Rafael Nadal Defeats Donald Young with Ease in 2nd Round of 2017 Wimbledon

Rafael Nadal advanced to the third round of the 2017 Wimbledon Championships after defeating Donald Young 6-4, 6-2, 7-5 on Wednesday. 

Young had the unenviable honour of battling against an in-form Nadal, who made relatively light work of the American in a little more than two hours, avenging last year's second-round exit.

Nadal, the tournament's fourth overall seed, will face Karen Khachanov in the next phase of the competition in the hopes that he can make it into the final eight for the first time since 2011.

The narrative immediately began to unfold in favour of the Spaniard, who pulled back from 40-15 down to break his opponent in the first game via an unforced error and begin his first-set ascent.

From there it was a routine showdown between the pair as Young was made to pay for his early error.

The American found some footing and improved his serve in particular with a quick turnaround, failing to face another break point for the remainder of the set, although he failed to force one, either.

Again, Nadal's serve paved the way for him to keep Young on the back foot and ensure any dream of defiance remained just that, even drawing attention from other competitions as he took the first set:

The second set started in almost as miserable fashion as the first for Young, who again suffered a loss of serve at the first request and had his morale hit when Nadal succeeded with an early challenge attempt after the restart.

There was little concern about the two-time Wimbledon winner's serve being broken at this pace, and former Australian and French Open winner Mary Pierce was taken aback by Nadal's class, via BBC 5 live Sport:

Young responded at two games down to get on the board with an ace, but that only seemed to upset his opponent, who fired in three successive winning games to lead 5-1, despite the American fending off four break points on his third serve.

Glimpses of brilliance peered through the cracks in Young's play, but it was too far in between to make an impact as Nadal sealed the second set thanks to the opposition's strike into the net, but not before seeing his first break point.

Thankfully for the neutrals, Young successfully defended his opening serve in the first set and managed to stay on level terms with one of the sport's icons, who was also contributing his share of mistakes around this point.

The two exchanged blows to three games apiece, but it was there a groaning Young—even with the push from a cheering Wimbledon court—couldn't avoid another series of slips to concede the break. Tennis reporter Pau Ferragut showed how that was merely a work of Nadal's craftsmanship, however:

Young remained vigilant in the face of oncoming doom and pulled back level on five games apiece, finally mustering his first break of the match roared on by sections of an SW19 crowd.

Losing back-to-back games clearly didn't sit well with Nadal, however, as he made light work of the last two games, breaking Young for a fifth time before winning the decider to love.

That being said, there was a silver lining for Young after the ATP highlighted he did more damage to the world No. 2 when compared to some of his more recent victims:

His third-round opponent, Khachanov, may have a disadvantage in fatigue considering he's dropped sets in both of his Wimbledon victories so far this year, the latest of which came on Monday, when he beat Thiago Monteiro 3-6, 7-6(5), 7-6(3), 7-6(5).