Rafa rampages into last 32

Rafael Nadal powered on his merry way at Roland-Garros on Thursday, brushing aside southpaw Guido Pella for the loss of just four games and setting up a nostalgic meeting with his friend and home hero, Richard Gasquet.

After Gasquet had defeated Malek Jaziri 6-2 3-6 6-3 6-0, Nadal followed his old French pal onto Court Suzanne-Lenglen and despatched Argentine world No.78 Pella 6-2 6-1 6-1 in just over two hours to set up a third-round contest with a special resonance.

For when they were kids making a name for themselves on the European circuit, both Nadal and Gasquet, born just 15 days apart, were regularly compared to each other as special and rare prodigies.

It turned out, as the 31-year-old Gasquet was reminded by his questioners on Thursday, that while his old sparring partner from Spain went on to become one of the greatest of all-time, a 16-time major winner, it has just never quite happened for the Beziers boy who was the front cover poster boy for a French tennis magazine when he was just nine.

And nothing has summed up the pair’s respective fortunes since than their head-to-head record as professionals. Extraordinarily, for a player as good as Gasquet, he is losing 15-0 in matches played and is on a 25-set losing streak against Rafa that stretches back an entire decade.

Not that Nadal will take anything for granted. He never does. Even if he was taking a day off from his Philippe-Chatrier realm and taking in a sunny afternoon on Court Suzanne-Lenglen instead, some things never change for the monarch of all he surveys at Roland-Garros - as Pella discovered.

For it took the king of clay just over two hours to make his royal procession past the Argentine. After surviving four break points in his opening service game, he switched into his normal imperious mode from mid-set, winning nine straight games.

Pella, unable to unleash the firepower that Simone Bolelli had managed to unsettle Nadal with in the opening round, just went the way of all of Rafa’s last 11 victims here over the last three years - hope-free and set-less. Indeed, Nadal’s now won 31 straight completed sets at Roland-Garros.

So, how can Gasquet possibly hope to fare any better? Playing Nadal, the Frenchman said with delightful understatement, could be “a bit complicated.”

Yet he was at least talking a good game after his win over Jaziri, declaring: “Well, we all know what kind of champion he (Nadal) is, but I want to go there and to do my best. It's a great draw for me. It will be on the centre court. I intend to have a good match.

“It's up to me to find the solutions. Once in Basel we had a very tight match. I found a way. So you want to do something once you get on the court. It's not always easy, but today, as I talk to you, I want to do something. Then we'll see.”

Both Gasquet and Nadal reflected on the enduring nature of their friendship. “We met each other first time when we were 12. We practised hundreds of times together when he came to Mallorca,” said Nadal.

“First thing is he's a very good person, no? He's a very normal guy, one of the guys on the tour that creates good atmosphere. He always has a positive attitude. Not creating no one problem and being a normal person, no? I like him a lot.”

The feeling is mutual. Gasquet was reminded how people used to see them as the whizz-kids of European tennis. “Well, the comparison was not that long, because, okay, we were 13, 14 - but when we got to 18, the comparison was not there anymore,” he said with a smile.

“You know, that's a bit of a problem that there was a comparison with Rafa Nadal … But at least I can still say that I was compared to him at one time.

“I'm not telling you I have dinner with him every night, but he's someone I appreciate. I have known him for a long time. A pleasant person. I have a lot of respect for the champion and the man he is, because he's a very pleasant person outside the court.”

Alas, for Gasquet, Nadal just turns into his worst nightmare once he strides on to the rectangle.