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They had shared that record with Budge Patty
but moved above the American with two more dominant displays,
although 11-times champion Nadal did drop his first set of the
tournament.
Nadal pulverized the unfortunate David Goffin into the Court
Philippe Chatrier dust for two formidable sets but was made to
sweat buckets in the soaring temperatures as 'Le Goff' dug in.
The Mallorcan second seed was never in serious trouble, however,
and came through 6-1 6-3 4-6 6-3 to set up a clash with
Argentina's 78th-ranked Juan Ignacio Londero.
"The level that I kept during the first 45 minutes, you can't
really maintain that," Nadal said. "It was almost the
top level, the highest level I could play."
Federer's opponent was 20-year-old Norwegian Casper Ruud who had
matched his father Christian's feat of reaching the third round
in 1999 -- the year 20-times Grand Slam champion Federer made
his debut at the French Open and lost in the first round.
The 37-year-old Swiss duly dispatched the youngster although he
was pushed to a tiebreak in the third set on his way to becoming
the oldest player to reach the fourth round since Nicola
Pietrangeli in 1972 with a 6-3 6-1 7-6(8) victory.
"Very pleased how I'm feeling and how I'm playing, and still
trying to stay true to playing freely and with nothing to lose,"
Federer, trying to repeat his 2009 title run having missed the
last three French Opens, told reporters.
Like Nadal, he will also face an Argentine next in the form of
Leonardo Mayer who knocked out French veteran Nicolas Mahut.
Karolina Pliskova became the highest seed to fall so far when
the Czech second seed was well-beaten, 6-3 6-3, by Croatia's
Petra Martic in the day's opener on Court Philippe Chatrier, a
match played in front of hundreds of empty seats.
Former champion Garbine Muguruza continued to impress in the
women's draw as she overpowered ninth seed Elina Svitolina 6-3
6-3 and set up a clash with last year's runner-up Sloane
Stephens who needed three sets to beat Slovenia's Polona Hercog.
Britain's sole remaining singles player Johanna Konta needed
less than an hour to thrash Viktoria Kuzmova 6-2 6-1.
Day six saw two marathons.
Latvia's Anastasija Sevastova beat Elise Mertens 6-7(3) 6-4 11-9
in three hours 18 minutes, the longest match in the women's
tournament so far, to set up a meeting with fast-rising Czech
teenager Marketa Vondrousova.
In the men's draw seventh seed Kei Nishikori needed four hours
26 minutes to scrape past Serbian Laslo Djere.
Frenchman Benoit Paire kept the home flame burning as he reached
the last 16 for the first time when opponent Pablo Carreno Busta
retired with an injury.
Stan Wawrinka, the 2015 champion, was two sets up on Grigor
Dimitrov when play was suspended for the night while Stefanos
Tsitsipas was two games from victory over Filip Krajinovic when
play was suspended at nearly 10pm local time.
(Reporting by Martyn Herman; Editing by Toby Davis)
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