FRENCH OPEN
Venue: Roland Garros Date: 24 May - 7 June
Coverage: Live on BBC Red Button, live streaming and daily text commentary on BBC Sport website, updates on BBC Radio 5 Live plus second week commentary on BBC 5 Live Sports Extra. TV coverage on Eurosport.
Nadal is now unbeaten in a record 30 matches at Roland Garros
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World number one Rafael Nadal powered his way into the third round of the French Open, beating Russian Teimuraz Gabashvili 6-1 6-4 6-1.
After taking the first set comfortably, the Spaniard was made to work harder for the second but still prevailed.
Gabashvili showed spirit but was ultimately powerless to prevent Nadal sealing the match in straight sets.
Seventh seed Gilles Simon is also through after a 7-5 6-0 6-1 win over American Robert Kendrick.
Gabashvili began extremely well, taking the first three points of the match to have three break points, but Nadal quickly refocused and claimed the next five to avert danger.
The top seed may not have had it entirely his own way for the remainder of the set but the power and accuracy of his forehand was simply too much for Gabashvili and Nadal was able to wrap it up for the loss of just one game.
In the second set Gabashvili produced more than double Nadal's winners with 12 to five, which goes someway towards explaining his increased competitiveness - represented by four games won - throughout the set.
606: DEBATE
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However, a more decisive and telling statistic was the Russian's 16 unforced errors to the Spaniard's seven, which assisted the latter in taking the set and a 2-0 lead.
Whilst the result was never in doubt, particularly when Nadal rushed to a 4-0 third-set advantage, the Russian still provided moments of resistance to take away some pride from what was essentially an impressive Nadal procession to round three.
Nadal's victory means he has now bettered Chris Evert's record of 30 successive wins at Roland Garros, as he chases five successive French Open titles.
Evert set her sequence between 1974 and 1981, although she didn't play from 1976-1978.
Next up for Nadal is either Andrey Golubey of Kazakhstan or Australia's former world number one Lleyton Hewitt.
Simon needed five sets to get past Wayne Odesnik in the first round but the Frenchman had it easier on Wednesday, making round three with a comfortable straight-sets win over Kendrick, another American.
Eighth-seeded Spaniard Fernando Verdasco comfortably beat German Philipp Petzschner 6-1 6-1 6-3.
Chilean Fernando Gonzalez, seeded twelfth, scored a similarly emphatic victory over Rui Machado, beating the Portuguese 6-3 6-2 6-3, but his compatriot Nicolas Massu was beaten 6-1 6-1 6-2 by the 17th-seeded Swiss Stanilas Wawrinka.
The number 13 seed Marin Cilic of Croatia resoundingly beat Israel's Dudi Sela 6-0 6-3 6-1 whilst Radek Stepanek, seeded 18, was a 6-4 4-6 6-4 6-4 winner over France's Mathieu Montcourt.
French veteran Fabrice Santoro, who has made a record 67 Grand Slam appearances, finished off his last match at Roland Garros, losing 6-3 6-1 3-6 6-4 to Belgium's Christophe Rochus in a contest carried over from Tuesday's rain-affected play.
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