a 6-4, 6-2. The 2015 French Open semifinalist, has never beaten Venus Williams in their two previous encounters, but the two haven't played since the 2014 US Open, and neither encounter came on clay.

Meanwhile, defending champion Serena Williams outlasted an inspired Kristina Mladenovic and weathered a two and a half hour rain delay to advance to the second week of Roland Garros, 6-4, 7-6(10).

In an upset at Roan Garros, Elina Svitolina entered the fourth round of the French Open with a straight set win over former champion Ana Ivanovic 6-4, 6-4. Also advancing into the fourth round were No.12 seed Carla Suárez Navarro, who defeated Dominika Cibulkova, and Yulia Putintseva, an impressive 6-1, 6-1 winner over Karin Knapp.