Rafa Nadal in the pink as he begins quest for record-breaking seventh title

The second-seeded Spaniard had little trouble yesterday against Simone Bolelli, of Italy, winning 6-2, 6-2, 6-1 on Court Philippe Chatrier – the same stadium where Nadal has won six of his ten Grand Slam titles.

Nadal, who is tied with Bjorn Borg with six French Open titles, improved his record to 46-1 at Roland Garros. His only loss came against Robin Soderling in the fourth round in 2009.

Nadal’s not worried about the record just yet, though.

“We are in the second round,” he said. “I have enough work to do thinking about the next round, and not think about if Bjorn will be here or if I’m going to play the final. That’s day-by-day and we’ll see.”

Against Bolelli, Nadal made only 18 unforced errors, fewer than half as many as his opponent. From 2-2 in the first set, Nadal won eight games in a row to take control.

“I think I did what I had to do today,” Nadal said. “I played probably with less stress or nerves than in other first rounds in the past.”

Claycourt specialist David Ferrer, a quarter-finalist twice here and the sixth seed, eased to a 6-3, 6-4, 6-1 victory over unheralded Slovakian Lukas Lacko.

Serbian Janko Tipsarevic was briefly put off his stride when an elderly spectator had to be helped from the stands in mid-game during the third set after suffering from the heat on Court One.

The eighth seed recovered his concentration to defeat American Sam Querry 2-6, 6-4, 7-6, 6-3 and was full of praise for his opponent afterwards.

“He was playing out of his mind, hitting winners from everywhere, playing a little bit outside how you normally should play on clay,” Tipsarevic told a news conference. “All credit to him. Everything was going in. I’m happy that I managed to stay positive, stay quiet, not really talk too much when somebody is killing me on the court like he did in the first set.”

Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic are in second-round action in Paris today, taking on Adrian Ungur and Blaz Kavcic respectively.