By Chris Oddo | Thursday May 26, 2016
He was broken in his first service game, and again in his last, but in between Rafael Nadal displayed more than enough of his vintage clay-court form to easily subdue Argentina’s Facundo Bagnis, 6-3, 6-0, 6-3.
The victory marks a milestone for Nadal, who becomes just the eighth male to reach 200 Grand Slam wins.
“For me, most important thing is a victory in the second round more than the 200 victories, no?” Nadal said, in typical humble fashion.
More important than the milestone is Nadal’s rejuvenated form, which has him looking like a true contender for a tenth Roland Garros title. Nadal hit 25 winners against 18 unforced errors and broke serve eight times on ten opportunities to lay waste to the World No. 99 and improve his record in the first and second rounds at Roland Garros to 24-0. The Spaniard has won 72 sets and lost four in the first two rounds at Roland Garros, but there are sterner tests sure to come.
“I think I played the way that I had to play to be in the third round, and today after difficult three first games, then I think I played a solid match with not many mistakes and having the control of the situation most of the time,” Nadal said. “So I need to keep playing better and better if I want to keep having chances in the next round, but I happy the way that I'm playing. Let's see if I'm able to play the same or a little bit better.”
Nadal will face either Marcel Granollers or Nicolas Mahut in the third round, and could face red-hot and rising Austrian Dominic Thiem in the round of 16. Theim deconstructed Spain’s Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, 7-5, 6-4, 7-6(3), to earn his 38th match win of the season on Thursday.
Nadal, who improves to 72-2 lifetime at Roland Garros and 200-30 at the majors, reeled off 12 of 13 games to take a two sets to love lead after falling behind 2-0 to Bagnis. He was never troubled from there, but did surrender a break when serving for the match in set three.
He broke in the final game and had a very subdued celebration before heading off court. He is a man with much to do in Paris.
“Each year is different,” Nadal said. “Things keep on changing. We have a new story to write. The only thing I know is that I have reached round No. 3. That's the only thing that matters for me, and what I know is I have to play at a very high level in order to go deep.”