Rafael Nadal has put down a marker at the French Open after storming through his first-round match against Sam Groth in straight sets on Tuesday.
The 'king of clay', who has won nine titles at Roland Garros, earned a 6-1 6-1 6-1 victory in just over an hour and 20 minutes in Paris.
Groth tried to hold Nadal down by initially saving two break points in his second service game of the first set, but the Spaniard found a way through.
From that point, Nadal, who has 14 Grand Slam titles to his name, dominated on his favourite surface as he took less than half an hour at a time to win each set.
Australia's Groth managed to hit 10 aces, but he could only get three games on the board overall and failed to create a single break point.
