Rafa Nadal stuns fans in ridiculous French Open moment

Rafael Nadal is indeed the King of Clay.

The Spaniard lived up to the nickname in style after leaving tennis fans gobsmacked with an early contender for point of the tournament at the French Open.

The Spaniard proved too much for German qualifier Yannick Maden in their second round match, romping away with a 6-1 6-2 6-4 win in two hours and nine minutes.

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Despite the inevitability of the result, Nadal still found ways to leave viewers in awe of his brilliance on clay.

Arguably the point of the match came during the second set, where the 11-time champion found himself 3-1 up and hoping to take another break point.

Not only did he take it, the Spaniard caused the entire grandstand to rise as one to salute the quality of his tennis.

Made thought he had the point won not once, but twice after following up a deft drop shot with a passing shot at the net that Nadal had no right to retrieve.

The World No.2 was way out of position when Maden scrambled to get a shot at the net deep into the back of the court Nadal was defending.

The 32-year-old Nadal showed a remarkable turn of speed to chase after the shot, but the ball looked to be out of the Spaniard's reach.

Somehow though, he managed to swat the ball back for an unplayable winner, before celebrating wildly as commentators and viewers erupted in delight.

The 114th-ranked Yannick Maden broke the 11-time champion Nadal twice in a fiercely contested third set before eventually succumbing 6-1 6-2 6-4 in two hours and nine minutes.

"It was a good match for the first two sets. Not unbelievable, but with positive feelings. Then in the third I think I lost a little bit of concentration and intensity. And then the match became difficult. That's all," Nadal said.

"That's just about concentration, my feeling, because the feeling on the match had been positive. Positive thing is every time that I had the mistake, then I had the break again, and that's the good news."

Nadal's victory raised his astonishing Roland Garros record to 88-2 and set up a third-round date with Belgian 27th seed David Goffin, a 6-2 6-4 6-3 winner over Serbia's Miomir Kecmanovic.

Federer into third round alongside Nadal

The Spaniard was joined in the third round by 20-time grand slam winner Roger Federer, who was also given a workout by a German qualifier.

German lucky loser Oscar Otte refused to be intimidated by the packed 15,000-seat centre court or Federer's aura, with the world No.114 impressing with huge groundstrokes and big serves before losing 6-4 6-3 6-4.

The Swiss great, back at the tournament for the first time since 2015, broke once in the deciding stage of each set to progress into the last 32 against Norway's Casper Ruud.

"I didn't know his game at all. It was very complicated. I am very relieved," Federer said in an on-court interview.

The pair were joined by Greek sixth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas, Japanese seventh seed Kei Nishikori and Stan Wawrinka, but Australian hopes Alex de Minaur and Alexei Popyrin were both dumped out on Wednesday.

Tsitsipas beat Bolivian Hugo Dellien 4-6 6-0 6-3 7-5 to become the first Greek man to reach the French Open third round since 1967.

The sixth seed, tipped as the youngster most likely to have a title run this year, said the surface of the Court Simonne Mathieu felt slow, forcing him to engage in long rallies with a player well grooved in the art of grinding it out on the dirt.

Japanese seventh seed Kei Nishikori shook off a slow start to topple local favourite Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 4-6 6-4 6-4 6-4, while 2015 champion Stan Wawrinka recorded an impressive 6-1 6-4 6-0 win over Chile's Cristian Garcin.

Australian teenager Popyrin bowed out 6-4 7-6 (7-4) 6-4 to Serb Laslo Djere, while de Minaur was beaten 6-3 6-1 6-1 by Spaniard Pablo Carreno Busta.

Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov came from a set behind to outlast 11th seed Marin Cilic 6-7 (7-3) 6-4 4-6 7-6 (7-2) 6-3 in their heavyweight clash.

With agencies