An improved Nadal advanced to the third round with his 300th Grand Slam victory

Rafael Nadal shone in the night of Paris. Although he preferred the faster playing conditions of the day, his ball came out well on his racket on a peaceful afternoon on the center court against another left-footer, the Frenchman. Corentin Moutet.

In an unprecedented battle between the legend of twenty -one Grand Slams, thirteen Roland Garros, and a Parisian who grew up in tennis who idolizes the king of clay, logic prevails. He won Nadal improved by 6-3, 6-1 and 6-4 in two hours and eight minutes.

Nadal’s tennis step forward, in a position to continue to advance as required by the tie and the rival if the left foot is still asleep. If the “incurable” injury did not lead to severe pain as happened in Rome.

He signed his 300th Grand Slam winby 41 defeats, became the third male professional tennis to reach this number, after the Swiss Roger Federer (369-60) and the Serbian Novak Djokovic (325-46). At Roland Garros he reached his 107th win, losing just three games. mad.

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On Friday he will live up to another match without precedent until this event, against the Dutch Botic Van de Zandschulp, 26 years old and world number 29. Twelve months ago he had to go through the previous tournament, and hasn’t stopped progressing since. He was a quarterfinalist at the last US Open and only played the final on the ground in Munich. He was easy against a Fabio Fogni trading down, especially in the physical aspect: 6-4, 7-6 (2), 3-2 and retirement.

Moutet, with more hand than determination or power, suffered in the first person he witnessed as a spectator in many against Nadal, his reference, whom he tried to imitate as a child. At 23 years old, 139 in the world, a rank lower in his tennis but not so much for his inconsistency and tendency to get injured, he lived helplessly for an hour and a half.

Nadal started the windshield moving Moutet around. The chair umpire reprimanded him for abusing the ball. He hit a ball with the aim of rescuing the stands Philippe Chattier. He later struck the racket on the ground, bouncing it in such a way that it passed the net and the other side of the net. The referee forgave him a bigger penalty, he didn’t want to interfere with the show given by the two. Good tennis, especially from the winners.

Balearic only cited the lack of competition caused by a stress crack in the rib and the pain of his left foot in a bad game that gave him a 0-2 lead in the third set and another that caused him not to close his take out. but the rest. Short oversights, pure anecdotes in a good overall balance.

It’s also understandable because Moutet put everything he brought for the louder public of the evening session. More electricity, wants to party. Nadal closed it as soon as possible, he already had enough and other goals to think about.