His last appearance on Chatrier was a year ago when he was overwhelmed by Novak Djokovic – a match many thought signalled the end of Nadal’s dominance on the Parisian clay courts.
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“The most important thing is a victory in the second round and not the 200 victories, it’s only a number”.
Williams needed only 66 minutes to beat 81st-ranked Teliana Pereira of Brazil 6-2, 6-1, piling up a 31-6 edge in winners.
Djokovic will next go up against Slovenia-born Briton Aljaz Bedene, who edged Pablo Carreno Busta of Spain in a five-set thriller 7/6 (4), 6-3, 4-6, 5-7, 6-2.
Meanwhile Nadal’s main rival for the Roland Garros trophy, Novak Djokovic, picked up his 50 French Open win, beating Steve Darcis 7-5 6-3 6-4.
But if the 99th-ranked Bagnis harboured any hopes of ending the fourth seed’s bid for a record-extending 10th Roland Garros title, those dreams were brutally crushed as Nadal surrendered only four further games before wrapping up victory.
Bagnis was unable to pull himself off the ropes and trailed by two sets in quick time when he put too much on a return, with Nadal showing no mercy as he broke again in the first game of the third set and saved two break points in the next. “And I say ‘unfortunately, ‘ because in a few years, we’ll be like, ‘Wow, that’s a great moment, ‘” the 34-year-old Serena said. He reeled off 14 of 15 games to seize control along the way to winning 6-3, 6-0, 6-3.
Nadal is aiming to become the first man in the Open era to achieve 10 titles at the same Slam.
Venus’ victory came right after Serena won her second-round match Thursday by the same score and on the same court.
For now, Murray is still in the mix at Roland Garros, reaching the third round by coming from behind yet again to win 6-2, 2-6, 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 on Wednesday against French wild-card entry Mathias Bourgue, who was playing in the second tour-level match of his life. No, the best players are able to play very well in all the surfaces’.
The man with the most wins is Roger Federer, who has 302 over his career but is missing from this year’s French Open because of injury.
Swiss eighth seed Timea Bacsinszky also prevailed in a tricky second round against 2014 runner-up Eugenie Bouchard, winning a topsy-turvy match 6-4, 6-4.
The former No. 1 and French Open champion penned a short but heartfelt letter to Nadal – anyone can do so via a Nike store in Paris – in which he called the soon-to-be 30-year-old “inspiring”.
Darcis, 32, had to qualify for the tournament but he does have Grand Slam pedigree having dumped Rafael Nadal out of Wimbledon in 2013.
It has been a tough past 12 months for Nadal as he tries to recapture the aura and form that made him arguably the best player in men’s tennis, particularly on clay.
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These two have met four times, and Nadal has won all four meetings in straight sets.
