Aces go places

Big guns Federer, Nadal, Murray advance at Paris Masters

Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal both made short work of their second round opponents to reach the last 16 at the Paris Masters on Wednesday.

Between them, the two tennis greats have just one win in what is traditionally the last of the year’s nine Masters 1000 series events, that coming in 2011 when Federer defeated Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the final.

Nadal, who has missed the tournament several times through injury, reached the final in 2007, but lost. Federer produced a near-perfect display to open his campaign with a 6-1, 6-1 win over Italian Andreas Seppi while Nadal won 6-2, 6-2.

Meanwhile, Andy Murray handed out a tennis lesson to David Goffin at the Paris Masters on Thursday, three weeks before the two are due to go head-to-head in the Davis Cup final opposing Britain and Belgium.

It was vintage Murray as the Scot dominated from the opening exchanges, sweeping a bewildered opponent aside 6-1, 6-0 in just 53 minutes to reach the quarterfinals.

Bopanna-Mergea in quarter-finals

Rohan Bopanna and his Romanian partner Florin Mergea scraped past Colombian duo of Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah in a tough three setter to reach the men’s doubles quarter-finals. Bopanna and Mergea rallied from a set down to beat the Colombian pair 6-7 (3), 6-4, 10-5 in a second round match that lasted an hour and 33 minutes.

The eighth-seeded Indo-Romanian pair bagged the third set in super tie-break to clinch the match in the 3,288,530-euro tournament. Bopanna and Mergea were erratic in their service as they committed as many as six double faults in the match.