PARIS - Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray both made short work of their opponents to reach the last 16 at the Paris Masters on Wednesday.
Neither man has ever won the last of the year's nine Masters Series events, with Nadal a losing finalist in 2007, and Murray with just five quarter-final appearances to show for his efforts so far.
But both have their reasons for believing that they can finally win in Paris this year. Murray swept past Croatian youngster Borna Goric 6-1, 6-2 in just 59 minutes. Nadal then took two minutes longer to send old foe Lukas Rosol crashing out, defeating the big-serving Czech 6-2, 6-2 for his place in the last 16.
Rosol famously stunned Nadal at Wimbledon in 2012 and he took the Spaniard to a third set tie-break at the same stage of the tournament in Basel last week. But he was outplayed from start to finish by the seventh seed, who has never won the Paris hardcourt tournament in contrast to his dominance on clay on the other side of the city at the French Open where he has won nine times.
Nadal goes on to play the winner of the tie between South African Kenny Anderson and Austrian youngster Dominic Thiem on Thursday for a place in the quarter-finals. The Spaniard, who has had a testing year with injuries and loss of form, believes that his improving game is still a work in progress with next year in the back of his mind.
"The thing that I need to keep improving is obviously the serve," he said. "I am returning much better. That's a very important thing for me. But I have to keep working on that. The return can be a big change for me next year. And I have to keep working hard on my first serve and second serves. Today was a good day of serve. I served well. Need to keep practicing every day a little bit of my serve."
For Murray the focus is fully on this month and Britain's Davis Cup final against Belgium in under three weeks time. His win over Goric sets him up for a true taste of what awaits him in Ghent when he next takes on Belgian number one David Goffin, for just the second time, on Thursday.
Goffin moved through with a commanding 6-2, 6-2 disposal of Dusan Lajovic of Serbia. Both will be out to lay down some early bragging rights when they meet on Thursday morning. The Scot has made it clear that, with the end of the season in sight, his priority is to give Britain its first Davis Cup triumph since 1936 with a victory over the Belgians on clay in Ghent.
But before then he has to negotiate the last two events of the ATP season, both on hardcourts, at Paris and the World Tour Finals in London. It's not an easy task with the punishing change of surfaces to handle, and it nearly floored Roger Federer at the same time last year before he and Swiss compatriot Stan Wawrinka finally saw off France in Lille.
The last thing Murray needs is a series of punishing three-setters to drain his batteries and niggle his ailing back. Against teenager Coric, who had beaten the Scot for the loss of just four games the last time the pair met early this year in Dubai, that never looked likely to happen.
Goffin should prove to be a different prospect as the slightly built Belgian number one gears up his preparations for his country's first Davis Cup final since 1904 when they lost 5-0 to what was then the British Isles. In other second round action Japan's Kei Nishikori produced a storming final set to defeat home hope Jeremy Chardy 7-6 (7/4), 6-7 (6/8), 6-1, setting up a last-16 clash against top-ranked Frenchman Richard Gasquet, who eased past Leonardo Mayer of Argentina 6-2, 7-5. Grigor Dimitrov upset Marin Cilin of Croatia 7-6 (7/3), 7-6 (7/2), while giant American John Isner was too strong for Britain's Aljaz Bedene, winning 6-3, 7-6 (7/3).