Rafael Nadal Defeats Robin Haase in 2nd Round of 2017 French Open

Fourth-seeded Rafael Nadal steamrolled his way into the third round of the 2017 French Open on Wednesday with a 6-1, 6-4, 6-3 victory over Robin Haase at Stade Roland Garros in Paris.

With the win, the nine-time French Open champion advanced past the second round at Roland Garros for the 13th consecutive year.

Rafa improved to 3-0 against Haase in his career and a remarkable 74-2 on the French Open clay.

Nadal dispatched the Netherlands native in less than two hours due largely to a dominant performance on serve.

The Spaniard dropped just 14 service points in the match and never faced a break point, while breaking Haase on five occasions.

Nadal also dictated the overall pace of play with 33 winners and just 13 unforced errors in comparison to Haase's 24 winners and 28 unforced errors.

As seen in this GIF courtesy of the Roland-Garros Twitter account, Nadal's trademark grace on the red stuff worked to his advantage as well:

Nadal has just one loss on clay so far this season, and his 2017 form suggests he may once again be the player to beat at the French Open.

Rafa hasn't won a French Open or Grand Slam title since 2014, however, and he was forced to withdraw from the third round at Roland Garros last year due to injury.

Nadal did reach the Australian Open final earlier this season, though, and appears healthier and better than he has been in years.

Following Wednesday's win, the 14-time Grand Slam champion expressed his joy to be performing at a high level on Court Philippe Chatrier, per Pau Ferragut of TTdeporte:

Nadal will move on to face Georgia's Nikoloz Basilashvili in the third round of the tournament. 

It will mark the first meeting between the players, and could pose Nadal's biggest challenge thus far at Roland Garros.

Basilashvili advanced to the Lyon Open semifinals and has upset both Gilles Simon and Viktor Troicki thus far in the French Open.