No one can stop Rafael Nadal

There's no one who can stop Rafael Nadal. The Spanish player, ranked number 1 in the world and ten-time Roland Garros champion, advanced to the third round on Thursday. He defeated Argentine Guido Pella (ranked 78th) by 6-2, 6-1, and 6-1.

After two hours and three minutes of play on Thursday, Nadal extends his streak of consecutive sets won on Paris' clay to 32.

The last set he lost there was in his quarterfinal defeat in 2015 against Serbian Novak Djokovic, as in 2016 he withdrew before his third-round match after winning the first two matches in three sets, while in 2017 he was champion, overwhelming his opponents on each occasion.

The Mallorcan, who has accumulated 81 victories at Roland Garros in his career, has had a very positive season on this surface, where he has won his eleventh titles in Monte Carlo and Barcelona, ​​as well as his eighth in Rome.

He only lost one match this year on clay, against Austrian Dominic Thiem (8th in the world) in the quarterfinals of the Masters 1000 in Madrid.

Guido Pella had lost to Nadal in their only previous meeting, at Indian Wells in 2017, also without being able to win a set.

Pella has never managed to surpass the second round in a Grand Slam tournament. He had it difficult this time and he himself admitted that it was "almost impossible" to defeat the king of clay in his favorite tournament.

In the third round of Roland Garros, Nadal will face a more formidable opponent, Frenchman Richard Gasquet, former world number 7 and currently 32nd in the rankings.

Source: AFP

PREVIEW
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LIVE. Rafael Nadal vs Guido Pella play in a second-round match at Roland Garros. The match is for the second round and is broadcasted by ESPN TV ONLINE.

Rafael Nadal, ten-time champion at Roland Garros and number 1 in the world, has won 49 consecutive sets on the clay of Paris. This Tuesday he defeated Italian Simone Bolelli in the first round by 6-4, 6-3, and 7-6 (11/9). The Spanish player now has a record of 80-2 in Paris.

On the other hand, Argentine Guido Pella defeated Portuguese Joao Sousa by 6-2, 6-3, 6-4.

"I want to die," Pella said about facing the Spaniard. "But even the greatest players lose at some point. Can you imagine if it's with me? It would be a dream."

In the only Masters 1000 he played on this surface, in Monte Carlo, he fell to his compatriot Diego Schwartzman in the first round, so in this Roland Garros, he has managed to take a step forward.