ESPN 2009 French Open

PARIS -- Four-time defending champion Rafael Nadal moved into the fourth round of the French Open by defeating Lleyton Hewitt 6-1, 6-3, 6-1 on Friday.

The top-seeded Nadal stretched his record at Roland Garros to 31-0. The Spaniard is trying to become the first person to win five straight French Open titles.

Hewitt is a two-time Grand Slam champion and former top-ranked player. His best showing at the French Open came in 2001 and '04, when he reached the quarterfinals.

Hot streaks

Rafael Nadal broke the French Open record for consecutive wins with his 30th, making his streak at Roland Garros one of the longest ever at a Grand Slam.

Longest winning streaks at a
Grand Slam, all-time

Slam	Player	Streak
'76-81 Wimbledon	B. Borg	41
'03-08 Wimbledon	R. Federer	40
'04-08 U.S. Open	R. Federer	34
'97-01 Wimbledon	P. Sampras	31
'05-09 French Open	R. Nadal	31
'78-81 French Open	B. Borg	28
'85-88 U.S. Open	I. Lendl	27

"Always a win against Lleyton is a very good news," said Nadal. "You must be playing well."

Andy Murray also advanced to the fourth round when Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia retired while trailing 7-6 (3), 6-3.

The Serb called on the trainer twice in the second set, receiving massage for a hamstring problem and swallowing a couple tablets. Moving with difficulty, he called it a day knowing he could not last another three sets.

"I was feeling the pain in the right leg and I couldn't slide on my forehand, I started putting so much pressure on the left leg. Then the left leg was starting to fall apart, also," Tipsarevic said.

"Even though it was 6-3, I was more or less embarrassing myself dragging myself on the court. The only thing I could do is run on the one side, hit a bomb and pray it's going in," he said.

He added that he expected to be fit in time for the grass-court season, which starts in 10 days.

The third-seeded Murray has never before reached the fourth round at Roland Garros.

Last year, Murray lost in the third round. In his only other appearance at the French Open in 2006, he lost in the first round.

"It's been a good start, the first week. It hasn't been physically too demanding and now I feel good going into next week," said Murray. "I'd love to go further ... I'm playing well enough to. [I] just have to keep the consistency and I can win more matches."

Novak Djokovic quickly completed his suspended match, easily winning the final set to beat Sergiy Stakhovsky of Ukraine 6-3, 6-4, 6-1 and advance to the third round.

The fourth-seeded Djokovic won the first two sets Thursday, but the match was stopped because of darkness. He broke Stakhovsky to open the third set and had little trouble the rest of the way.

"It's not pleasant when you don't finish a match in one day," Djokovic said. "But I was lucky to come back and be two sets up."

Djokovic won his only Grand Slam title at the 2008 Australian Open, but the Serb has reached at least the semifinals at all four major tournaments.

No. 29 Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany also advanced to the third round, beating 2003 French Open champion Juan Carlos Ferrero 6-4, 2-6, 6-4, 6-7 (3), 6-3 in another match suspended by darkness Thursday night.

No. 8 Fernando Verdasco of Spain, No. 10 Nikolay Davydenko of Russia, No. 12 Fernando Gonzalez of Chile and No. 13 Marin Cilic of Croatia reached the fourth round.

In upsets, seventh-seeded Gilles Simon of France was eliminated by No. 30 Victor Hanescu of Romania 6-4, 6-4, 6-2, and No. 12 David Ferrer of Spain lost to No. 23 Robin Soderling of Sweden 6-7 (5), 7-5, 6-2, 7-6 (5).

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.