King of clay Rafael Nadal has been given a bit of a workout by German qualifier Yannick Maden before the 11-time champion advanced into the third round of the French Open.
The 114th-ranked Maden broke Nadal twice in the fiercely contested third set on a sunny afternoon on Court Suzanne Lenglen, before eventually succumbing 6-1 6-2 6-4 in two hours and nine minutes on Tuesday.
Fancied sixth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas also had no free ride against Bolivia’s Hugo Dellien, fighting from 4-2 down in the fourth set in a 4-6 6-0 6-3 7-5 comeback victory.
Promising Australian Alexei Popyrin exited the slam after 6-4 7-6 (7-4) 6-4 loss to Serbian Laslo Djere.
Later in the day compatriot Alex De Minaur will play Spaniard Pablo Carreno Busta, while 20-time grand slam winner Roger Federer, back at the tournament for the first time since 2015, faces German lucky loser Oscar Otte.
Otte will hope for a showing as decent of that of Maden, who did well against Nadal and managed to spend 12 minutes more on court against the Spanish giant than compatriot Yannick Hanfmann in the first round.
The 29-year-old did not get on the scoreboard until the sixth game of the first set but in the third set broke back for 3-3 and 4-4 before Nadal got the deciding break in the following game.
Nadal then served out the match to raise his astonishing Roland Garros record to 88-2 with 43 winners to the 15 from Maden; setting up a third-round date with Belgian 27th seed David Goffin, a 6-2 6-4 6-3 winner over Serbia’s Miomir Kecmanovic.
“He is a good player who had a lot of confidence after four wins here. It was an important victory for me,” Nadal said in an on-court interview.
Tsitsipas is seen as a contender but needed a big effort against the 86th-ranked Dellien before becoming the first Greek in the Paris third round in 52 years.
Dellien took the opening set despite needing treatment after twisting his left ankle in the eighth game. Tsitsipas had to fight hard even in the second he won 6-0, with the fourth game alone going via deuce eight times.
Dellien broke in the first game of the fourth set en route to a 4-2 lead, with Tsitsipas hitting one ball with his frame as it sailed right into the hand of the chair umpire on Court Simonne Mathieu.
Tsitsipas eventually broke back and went 5-4 up, missed three match points in the next game but wrapped up matters two games later with a forehand passing shot.