French Open: Nadal cruises into fourth round

With the victory, Nadal extended a pair of staggering streaks. He has now won his past 34 completed sets at Roland Garros, breaking his own personal best of 32 in a row from 2007-09. Only Bjorn Borg, who won 41 consecutive sets in 1979-81, has recorded a longer streak in Paris.

In addition, victory for Nadal saw the Spaniard notch his 16th match win against Gasquet at the tour-level.

It was billed as one of the more highly anticipated third-round encounters on the red dirt. After all, Nadal and Gasquet have a long history that dates back to their junior days. But their pro rivalry has been one-way traffic in favour of the Spaniard, and he continued to flex his muscles on a sunny Saturday afternoon on Court Philippe Chatrier.

Nadal blasted out of the gate, claiming the first nine points and 20 of the first 22 points. Gasquet did well to snatch a break back after falling behind 0-5, rifling a backhand winner down the line. But the Frenchman had no answer for the imposing clay-court game of his opponent, constantly being put on the defensive and moved from corner to corner. There was little he could do to counter Nadal's penetrating forehand.

Earlier, Maria Sharapova was back on Roland Garros’ main stage for the first time in three years and put on a dazzling display as she demolished Czech sixth seed Karolina Pliskova 6-2 6-1 to reach the French Open fourth round. Absent from the tournament for the last two years after failing a drugs test in 2016, organisers opted not to roll out the red carpet for her comeback as they scheduled her away from the main Philippe Chatrier court for her opening two matches.

Meanwhile, Rohan Bopanna and his French partner Edouard Roger-Vasselin shocked top seeded Marcelo Melo and Lukasz Kubot in straight sets to reach the men's doubles quarterfinals. The 13th seeded Indo-French team beat the Brazilian-Polish combo 6-4, 7-6(1) in one hour and 30 minutes in the third round.