Rafael Nadal vs. Quentin Halys: Score and Reaction from 2015 French Open
Rafael Nadal began his 2015 French Open campaign on Tuesday with a simple 6-3, 6-3, 6-4 victory over 18-year-old Quentin Halys.
The defending champion has won nine of the last 10 Roland Garros titles and rarely looked in trouble against the ambitious Halys, who failed to find consistency in front of his local crowd. The tournament's Twitter account provided confirmation of Nadal's win:
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Although Halys attempted to trouble Nadal with point-winning shots, the youngster's margin for error was small, as he gave up a break point in the opening game via a quartet of unforced errors. Halys hit hard and with unwavering confidence, but Nadal quickly raced to a 4-1 lead. The Roland Garros Twitter account highlighted Nadal's quality shortly after this moment:
Halys secured a break of his own to make the score 4-3, but his movement couldn't match Nadal's powerful forehand, which was particularly effective down the line.
Rafa exploited this to make himself comfortable again, and he watched as two further unforced errors saw Halys give up the first set.
Halys quickly racked up his 20th unforced error in the first game of the second set, but he remained calm enough to win the next game with an ace, as reported by the tournament's official stats site.
He began to tire from here, and, unfortunately for the youngster, he increasingly began to play to Nadal's strengths. Halys' shots became wildly unpredictable, continuing to leave the court open as Nadal made it 5-2 in the second set. Nadal received three set points for the second time in the match, and after 73 minutes, he took a two-set lead.
Halys opened the third with a decisive service game, taking his first set lead of the contest. Nadal levelled at 2-2 and with a slight step backward, began to punish Halys' returns, which started to regularly fall short of the baseline. Despite getting the score back to 5-4 in the third, Halys was unable to take the next step and secure a set against the defending champ.
Nadal upped his intensity a little without exerting himself too much to serve out the match. Halys fought until the very last, but he saw his time on the big stage cut short by two final unforced errors.
It's fair to say Nadal should be pleased with how things progressed on Tuesday. While Halys didn't consistently put him under pressure, the Frenchman's variety of shots kept Nadal sharp and on his toes. The clay-court legend was able to find his range and explore the court with little hassle in the end, but he will rightfully gain confidence after exiting the recent Madrid and Rome Masters competitions early.
Nadal spoke to Eurosport about his progress after the match, as tweeted by David Law of BBC Sport:
Three-time French Open winner Mats Wilander was complimentary of Nadal's performance on Eurosport, as tweeted by Law:
Halys, who is currently ranked 296th in the world, should be applauded for trying to take the match to Nadal. It would have been easy for him to sit back and take a beating, but he tried to make things happen.
The result was a total of 52 unforced errors, but Halys deserves credit for attacking the French Open's best-ever player. Such self-belief will stand him in good stead for the future.
Nadal harbours the more immediate hopes of winning the Grand Slam, and he moves on to face Alexandr Dolgopolov or Nicolas Almagro in the second round.
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