Story so far: Nadal drops just four games, Halep beats friend Begu

World No.2 Rafael Nadal was not messing around in his second round on Wednesday as he cruised to a 6-1, 6-0, 6-3 victory over American world No.236 Mackenzie McDonald, who entered the tournament using a protected ranking after struggling with hamstring injuries for much of last season.

The 12-time Roland-Garros winner punched his ticket to the last 32 within one hour and 40 minutes and awaits the victor from the clash between Stefano Travaglia and Kei Nishikori.

Nadal improves to 95-2 win-loss at Roland-Garros and continues his bid for a record-equalling 20th Grand Slam title that would put him on level terms with all-time men's leader Roger Federer.

The 34-year-old faced zero break points against McDonald and hit just 15 unforced errors in the whole match.

Women's top seed and 2018 champion Simona Halep navigated a tricky second round against her good friend and fellow Romanian Irina-Camelia Begu 6-3, 6-4 in 83 minutes to reach the last 32 for a fifth consecutive year in Paris.

Begu, former world No.22, dropped out of the top 100 end of last year but is building her ranking up, motivated by the opportunity of playing doubles with Halep at the Tokyo Olympics.

Halep dropped serve twice against Begu on Wednesday, but claimed four service breaks herself to book a rematch with Amanda Anisimova, who ended her title defence at Roland-Garros last year.

Over on Court 7, 20-year-old Roland-Garros debutant Sebastian Korda kept up his impressive run in Paris as he followed his three qualifying victories by taking out Italian veteran Andreas Seppi in the first round and now shocking American No.21 seed John Isner 6-4, 6-4, 2-6, 6-4 to storm into the last 32.

The son of former Australian Open champion Petr Korda, who was a finalist at Roland-Garros in 1990, Sebastian next takes on fellow qualifier Pedro Martinez of Spain.

"I'm over the moon. I'm super happy with the way I played, the way I stayed calm. Yeah, I just played a really good match. Super happy with it," said Sebastian, who is contesting just the second Grand Slam main draw of his young career.

Recent US Open champion Dominic Thiem recorded his ninth consecutive match-win, routing American qualifier Jack Sock 6-1, 6-3, 7-6(6) on Court Suzanne-Lenglen.

The Austrian third seed awaits the winner of the second round between 28th seed Casper Ruud and former Roland-Garros junior champion Tommy Paul.

Meanwhile, Canadian wild card Eugenie Bouchard reached the third round of a major for the first time since the 2017 Australian Open, thanks to a 5-7, 6-4, 6-3 success over Australian Daria Gavrilova.

Ranked 168 in the world, Bouchard is a former semi-finalist in Paris and is slowly regaining the form that saw her make the Wimbledon final back in 2014.

The 26-year-old's next challenge comes in the shape of Polish teenager Iga Swiatek.

No.6 seed Alexander Zverev closed out play on Court Philippe-Chatrier on Wednesday by posting the 15th five-set victory of his career, from 22 contested.

The German US Open runner-up needed four hours to wrestle past home favourite Pierre Hugues-Herbert 2-6, 6-4, 7-6(5), 4-6, 6-4 and set up a third-round showdown with Italian qualifier Marco Cecchinato, the 2018 Roland-Garros semi-finalist.