French Open Day 7 Men's Review

Rafael Nadal shook off stiff resistance from Lleyton Hewitt to ease into the fourth round of the French Open, while Andy Roddick crashed out.

Four-time champion Nadal showed glimpses of his mastery of clay despite once again not being at his very best on a soggy Philippe Chatrier Court.

And the second seed dominated more than enough of the pressure points to seal a 6-3 6-4 6-3 in two hours 28 minutes and set up a last-16 clash with 24th seed Thomaz Bellucci..

Brazilian Bellucci upset 14th seed Ivan Ljubicic in straight sets.

Andy Roddick became the biggest male casualty of this year's tournament after suffering a crushing third-round defeat by Russian qualifier Teimuraz Gabashvili.

Sixth seed Roddick's game was dismantled by world number 114 Gabashvili, who completed an embarrassingly straightforward 6-4 6-2 6-2 win in just one hour 56 minutes on Suzanne Lenglen Court.

Roddick, who reached his third Wimbledon final last year after achieving a career-best run to round four at Roland Garros, saw his normally imperious serve broken four times by the Georgia-born player.

The 27-year-old's defeat will go down as one of the big shocks of this year's tournament, although the American did struggle to reach the third round after missing the entire clay-court season this year.

Perhaps the biggest shock of the tournament so far came on Court One, where ninth seed David Ferrer was sent packing in straight sets by Jurgen Melzer.

Ferrer came into the event as one of the form players on clay, but was simply blown away by his Austrian rival.

Melzer took less than two hours to triumph 6-4 6-0 7-6 and secure a first appearance in the fourth round, where he will meet Gabashvili.

Third seed Novak Djokovic made hard work of beating 31st seed Victor Hanescu 6-3 3-6 6-3 6-2, setting up a clash with Robby Ginepri, who survived a fightback by 2003 champion Juan Carlos Ferrero (16) to win 7-5 6-3 3-6 2-6 6-4.

Seventh seed Fernando Verdasco also needed five sets to beat 30th seed Philipp Kohlschreiber 2-6 6-3 6-3 6-7 (1/7) 6-4.

Mikhail Youzhny needed just five games to complete a 2-6 7-6 (7/4) 6-2 6-3 over Viktor Troicki, which resumed after being postponed last night.

The 11th seed will play Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in round four on Sunday.