Fresh from winning the Monte Carlo Masters Rafael Nadal continued his fine form with a 6-3, 6-2 win over fellow Spaniard Marcel Granollers to reach the third round of the Barcelona Open yesterday.
Nadal is looking to equal Argentine legend Guillermo Vilas’s record of 49 clay-court tournament wins and capture a ninth title in the Catalan capital this week after suffering shock defeats in the past two years.
The 14-time Grand Slam champion was rarely troubled despite losing his serve in the opening game as he fought back to move into a 4-1 lead and sealed victory after just over 90 minutes on court to improve his head-to-head record over Granollers to 4-0.
“The start was very difficult because it was very windy,” said Nadal.
“I started with less depth than I wanted, but it was very important to break back straight away and from that point on it was more straightforward.”
Nadal will face another Spaniard in Albert Montanes in the last 16 on Thursday.
“I have been playing very well in Monte Carlo, but this is a new tournament and every day there is a difficult opponent.”
Defending champion Kei Nishikori is likely to be Nadal’s biggest threat and the Japanese extended his unbeaten run in Barcelona to 11 matches with a comfortable 6-4, 6-2 win over the Netherlands’ Thiemo de Bakker. Nishikori needed just over an hour to dispose of the world number 102 as he broke in the first game of each set and held serve throughout to win his first match of the season on clay.
The world number six, who also won in the title in 2014, will face French 13th seed Jeremy Chardy in the next round.
Nadal could face his conqueror from last year’s US Open, Italian Fabio Fognini, in the quarter-finals after he won just his fourth match of the season 3-6, 6-0, 6-1 against Russia’s Mikhail Youzhny.
German teenage sensation Alexander Zverev is also into the third round after edging past 15th seed Thomaz Bellucci 6-3, 6-7 (3/7), 7-5.

Goerges and Petkovic get wins; Safarova loses again
Former champion Julia Goerges and Andrea Petkovic carried over Fed Cup momentum for first round victories before Angelique Kerber was to start her title defence yesterday for the hosts at the Porsche Grand Prix.
The 2011 champion Goerges beat Alize Cornet 6-4, 6-0 and Petkovic also prevailed over a French opponent, 6-2, 6-4 against Kristina Mladenovic.
Australian Open champion Angelique Kerber was to face fellow German Annika Beck in the first second-round game later. The four Germans had won a Fed Cup relegation tie 4-1 in Romania to stay in the World Group, with Kerber winning two singles rubbers and Petkovic getting the decisive third point.
Goerges, ranked 57th and in the draw via a wildcard, prevailed in 1 hour 16 minutes to raise her perfect record over the 48th-ranked Cornet to 5-0. She squandered an early 3-1 lead but did not allow Cornet on the scoreboard again from 4-4 en route to victory on first match point.
“I was very nervous in the beginning,” Goerges said. “I had my biggest career success here, therefore it is always special to play here.”
Goerges next runs into Italian sixth seed Roberta Vinci, as last year’s US Open finalist outlasted Russia’s Ekaterina Makarova 7-6 (7-3), 4-6, 6-4 in 2:20 hours.
World number 30 Petkovic broke the 28th-placed Mladenovic twice to take the first set. The players traded breaks in the first four games of the second before Petkovic clinched victory on a double fault from Mladenovic.
“The Fed Cup was tough mentally but gave us a big boost,” said Petkovic, whose left thigh was heavily taped. The German ended a series of three straight first-round defeats in recent weeks but now faces into Polish top seed Agnieszka Radwanska today. “I have never won against her. But we had some close matches and I am looking forward to tomorrow,” the former top-10 player said.
Caroline Garcia was a third French casualty on the day, going out 6-2, 6-2 against Monica Niculescu who now plays two-time Wimbledon champ Petra Kvitova.
Last year’s French Open finalist Lucie Safarova meanwhile failed yet again to get her first victory of the year as the eighth seed lost a Czech duel against Karolina Pliskova 7-6 (7-4), 4-6, 7-5 in 2:30 hours, saving six match points but falling on Pliskova’s seventh.
Safarova is 0-5 in 2016 after suffering from a bacterial illness last year which also forced her to miss the Australian Open.