Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams, the top seeds in the singles brackets at the 2016 French Open, had no issues with their first-round opponents and will be hoping for more of the same when they play on Thursday.
French Open 2016: Times, TV schedule, matches and online streaming for Day 5 at Roland Garros
With many top seeds struggling, Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams will hope for easy victories in the second round at Roland Garros.
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Djokovic will be up against unseeded Steve Darcis, and Williams will be taking on Teliana Pereira. Both are favored to win their respective brackets and both are expected to dominate their second-round opponents. Then again, Andy Murray was expected to dominate his first two opponents, but the second-seeded Murray was taken to five sets in both matches.
Rafael Nadal, the so-called “King of Clay,” had bad luck last year and fell to Djokovic in the quarterfinals. It was Djokovic’s best chance at winning his first title at Roland Garros, but he ultimately fell to Stan Wawrinka in the finals. Nadal has struggled off and on with injuries in recent years, but he had an easy time with his first-round opponent and is just behind Djokovic when it comes to who is favored for the tournament.
Nadal will be facing Facundo Bagnis on Thursday. Other top-seeded men in action include Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Tomas Berdych and David Ferrer. On the women’s side, Venus Williams, the No. 9 seed, will be taking on Louisa Chirico. The Williams sisters are also participating in doubles this year and looked good in their first-round match.
Television coverage of the day begins at 5 a.m. ET on the Tennis Channel. Their coverage will run through 3 p.m. Online streaming is available at NBC Sports Live Extra and the Tennis Channel.
Below are all of Thursday's matchups containing seeded players, with a full schedule available here.
Men’s Singles
No. 1 Novak Djokovic vs. Steve Darcis
No. 4 Rafael Nadal vs. Facundo Bagnis
No. 6 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga vs. Marcos Baghdatis
No. 7 Tomas Berdych vs. Malek Jaziri
No. 11 David Ferrer vs. Juan Monaco
No. 12 David Goffin vs. Carlos Berlocq
No. 13 Dominic Thiem vs. Guillermo Garcia-Lopez
No. 14 Roberto Bautista Agut vs. Paul-Henri Mathieu
No. 20 Bernard Tomic vs. Borna Coric
No. 21 Feliciano Lopez vs. Victor Estrella Burgos
No. 25 Pablo Cuevas vs. Quentin Halys
No. 26 Joao Sousa vs. Ernests Gulbis
Women’s Singles
No. 1 Serena Williams vs. Teliana Pereira
No. 8 Timea Bacsinszky vs. Eugenie Bouchard
No. 9 Venus Williams vs. Louisa Chirico
No. 12 Carla Suarez Navarro vs. Qiang Wang
No. 14 Ana Ivanovic vs. Kurumi Nara
No. 15 Madison Keys vs. Mariana Duque-Marino
No. 18 Elina Svitolina vs. Taylor Townsend
No. 22 Dominika Cibulkova vs. Ana Konjuh
No. 26 Kristina Mladenovic vs. Timea Babos
No. 28 Andrea Petkovic vs. Yulia Putintseva
No. 29 Daria Kasatkina vs. Virginie Razzano
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