Rafael Nadal Beats Guido Pella in 2nd Round of 2018 French Open

Rafael Nadal cruised past Guido Pella in the second round of the 2018 French Open on Thursday, beating the Argentinian in three short sets, 6-2, 6-1, 6-1.

The men's top seed and defending champion was barely troubled by Pella, who has never advanced past the second round at Roland Garros in his career.

The first set was a routine affair for Nadal, who was better in the rallies early on and pushed for a break as soon as he got the chance.

Pella hung in there for a while, but in the sixth game, the top seed found the breakthrough to grab the advantage.

Just about the only thing that went wrong in the opening set was this interaction with the umpire:

Nadal wouldn't lose another game in the first set, despite Pella's heavy resistance on his own serve.

The Spaniard continued his strong play in the second set, using a similar formula of good baseline play and nearly perfect defence.

The U.S. Open's official Twitter account was so confident in what it was seeing from Nadal, it started to look ahead at his next opponent before the midway point of Thursday's match:

Pella would win just a single serve game in the second set, while Nadal cruised, making things look easy.

The Argentinian did hold serve to start the third set, taking a rare lead in the match, but it didn't matter much:

Nadal would hold and promptly break Pella's serve again, smashing the 28-year-old's confidence for good. He wouldn't win another game, despite a lengthy battle in the last frame.

Tom Perrotta of the Wall Street Journal was in awe of what he saw:

Richard Gasquet is next for Nadal. The Frenchman hasn't won a set against him in a decade, per Christopher Clarey of the New York Times.