French Open 2014: Nadal tears Lajovic apart to reach quarters

Rafael Nadal sending a forehand back to Dusan Lajovic

On a day when Spain was dealing with the abdication by its king, Nadal the emperor dismissed any hopes of him making way from his lofty perch at the French Open. Dusan Lajovic was like this brave soldier who walked into the emperor’s lair with his eyes wide open. He might have been brave of heart, but Rafael Nadal packed too many weapons and the skirmish transformed quickly into a nicely set up hunting expedition for the relentless Spaniard. The eight time champion toyed with the Serbian hopeful, scarring him with a merciless mauling that finished 6-1, 6-2, 6-1 in an hour and 30 minutes.

There was a large crowd on Chatrier, expecting the upstart from Serbia to provide some resistance to the great champion. But the magnitude of the arena and the sight of Nadal turned Lajovic cold as he was treated to a brutally one sided lesson by the merciless Spaniard.

Lajovic was spoilt by his own eagerness to make an impression. The inexperienced Serbian was all spirit, but the ball and his legs were floating all around the vast spaces that surround the court on Phillippe Chatrier. It took the 23 year old as many as 23 minutes to eventually find his footing and take his first game of the match.

By then though, Nadal was somewhere else. Having broken twice already, the Spaniard had a 5-1 lead and bagged the set on his serve to take control of the match. For all his enthusiasm, Lajovic was a victim of his own eagerness as he rattled away 16 unforced errors in trying to make a positive start to his assault on the resident champion of Roland Garros.

The crisis deepened for Lajovic when he started the second set surrendering a break to an already rampant Nadal. Just 15 minutes into the second set, Nadal was making the contest resemble a mismatch. Lajovic was trying to take the big swings that mark his game, but the spin and power on Nadal’s ball meant that the result was far from controlled.

But at 4-0 for the Spaniard, it seemed finally that Lajovic may have gained a handle on his jittery nerves. Not only did he hold serve twice in a row, but he actually pushed Nadal down 0-40 when he serving for the set at 5-2. As is customary for the Spaniard, he grit his teeth and worked his way back into the game before holding serve to take a two set lead.

But that little fillip at the end of the second set lasted only so long for the Serbian, who began the third just as he had the other two. Nadal engaged him in rally after rally and Lajovic eventually conceded the error. The 23 year old was broken to love as Nadal started to write the final chapter to this one sided skirmish.

Lajovic though isn’t all empty promise – he saved game points in the next game to push Nadal to deuce as he sought to consolidate. The backhand cross court followed by the up the line winner to finish the point was especially impressive. But then Nadal cleaned up the next two points to run up a 2-0 lead. Eager to complete the meal, Nadal the lion roared his way to a 5-0 lead, with less than 90 minutes on the clock.

The Serbians might be scarred from their troubled past, but are never short on hope. The stubborn world No. 83 gained two break points and this time made it count. He struck a powerful cross court backhand winner to nail the break and avoid being blanked by the champion. But that was only to delay the inevitable, as Nadal broke again in the next game to complete the rout.

To his credit, Lajovic did make an effort to take the contest to Nadal, but in trying to do so committed as many as 43 unforced errors. That number was incidentally more than the sum total of the points won by Lajovic, who managed a grand total of 33 for the entire match.

Nadal will now play his compatriot and last year’s finalist David Ferrer in the quarters on Wednesday. Ferrer had reached the last eight after defeating Kevin Anderson 6-3, 6-3, 6-7(5), 6-1 in a relatively more difficult encounter.