PARIS — Rafael Nadal’s campaign for a record seventh French Open title began with a straight-sets victory over outclassed Italian Simone Bolelli on Tuesday.
Nadal, defending champion and second seed, thrashed Bolelli 6-2, 6-2, 6-1 in just short of two hours on the sunny Philippe Chatrier court. Playing in a shocking-pink shirt, Nadal completely dominated an error-prone Bolelli, who summed up his ordeal in three words: “Today, no chance”.
Spaniard Nadal, aiming to win his 11th grand slam title, will next play Uzbekistan’s Denis Istomin. 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. The fourth-seeded Murray beat Tatsuma Ito of Japan 6-1, 7-5, 6-0 Tuesday in the first round of the French Open and after the match he revealed some of his secrets for success.
Murray, who reached the semifinals at Roland Garros last year, is bidding to become the first British man since Fred Perry in 1936 to win a Grand Slam tournament. He has already lost in three major finals.
To help him get there, Murray hired Ivan Lendl as coach at the start of this season. Lendl lost his first four Grand Slam finals before winning the French Open in 1984.
Murray hopes the work with Lendl will pay off. “We worked on many, many things. There’s not been one radical change,” Murray said. “If you pick sort of 10 small things to work on and change, that can maybe turn into a big difference.”
