The two favourites in the top half of the men’s draw, top seeded Novak Djokovic and nine time champion Rafael Nadal both opened their campaign in style with comprehensive wins against Yen Hsun Lu and Sam Groth respectively. Djokovic who is bidding to complete a career slam and also a non calendar grand slam, easily won 6-4, 6-1, 6-1 against Lu whose only claim to fame was an upset win over Andy Roddick in the first round of Wimbledon 2010. Nadal was barely made to sweat by the Australian Sam Groth as he raced to a 6-1, 6-1, 6-1 win in just 82 minutes.

Also winning on Day 3 and in straight sets were the Spaniard David Ferrer who was runner up in 2013, Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic, the 20th seeded Bernard Tomic of Australia, Quentin Halys of France, ,14th seeded Roberto Bautista Agut, Borna Coric of Croatia, Steve Darcis of Belgium, Facundo Bagnis of Argentina.

In an all French match up Lucas Pouille, seeded 29th accounted for the veteran Julien Benneteau in four sets. Also winning in four sets were the Austrian Dominic Thiem, the 15th seeded American John Isner, the 25th seed Pablo Cuevas of Uruguay, 26th seeded Joao Sousa of Portugal and the Spaniard Pablo Carreno Busta.

Sixth seeded Jo Wilfred Tsonga who is the highest ranked Frenchman in the draw also won in straight sets against the German Jan-Lennard Struff 6-3, 6-4, 6-4. He is joined by another Frenchman Nicolas Mahut and Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus.

The only upset of the day was the defeat of the 18th seeded South African Kevin Anderson who was ushered out of the tournament by the Frenchman Stephane Roberts in four sets. The German prodigy Alexander Zverev leads the Frenchman Pierre Hugues Herbert by 2 sets to one when bad light stopped play for the day.

Also advancing were Ernests Gulbis of Latvia, Malek Jaziri of Tunisia, Argentine Juan Monaco, Jiri Vesley of the Czech Republic and the Frenchman Paul Henri Mathieu. David Goffin, the 12th seed from Belgium beat Gregoire Barrere of France 6-3,6-3,6-4 to reach the 2nd round.

Following is the list of matches in bottom half of the men’s draw on Day 4 with my pick mentioned first:-

Andy Murray (2) v. Mathias Bourgue
Ivo Karlovic (27) v. Jordan Thompson
Benoit Paire (19) v. Teymuraz Gabashvili
John Isner (15) v. Kyle Edmund
Richard Gasquet (9) v. Bjorn Fratengelo
Nick Kyrgios (19) v. Igor Sijsling
Fernando Verdasco v. Ivan Dodig
Kei Nishikori (5) v. Andrey Kuznetsov
Stanislas Wawrinka (3) v. Taro Daniel
Jeremy Chardy(30) v. Adam Pavlasek
Victor Troicki (22) v. Dusan Lajovic
Giles Simon (16) v. Guido Pella
Albert Ramos Vinolas v. Marco Trungelliti
Jack Sock (23) v. Dustin Brown
Lucas Pouille (29) v. Andrej Martin
Milos Raonic (8) v. Adrian Mannarino

– Rasesh Mehta [Rasesh Mehta is an analyst with the Tennis Galaxy. You can reach him at the email: sportzcosmos@gmail.com]