After all the surprises there have been in the first few days of the French Open, Rafael Nadal eased into round three with a two-hour five-minute win over Dominic Thiem.
The victory took the world number one a step closer to a record-setting ninth Roland Garros title.
Thiem, a 20-year-old rising star from Austria, showed quality in the match. His booming groundstrokes caused Nadal some trouble, but Nadal was coming into the match with record of 60 wins and 1 defeat at Roland Garros.
The Spaniard too often had the extra shot against the Austrian’s sharp returns, and Nadal won the first set 6-2 in 29 minutes and was able to slowly began dominating the match. He appeared to still have plenty in reserve as he made his way towards the second set.
After the loss of just seven games—two of them on his own serve—Nadal wore down his opponent, who is ranked just inside the world’s top 60, and the Spaniard is through to play Argentina’s Leonardo Mayer in the third round.
"I think was a dangerous match, a dangerous opponent today. I played well, yeah. I played the way that I would like to play. I resisted when he was going for the shots. He has very powerful shots, a very powerful forehand and a good backhand, too. I am happy with the way I resisted. When I had to play long points, I did well," Nadal said.