Rafael Nadal won his 299th Grand Slam match at Roland Garros on Monday (May 23). He defeated Australian Jordan Thompson 6-2, 6-2, 6-2.
In the second round, he will face French wild card Corentin Moutet for a chance to join Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic in the 300-plus club. During his third-round tiebreaker loss to Denis Shapovalov in Rome just ten days ago, Rafael Nadal talked about a chronic foot injury that hindered his movement. Nevertheless, the Spaniard performed admirably on the Court Philippe Chatrier in a two-hour, two-minute victory.
Despite reaching the third round at Roland Garros in 2019, Thompson couldn’t deal with Nadal’s brutal groundstrokes in their second meeting.
Nadal broke Thompson’s serve seven times in the match with his familiar rasping forehand. As Thompson reached 2-4 in the second set, the Spaniard’s level slipped as he battled to his only break in the match in the second set. However, it was only a minor blip for the 21-time Grand Slam winner, who will be pleased with his first-round outing as he seeks a second major title of the year.
Nadal struck 27 winners to Thompson’s 14, a sign of his baseline dominance, but the Spaniard was also effective coming forward. He won 75 percent (12 out of 16) of points at the net as he frequently hurried his opponent.
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