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Nadal counts 13 Roland Garros titles among his overall 21 majors
-- the highest among men -- and despite his injury-blighted
buildup to the claycourt tournament he has looked at his usual
best in the first two rounds.
The Spaniard, whose preparations were hampered by a rib injury
and a foot problem, was not keen to talk about his physical
condition.
"I can't try to go very deep in a tournament if I'm worried
about my physical issues every single day," he told reporters.
"So if something happens, I am gonna accept it. But for the
moment I am focused on the tennis."
The Spaniard, who turns 36 next week, will next meet Dutch 26th
seed Botic van de Zandschulp with a potential quarter-final
looming against world number one Novak Djokovic who defeated him
in last year's semi-finals.
Playing under the lights at Court Philippe Chatrier, Nadal
peppered the red clay with winners from both his forehand and
backhand in the first two sets to leave Moutet stranded.
In his first career meeting with the 23-year-old French
wildcard, Nadal broke Moutet's serve four times in the first two
sets but uncharacteristic errors at the start of the third
allowed his opponent to take a 2-0 lead.
Nadal immediately broke back, however, to get the set back on
serve and after another exchange of breaks, the Spaniard broke
Moutet again to seal victory on his first match point.
"Preparation hasn't been perfect so I didn't expect a perfect
start to the tournament," Nadal said.
"But it has been going quite well. I am positive about the
things that I did out there tonight. Of course, there is room to
improve and I need to improve if I want to keep having chances
to go deeper."
(Reporting by Sudipto Ganguly; editing by Ed Osmond)
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