Nadal had problems with the length of his punches at the beginning, but found his groove in the course of the match. The 20-year-old Auger-Aliassime, on the other hand, produced too many uncommon errors (30 in total, with Nadal there were only 16), and with the second serve he also scored only 36 percent of the point.

"FAA" came to a break chance on serve Nadal shortly before the end, he finally shortened again, then fought off five match balls (after 0:40) before putting a forehand behind the line for victory for Nadal.

The 31-year-old Spaniard thus wiped out the concerns about his health - he had been weakened by a stomach virus in the past few days , but gave a mild all-clear at a press conference on Tuesday .

In the round of 16 he now meets Frances Tiafoe, who won against Philipp Kohlschreiber in the early afternoon . Tiafoe had the "pleasure" with Nadal at the Australian Open and in the end was quite baffled about how to get Nadal at all. "It was clear to me that if he got a good grip on the forehand, I would feel like a grilled chicken," said "Big Foe" at the time - but he did not find an antidote. Now he can try sand on Nadal's favorite surface.

Fognini fixes duel with Thiem

Shortly after Nadal, Monte Carlo winner Fabio Fognini also made his way into the round of 16. The Italian seeded ten wins against John Millman 6-2, 6-2, making him the next opponent of Dominic Thiem.

The men's single draw in Madrid