Rafael Nadal produced a solid effort to take down
Jordan Thompson in straight sets 6-2 6-2 6-4 in the first round of
Roland Garros.
The
French Open has seen Nadal lift the trophy 13 times and he started the pursuit of number 14 with a very solid performance against Jordan Thompson. The Aussie is a solid player, mostly on surfaces not named clay. He tried, but he did not know how to deal with Nadal and his forehand for the most part. Most of the time he was seen chasing the ball as Nadal took over the rally and finished off the point.
6-2 was the score in the opening set as Nadal dominated play with his groundstrokes. He did not waste any time blasting 9 winners compared to only two by Thomspon. The Aussie did not have his serve creating much pressure on Nadal and the Spaniard cruised relatively easily. The 2nd set had the same final score of 6-2 but it was a bit different.
Thompson upped his aggressiveness to try and counter Nadal however he committed 13 unforced errors to only 5 winners. Nadal added 10 winners of his own and finished off the job. The final set was pretty much the same thing as Thomspon tried a similar approach with only a bit more success. The score was still 6-2 as Nadal eased into the 2nd round of the event.