Rafael Nadal eases past the always solid Botic van de Zandschulp at Roland Garros

Rafael Nadal produced a very good effort to take the always solid Botic van de Zandschulp at Roland Garros 6-3 6-2 6-4.

Botic van de Zandschulp emerged last year with a string of strong performances that caught many by surprise including John McEnroe who described him as always solid and mentally strong. He was quite solid today as well and showed some mental toughness in the final set when Nadal flirted with the bagel but still, the Spaniard was simply better.

Nadal is showing a high level and hitting the ball really hard in Paris so far and that was on show today as well. He won the opening set with 6-3 despite hitting only two winners. It was a strange set where Botic was there on all balls but he overcommitted in many rallies with 11 errors. Nadal did not drop a single point after the first serve which was impressive.

The 2nd set featured a more impressive display from Nadal as he finally found ways to break down Botic hitting 12 winners in the process. He followed that up with only 3 errors while Botic had 3 winners and 7 mistakes and that was enough for the 6-2 finish. The final set was another interesting one. Nadal was up 4-0 and had 40-30 to make it 5-0. From there Botic was able to win three games in a row breaking Nadal once.

Nadal faced 15-30 at 5-4 when he served for the match but the Spaniard remained composed. He saved a break point in that game and closed it out 6-4. The 13-time French Open champion advances to round 4.