Rafael Nadal beats Simone Bolelli in French Open first round after rain delay
Nadal resists spirited show of aggressive groundstroke hitting by Bolelli to progress
Monday 4 June 2018 13:48, UK
Rafael Nadal began his bid for an 11th French Open title with a rain-delayed straight sets win over lucky loser Simone Bolelli.
The world No 1 eased past his Italian opponent 6-4 6-3 7-6 (11-9) on Tuesday to kick-start the defence of his Roland Garros title.
Adverse weather in Paris forced the postponement to the match that started on Monday, with Nadal three games behind in the third set.
He quickly levelled the third set when play resumed on Tuesday, although the Spaniard was forced into a tie-break where he saved four set points.
Despite having wrapped up his 11th titles on clay in Monte Carlo and Barcelona as well as an eighth in Rome, 31-year-old Spaniard has refused to get too far ahead of himself.
"If you get complacent or too confident with yourself, for sure you won't be happy," said Nadal whose only loss on clay this year came against Dominic Thiem in the Madrid Masters quarter-finals.
"I was able to do all these results because I respect the sport, I respect every opponent, and I respect the competition every day.
"That's the reason I have success, is because I go every day on court knowing that I can win, that I can lose, and that's the sport. So anything can happen."
Elsewhere, third-seeded Marin Cilic kicked off his Roland Garros campaign with a 6-3 7-5 7-6 (7-4) win over James Duckworth of Australia and sixth-seeded South African Kevin Anderson won 6-1 6-2 6-4 against Paolo Lorenzi.
Fellow big server John Isner won 6-3 7-6 (9-7) 7-6 (9-7) against fellow American Noah Rubin.
Canadian teen Denis Shapovalov's first Grand Slam match as a seeded player went about as smoothly as could be a straight-set victory.
The 19-year-old lefty, who is seeded 24th for his Roland Garros main-draw debut, needed just two hours to get past 59th-ranked John Millman of Australia 7-5 6-4 6-2.
Juan Martin del Potro recovered from a poor first set to beat Frenchman Nicolas Mahut 1-6 6-1 6-2 6-4 and will take on either his compatriot Leonardo Mayer or French veteran Julien Benneteau in round two.
