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Rafael Nadal produced a commanding show on Wednesday to get his 300th Grand Slam match win, destroying Corentin Moutet 6-3 6-1 6-4 to book his spot in the French Open third round.
Nadal counts 13 Roland Garros titles among his general 21 majors – the highest among men.
The Spaniard, whose preparations were hampered by a rib injury and a foot issue, was not quick to discuss his state of being.
“I can’t try to go very deep in a tournament if I’m worried about my physical issues every single day,” he told reporters.
“So if something happens, I am gonna accept it. But for the moment I am focused on the tennis.”
The Spaniard, who turns 36 one week from now, will next meet Dutch 26th seed Botic van de Zandschulp with a potential quarter-final approaching against world number one Novak Djokovic who crushed him in last year’s semi-finals.
Playing under the lights at Court Philippe Chatrier, Nadal peppered the red dirt with victors from the two his forehand and strike in the initial two sets to leave Moutet abandoned.
Nadal promptly crushed spirit, nonetheless, to get the hampered on serve and after one more trade of breaks, the Spaniard broke Moutet again to seal victory.
“Preparation hasn’t been perfect so I didn’t expect a perfect start to the tournament,” Nadal said.
“But it has been going quite well. I am positive about the things that I did out there tonight. Of course, there is room to improve and I need to improve if I want to keep having chances to go deeper.”
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