Rafael Nadal breezes past Steve Johnson into Madrid third round

The four-time champion returned to one of his favourite clay court tournaments with an old racquet frame and instantly looked at home as he struck 14 winners during the match.

Johnson, whilst impressing, never really tested Nadal and won just ten points on the Manorcan’s serve.

The win took Nadal to a 36-8 record on the Madrid clay, and with a clay-court title to his name prior to Roland Garos in each of his last 11 years will be confident of securing his fifth crown in the Spanish capital.

Nadal won the 46th clay court event of his career in Buenos Aires back in February and is now just three shy of Guillermo Villas’ record haul of 49.

He will now play Simone Bolelli in the third round of the ATP 1000 event after the Italian beat compatriot Luca Vanni 4-6 6-3 6-2.

David Ferrer also reached the third round with a convincing 6-4 6-0 win over Albert Ramos-Vinolas.

Ferrer has reached the quarter-finals or better on home soil in each of his last five years and got off to the best start as he looks to extend that record.

The Spaniard rattled off 22 winners and converted five of his 13 break points to reach the third round in just 79 minutes.

The 33-year-old is now just five clay-court match wins from joining fellow Spaniard Rafael Nadal as the only active players to reach 300 career victories on the surface. His current record stands at 295-114 on clay.

"He's a really good player, especially on clay courts," Ferrer said of his compatriot Ramos-Vinolas.

"I knew there were going to be some long rallies. He started playing really well. Then I started playing a little bit shorter and he didn't know how to take his advantage. In the second set he had a little bit of physical problems and that's all."

The seventh seed will now play compatriot Fernando Verdasco in the next round after he beat Marin Cilic 6-7(5) 7-6(5) 6-3.

Verdasco was just two points away from defeat, trailing by a set and 5-2 in the second-set breaker, but he dug deep and went through after two hours and 26 minutes.

Earlier sixth seed Tomas Berdych beat Richard Gasquet 7-6(3) 7-5.