Nadal powers into 4th round

Right from the getgo in Court Philippe Chatrier, things were not looking good for Rafael Nadal’s latest French Open foil: The 10-time champion at Roland Garros won the first 12 points against Richard Gasquet.

“I started badly,” Gasquet said.

Well, that’s one possible explanation. Another is much simpler. To wit: He was facing the mighty Nadal — winner of all 16 matches this pair has played against each other as pros — and on red clay, to boot. Nadal eventually lost points, of course, but never relented in a meaningful way en route to a 6-3, 6-2, 6-2 third-round victory that was only his latest declaration of dominance at this Grand Slam tourney.

“Once he’s ahead,” Gasquet lamented, “it becomes impossible.”

Consider the streaks the No. 1-ranked Nadal has amassed. He has won 12 consecutive matches at Roland Garros; the last loss was against Novak Djokovic in 2015.

He has won 34 completed sets in a row, too, which eclipsed his own previous best of 32 and now stands second in French Open history to Bjorn Borg’s 41 from 1979-81.

He is 82-2 for his career at Roland Garros, 107-2 in bestof-five-set clay-court matches anywhere.

“It’s no surprise to anyone,” observed Gasquet, who was seeded 27th in Paris but has been ranked as high as No. 7 and made it to three Grand Slam semifinals.

Nadal now meets 70thranked Maximilian Marterer, a 22-year-old German who will be appearing in the fourth round of a major tournament for the first time.