• French Open, Day Three

Nadal forced to dig deep against plucky Mina

Rafael Nadal overcame a tricky first hurdle © Getty Images

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Day Three in pictures
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Rafael Nadal was forced to dig deep in order to overcome the stern challenge offered by Gianni Mina in the first round of the French Open.

The world No. 2 had to perform at something close to his peak during a 6-2 6-2 6-2 victory that was more of a test than he perhaps anticipated - Mina is ranked over 650 places below Nadal, and is competing at his first Grand Slam.

Nadal has now lost just once in 32 matches at the French Open - a tournament he has won on four occasions - and he remains unbeaten on the red dust in 2010.

With a record like that to contend with, the omens never looked good for Nadal's 18-year-old opponent - but Mina acquitted himself with distinction in a surprisingly closely-fought first set.

The opener was a story of missed opportunies for Mina, who had reason to feel aggrieved to have lost by a four-game margin. He picked up at least one break point in each of Nadal's service games, but he failed to maintain his composure when opportunities presented themselves.

It was not Nadal's best set on clay - he looked dissatisfied as he traipsed off the court at the end of it - but he required only fleeting displays of his genius, particularly as Mina began to tire mentally and physically in the latter stages.

Mina's energy reserves did not appear to have diminished significantly during the second set, but again - despite having his moments - Mina was eventually overwhelmed by the onslaught of blistering forehands coming from the other end. As the second stanza progressed, Mina found his feet creeping further behind the baseline during rallies as began to enter damage limitation mode.

He rallied in the final set, stepping forward to again cause Nadal a few problems, but there was a sense of inevitability to the Spaniard's straight-sets victory by the time it eventually came. He moves on to face Horacio Zeballos, conqueror of Martin Fischer in a five-set epic.

Andy Roddick had to battle hard to produce an impressive comeback to move past Jarkko Nieminen in Paris.

Fernando Verdasco cruised into round two © Getty Images

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Playing in his first match on clay this season, having pulled out of the Madrid Masters with a stomach virus, Roddick was put through his paces by the Finn as he ground out a 6-2 4-6 4-6 7-6(4) 6-3

After a bright start, the world No. 8 looked rusty as he allowed the Finn back into the match. It was not for lack of trying, as Roddick became increasingly frustrated as his aggressive approaches to the net were being countered with some blistering passing shots by Nieminen.

The sixth seed looked set to continue his abysmal record at Roland Garros, on the brink of his fifth first-round defeat, but dug deep to take the match to a fifth set, where he grabbed a crucial break to go 4-3 up and the No. 69 could find no response.

Fernando Verdasco cruised into the second round with a victory over Igor Kunitsyn. The seventh seed needed less than two hours to seal a comfortable 6-4 6-2 6-2 victory as he was barely troubled. Having reached three finals on clay already this season, ths Spaniard is high on confidence and made huge inroads into Kunitsyn's weak second serve as he broke his Russian opponent six times.

With 27 wins on clay to his name this year, No. 9 seed David Ferrer looks a good bet for a place in the later stages. He encountered no troubles in his match against David Guez, converting eight of ten break-point opportunities during a 6-1 6-3 6-1 triumph.

2003 winner Juan Carlos Ferrero rolled back the years as he outclassed Pablo Cuevas to seal a 6-4 6-3 6-1 victory. Lleyton Hewitt was another who harked back to past glories as he raced into the round of 64 by beating home favourite Jeremy Chardy.

Juan Monaco was the shock exit of the day as he was sent crashing out at the hands of world No. 141 Grega Zemlja 7-6(6) 3-6 7-5 6-3.

Elsewhere, Jurgen Melzer and Philipp Kohlschreiber moved into round two, while Robby Ginepri stunned fellow American Sam Querrey.

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