Carlos Moya, coach of world No. 1 Rafael Nadal, will be breaking down Rafa’s performances for ATPWorldTour.com. Nadal hopes to lift the trophy for the 11th time.

On Tuesday, the defending champion defeated Simone Bolelli 6-4, 6-3, 7-6(9) to advance to the second round, where he’ll face Guido Pella for a place in the Round of 32. Moya lists five key takeaways from Nadal’s opening-round match.

A Victory — With Its Ups And Downs
Today’s match wasn’t the prettiest, but he still managed to win. Getting through the early rounds at a Grand Slam is an ordeal. Yes, he came through in three sets, but the match was a lot tougher than the score suggests [Nadal trailed 6/3 in the third set tie-break and saved four set points]. Rafa had several ups and down, but in the end he came through and that’s what matters. This win will give him confidence going to the later rounds.

Just Roll With The Punches
Rafa has maintained a positive outlook, despite the weather conditions and the rain delay. He understands not everything will go his way and he has taken this in stride. Some elements of his game have been on point while others will come as he gets more matches in. That’s why I’m not too concerned that he wasn’t at his best today.

Let’s Think Positive Thoughts
At one point during the match [against Bolelli], Rafa seemed to be taking his game to the next level. He earned that break point at 3-3 in the second set and I thought Rafa would sprint to the finish. That wasn’t the case, obviously, and maybe some doubts set in when things didn’t go that way. Still, we’re staying positive and hoping to make some corrections ahead of the next match.

We’ll Get There When We Get There
Last year’s results here at Roland Garros can’t be repeated. [Nadal didn’t drop a set en route to his 10th Roland Garros title in 2017]. Just because he didn’t get off to the ideal start doesn’t mean we’re panicking. Looking back, Rafa’s start to the US Open last year was difficult as well, and he wound up winning the tournament. We just need to get through the early rounds, find our rhythm and everything else will fall into place.

Bolelli Was Taking His Chances
Bolelli did what he had to do. Some points were like a coin toss; he just went for it. That was the Italian’s best option against Rafa, and Rafa knew his best option was to try and neutralise that sort of playing style. So Rafa did his all to eliminate the element of luck by limiting Bolelli’s shot selection. Like I said, we still have areas in which we need to improve and make opponents feel even less settled. It was difficult to achieve that against Bolelli in the first round.

The past several days have been difficult ones for Roberto Bautista Agut after the passing of his mother, Ester, one week ago. Things didn’t get any easier on Monday, but the Spaniard persevered and battled his way into the second round at Roland Garros by defeating Denis Istomin 6-2, 6-7(3), 1-6, 6-4, 6-4 in three hours and 30 minutes.

“That was a very emotional match, especially with everything that’s happened in the past week,” Bautista Agut said. “It was an encounter filled with highs and lows … it isn’t easy to keep your mind on the court when you’ve got all these thoughts and feelings inside your head.”

The 13th seeded Spaniard managed to gather himself going into the fourth set and finished the match with a total of 48 winners, 18 of those coming in the final two sets.

“When I was two sets to one down, I knew I had no choice but to raise my game and intensity, and I ended up playing really well from that point on,” Bautista Agut said.

Bautista Agut, who meets Colombia’s Santiago Giraldo in the second round, is determined to stay upbeat following the death of his mother and is at peace with his decision to play in Paris.

“The past few days have been difficult and it isn’t easy to get through circumstances like the one I’m in right now,” Bautista Agut said. “I believed the best thing to do would be to come (to Roland Garros) and move forward, not stay at home or hide from it all but rather keep fighting, just as I did here today.”

Can you identify this Roland Garros dark horse?

He is an impressive 15-5 so far in this year’s clay-court swing, including ATP World Tour qualifying and main-draw matches. During the run, he has defeated seven Top 50 players, including four in the Top 20 and two in the Top 10.

He reached the final at the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell, an ATP World Tour 500 event, but is still yet to celebrate his 20th birthday. He is at a career-high No. 39 in the ATP Rankings, so he is not yet on most people’s radar to go deep at Roland Garros. That needs to change.

He is the in-form 19-year-old Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas.

An Infosys ATP Beyond The Numbers analysis of the #NextGenATP star on clay this year reveals that he is already serving at a Top 10 level. He is ranked 10th best on Tour in 2018 on the red dirt, holding serve 85.37 per cent (140/164) of the time. In comparison, No. 1 Rafael Nadal is holding serve 87.12 per cent (142/163) – just 1.75 percentage points higher than the Greek teenager.

When the big points have rolled around on serve, Tsitsipas has handled the pressure of break points extremely well on clay this season, saving 68 per cent (51/75). This has him ranked 14th best on clay in 2018 in this important category.

Tsitsipas has directed most of his first serves out wide on clay this season in the Deuce court, making 55 per cent wide, eight per cent at the body and 37 per cent down the T. Even though the wide slider goes to the typically stronger forehand return, it pulls the returner off the court, immediately creating a big hole to the vacant Ad court to direct an aggressive Serve +1 forehand.

Read More: #NextGenATP Tsitsipas Finding Best Form In A Hurry

The other smart strategy Tsitsipas has employed when serving wide in the Deuce court on clay is to actually let the returner recover back towards the middle of the court, and then hit behind them. Playing behind on clay works better than hard court, as players can’t stop and change directions nearly as quickly.

What Tsitispas must improve this week at Roland Garros is to break serve more often. He is just 43rd best on clay this season with Return Games Won, at 25.95 per cent (41/158), according to the ATP Stats LEADERBOARDS, powered by Infosys Nia Data.

His two best wins this season on clay were defeating then-No. 7 Dominic Thiem 6-3, 6-2 in the quarter-finals of Barcelona and beating then-No. 8 Kevin Anderson the next week at the Millennium Estoril Open 6-7(3), 6-3, 6-3.

This time last year, Tsitsipas was ranked No. 205 and battled through three rounds of qualifying at Roland Garros before falling in the first round 7-6(5), 7-5, 6-4 to Ivo Karlovic. Tsitsipas played an ATP Challenger Tour event both before and after Roland Garros in 2017.

What a difference a year makes. This year, his lead-in form suggests he may very well be around in the second week of Roland Garros, where anything is possible.