Rafael Nadal of Spain hits a return during the men's singles first round match against Benoit Paire of France at the French Open Tennis Tournament 2017 in Roland Garros, Paris, France, on May 29, 2017. Nadal won 3-0. (Xinhua/Han Yan)
PARIS, May 29 (Xinhua) -- Rafael Nadal kicked off his campaign for a record 10th French Open trophy with an easy win of 6-1, 6-4, 6-1 against host player Benoit Paire under two hours in men's singles first round on Monday.
The fourth seed won 8 out of 18 break points, and was only contested in the second set, where he was broken twice by the Frenchman and trailed 3-1.
The Spanish star came back into the game to level the score at 4-4, before taking the next two games for a two-set lead.
"At the start, I always feel happy about the victory. He's an uncomfortable opponent that already had some good victories this year," said Nadal.
"I played a very good first set. During the second I suffered a little bit bad point. After that I made the break straight and then finished a close set, then it was a little bit less difficult," he added.
Nadal's opponent in the second round will be Robin Haase of the Netherlands, who defeated Australian Alex De Minaur 6-2, 6-3, 6-1.
"It's important to serve a little bit better than what I did today," commented Nadal.
