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PARIS. — Rafa Nadal opened his campaign for a 10th Roland Garros title with a regulation 6-3, 6-3, 6-4 victory over spirited French wild-card Quentin Halys.

Nadal comes into the French Open seeded sixth and, for the first time ever, without a Masters title on clay. And, with Novak Djokovic on a run of five Masters titles in a row and Andy Murray fresh from a victory over the Spaniard in the final of the Madrid Open, he is not short of pretenders to his throne here in Paris.

“I am here to try and play good tennis as I try every year,’ said Nadal with characteristic understatement. ‘My mentality and my goal is the same always.”

As for his 18-year-old opponent, in his first ever match at a Major, only his second on the ATP tour, he found himself on to the centre court of his home Grand Slam against the best clay court player in history. As debuts go this was not the gentlest.

Halys began the match determined to hit out, as good a way as any to approach the thankless task of facing Nadal on clay. But a couple of wild errors gave the 28-year-old Mallorcan a break in the first game of the match.

The Frenchman, standing at 6ft 2in, looked powerful and athletic with plenty of ball-striking ability. But his attacking style came at a cost, as the world No 296 racked up 52 unforced errors.

Nadal, dressed head to toe in blue , had a healthy ratio of 26 winners to 13 errors. When he was able to step into the court and attack a forehand, it was almost invariably the end of the point.

“It’s not easy to play against someone who tries to hit winners from everywhere,” he said. “But my feelings have been good, I think I changed direction well with my forehand, good forehand down the line. I’m happy with the way I played.”

He was playing closer to the baseline than he often does on clay, and it will be interesting to see whether he continues with this aggressive approach throughout the fortnight.

At 3-1, Halys smashed a forehand into the net and followed it up with a comprehensive double fault. He sent a second serve wide to surrender another break. But he continued to press and broke with a huge forehand. The crowd, desperate for something to cheer, erupted. But they were soon forced to applaud Nadal after a leaping backhand overhead.

Normal service was resumed when Halys served to stay in the set. Nadal raced to 0-40 and converted the second set point as Halys hit a high backhand into the net. — DailyMail.