Nadal battles to second-round win in Paris

PARIS, May 26 (UPI) -- Rafael Nadal battled though more than 3 hours before claiming a straight-set win Thursday and a berth in the third round of the French Open.

Nadal was pushed to his first French Open five-set match in the opening round Tuesday and Thursday had trouble shaking Pablo Andujar before finishing a 7-5, 6-3, 7-6 (7-4) win in 3 hours, 18 minutes. The third set alone took 92 minutes.

Nadal was down two breaks in the third set and didn't close the tiebreaker until his fourth match point. Andujar ended up with five service breaks of Nadal, who improved to 40-1 at the French Open.

Fourth-seeded Andy Murray had a similarly long match with Simone Bolelli before advancing 7-6 (7-3), 6-4, 7-5, but No. 5-seed Robin Soderling was more efficient in his 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 victory over Albert Ramos.

Lukas Rosol ousted eighth-seeded Jurgen Melzer 6-7 (4-7), 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (7-3), 6-4 despite an amazing 100 unforced errors against 69 winners.

In other second-round matches involving highly seeded players Thursday, 10th-seeded Mardy Fish beat Robin Haase 7-6 (7-1), 6-2, 6-1; 15th-seeded Viktor Troicki swept Tobias Kamke 6-2, 6-2, 7-6 (7-4); and No. 16 Fernando Verdasco topped Xavier Malisse 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7-5), 6-1.

But Alejandro Falla took out 20th-seed Florian Mayer 4-6, 7-6 (7-4), 6-1, 6-2; Ivan Ljubicic eliminated No. 24 Sam Querrey 7-6 (7-2), 6-4, 6-4; Leonardo Mayer ousted 27th-seeded Marcos Baghdatis 7-5, 6-4, 7-6 (8-6); and Juan Ignacio Chela went the distance for a 3-6, 6-3, 6-4, 4-6, 6-2 win over No. 32 Kevin Anderson.

No. 18-seeded Gilles Simon was a four-set winner and Alexandr Dolgopolov, seeded 21st, advanced in straight sets.

Unseeded players earning third-round berths included Michael Berrer, Lukasz Kubot and Antonio Veic.