Nadal hits head on camera, then plays beautiful tennis in front of it

The thing about clichés is, they are true for a reason. So when Rafael Nadal nicked his noggin against a camera en route to the new Court Philippe Chatrier, the obligatory reaction was, That'll be his biggest problem of the day.

And, of course, we were right.

For the 87th time in 89 matches at Roland Garros, Rafael Nadal won. His victim this time was Yannick Hanfmann, who mustered six total games against the 11-time French Open champion. In truth, it's one of the better early-round showings for a Nadal opponent.

"Obviously great experience for me," said a relatively upbeat Hanfmann in his post-match press conference. "The atmosphere, the court itself, like, it feels amazing to just play there.

"But then I also had to, like, focus a little bit on the match itself and make it a little bit smaller, and it's actually pretty big, a lot of people."

In first-round matches at majors, Nadal is now 54-2, and he's 15-0 at Roland Garros. Ironically, one of Nadal's toughest matches in Paris came in the first round, when the Spaniard needed five sets to dispatch super-serving American John Isner.

Such duration was not needed today. Hanfmann's offense were not remotely on the level of Nadal's, nor was it enough to break down Rafa's defense. It was a one-sided affair from the start, just the way Rafa likes it.

"It was a first round, and I did a lot of things well," said Nadal. "Not many mistakes. Being very solid all the time.

"Just of course is the beginning and the first round is more about talking about what I have to do better. What I did very well today is just about general feeling, and general feeling have been positive this afternoon. Happy to be through to the second round, and that's the main thing today and with straight sets, positive feelings. Just happy for that."

Odds are, Nadal's next opponent—either the qualifier Kimmer Coppejans, or another Yannick: qualifier Yannick Maden—will face a similar fate. Lights, camera, action.