Defending champion Rafael Nadal handed out a bruising lesson to highly-rated Austrian Dominic Thiem on Thursday as a 6-2 6-2 6-3 victory took the Spaniard into the French Open third round.
Eight-time winner Nadal, bidding to be the first man to clinch five Roland Garros titles in a row, had been expected to face a severe test from the 20-year-old world number 57.
But Thiem, who trains for big matches by running through forests carrying tree trunks to build stamina, ran out of steam on Philippe Chatrier court despite showing occasional glimpses of potential.
Nadal took his career record in Paris to 61 wins against a single loss and goes on to face either Leonardo Mayer of Argentina or Russia’s Teymuraz Gabashvili.
“Dominic is a dangerous player and I knew that if I wasn’t playing well then I’d be in trouble,” said Nadal.
“But he is a future star, 100 per cent. His level of ball is very high, he is strong on the forehand and backhand. He has everything to be a big champion.”
Thiem had beaten Australian Open champion Stan Wawrinka in Madrid and gave 27-year-old Nadal plenty to think about in an eight-minute opening game.
But Nadal proceeded to pounce on Thiem’s raw inconsistencies which saw the young Austrian break the Spaniard twice only to be broken himself seven times and commit 41 unforced errors.
Nadal’s compatriot David Ferrer, the fifth seed and last year’s runner-up, cruised past Italy’s Simone Bolelli 6-2 6-3 6-2 and next faces either Italy’s Andreas Seppi or Juan Monaco of Argentina.
Ferrer has made the quarter-finals of all of his last nine majors and such was the ease of his fifth win in five against Bolelli that the most challenging part of his day was fielding questions over his grooming.
“I changed my haircut. That’s all. But there is nothing superstitious about it,” said the Spaniard.
Donald Young, the former world junior number one who has consistently struggled to live up the huge hype surrounding him, made the third round for the first time by beating Spanish 26th seed Feliciano Lopez 6-3 7-6 (7-1) 6-3.
Big-serving Ivo Karlovic followed up his defeat of 11th seed Grigor Dimitrov, which was his first in Paris in seven years, by defeating Austria’s Andreas Haider-Maurer.
In the women’s draw, Serbian sixth seed Jelena Jankovic, three times a semi-finalist, eased past Japan’s Kurumi Nara 7-5 6-0.
Sloane Stephens, the 15th seed and top American following the defeat of defending champion Serena Williams, saw off Slovenia’s Polona Hercog 6-1 6-3.
Russian 27th seed Svetlana Kuznetsova, the champion in 2009, beat Italy’s Camila Giorgi 7-6 (7-5) 6-3.
