Rafael Nadal has smoothly negotiated the potential stumbling block presented by Frenchman Benoit Paire on Monday, launching his bid for an unprecedented 10th French Open trophy with a largely routine 6-1 6-4 6-1 win.
The heavy favourite for the title looked in imperious form as he steamed through the first set in under half an hour.
Paire, described prior to their encounter on Court Suzanne Lenglen as a dangerous opponent by Nadal, played with more freedom in a closer second set as the Spaniard’s level dropped.
Trading baseline rallies, they exchanged breaks to leave the Frenchman leading 4-3, before Nadal then pulled clear.
With Paire periodically clutching his stomach after a medical time out, the 14-time grand slam champion took nine of the last 10 games to close out the match in just under two hours.
Defending champion Novak Djokovic has enjoyed a straight-sets winning start under new coach Andre Agassi, cruising past Spain’s Marcel Granollers in the first round.
Djokovic, 30, without a tour title since January, found little resistance from Granollers, grabbing two breaks early on in the first set and powering to a 6-3 6-4 6-2 victory.
It was a similar story early in the second set with the Serbian world No.2 returning everything Granollers tried to throw at him as he went 4-1 up before a wobble saw him fail to convert eight set points at 5-3.
Dkokovic kept his cool to earn the second set and pounced on the Spaniards’ accumulating mistakes in the third set to seal victory on his first match point.
Fifth-seed Milos Raonic of Canada has made light work of 38th-ranked Steve Darcis to cruise into the next round.
Raonic took just 92 minutes to beat Belgian Darcis 6-3 6-4 6-2 – taking the final game to love.
There was better news for Darcis’s compatriot David Goffin, with the 10th-seed way too good for local veteran Paul-Henri Mathieu 6-2 6-2 6-2.
American 25th-seed Steve Johnson was pushed all the way by Yuichi Sugita of Japan before he prevailed 6-3 6-3 6-7(4-7) 6-7 (3-7) 6-3, in a match that started on Sunday.
Jack Sock was the biggest casualty in the men’s draw to date, when the 14th-seeded American was eliminated by Czech Jiri Vesely 7-5 7-5 6-3.
Frenchman Gilles Simon was another seed to go out after a 1-6 6-2 6-4 6-1 defeat to Nikoloz Basilashvili of Georgia, while 32-seed Mischa Zverev of Germany crahed out at the hands of Italy’s Stefano Napolitano 4-6 7-5 6-2 6-2.
Joao Sousa of Portugal eliminated Serbian Janko Tipsarevic 4-6 7-6 (7-3) 6-2 6-2 and Viktor Troicki beat Evgeny Donskoy of Russia 7-6 (7-4) 6-4 6-0.
Italian Simone Bolelli eased past Frenchman Nicolas Mahut 6-4 6-2 6-2, while Diego Schwartzman of Argentina accounted for Russian Andrey Rublev 0-6 6-4 6-2 6-7 (3-7) 9-7.
Ukrainian Sergiy Stakhovsky defeated Lu Yen-Hsun of Taiwan 6-3 6-4 7-6 (7-4) and Briton Aljaz Bedene overcame American Ryan Harrison 6-4 6-0 3-6 6-1.