Nadal, without doubts or certainties

A

does not like to

lose even in training, let alone ludo, distraction essential in each of their trips.

It so happens that this year in Paris, his team is missing a fourth element to complete the board due to the access restrictions imposed by the tournament organization and history does not end up doing excessively well in the games he plays to kill time with his coach, Carlos Moyà, and his physical trainer, Rafael Maymò.

“Now we play three.

Turbos, turbo-ludo.

And I'm in a bad time, I'm not fine lately… ”, he said after enjoying a pleasant second round against the American Mackenzie McDonald, reduced unceremoniously: 6-1, 6-0 and 6-3, in 1h 40.

• Nadal enjoys McDonald's

• 'Long live the clay!', By TONI NADAL

The Mallorcan, cited in the third season with Italian Stefano Travaglia (6-4, 2-6, 7-6, 4-6 and 6-2 to Kei Nishikori), who also spends hours watching series and reading, and that yesterday his father Sebastià and his sister Maribel arrived in the city, although he resigns himself because he cannot see them.

In the midst of the strange sensation, Nadal fuels and progresses adequately, but the landscape, like the hazy sky of Paris, does not quite clear up.

Neither one way nor the other.

That is, he has solved his first two games correctly, but neither the rivals (Gerasimov in the premiere) nor the context (relative good weather both days) allow him to draw clear conclusions.

"I don't think it's a game that lets me know where I am.

I have won with a positive result, so this is where I am.

I have won two matches in three sets and when you get results like today it means that you are not bad, and that you don't make many mistakes and make a difference.

I know the next round will demand more of me.

What can I improve?

The dynamism, some errors in the blows… In the end, I trust that the level of demand will lead me there ”, he expressed when he was asked where he is, taking into account that he is approaching this Roland Garros without having practically competed.

As happened in the premiere, yesterday the weather gave him a good day, at about 15 degrees of temperature, but the forecasts anticipate much rougher days.

So far, Nadal has not been able to test himself with completely real fire, indoors, in cold conditions and with the new artificial light installed in the Chatrier, nor have the opponents he dispatched led him to uncomfortable corners.

Therefore, in line with this aseptic tournament that autumn brings, the Spaniard went to the hotel with the impression of having fulfilled his part, but still without certainties that allow him to guess where he is going.

“The sensations are good and I think I am taking steps forward: I have increased the speed of the serve a little [from 188 km / h to 191 for the peak, from 177 to 181 the average for the first and from 148 to 152 the second], I have done damage with the

and maybe I can dare a little more with the winning cross backhand, because in training I'm doing it and in games maybe I'm being a bit conservative… But I have done many things more or less well.

In the end, I have played five games in the last seven months, and the comebacks are not easy ”, he radiographed in the analysis with the journalists.

In any case, Nadal faces with optimism the platform of the first week, fundamental in all Grand Slam to catch the pulse of the competition, calibrate the game and obtain guarantees;

more in these circumstances in which the tennis players are still a bit confused because the transition from cement to clay was immediate.

“This year, having played so little, every time I go back to the court it means gaining confidence.

Now [on Friday] I have an important test and I have to be prepared.

It's a game that can help me to click a bit, if things go well, and I must be mentally prepared to come out with clear ideas, "said number two.

Yesterday's was the 74th victory at

without giving up a set and the

(6-0) to McDonald in the second set is the 37th he has obtained in a big one, one behind Novak Djokovic and still far from the tennis player who dominates. that facet, Andre Agassi (50).

At noon, he enjoyed an opponent without any weapon on sand - the American had only won three games on this surface in his entire career - and conditions practically to ask of mouth, taking into account the fate that other players have suffered this week .

"Today it was not so cold, and when it is not so cold at least you do not feel a stone in the racket," he specified in reference to the new ball.

“The problem is when it is cold, and I think that for the next few days they will return to thermal sensations of four, five or six degrees.

That's when you see a ball with little sensation.

But with this temperature ... I would already sign to play with these conditions!

They are playable, acceptable for everyone ”, concluded the Manacor team on a day in which Dominic Thiem held his pulse (6-1, 6-3 and 7-6 to Jack Sock) and in which Spanish tennis also celebrated the advance of Pedro Martínez.

The 23-year-old Valencian beat Mikhail Kukushkin 6-3, 6-1 and 6-0 and virtually reached the

of the ATP.