TWELVE-time French Open champion Rafael Nadal raced into the quarter-finals with a straight-set victory over American qualifier Sebastian Korda.
Korda said in the build-up that Nadal, 34, was his “idol” but the 20-year-old struggled to match the clay-court specialist on Court Philippe Chatrier.
Spanish second seed Nadal, chasing a fourth successive title at Roland Garros, took the match 6-1 6-1 6-2.
He will face Jannik Sinner next after the Italian beat Alexander Zverev.

The 19-year-old, ranked 75 in the world, put in a superb performance to beat the US Open finalist 6-3 6-3 4-6 6-3.
Meanwhile, US Open champion Dominic Thiem came through a scare to beat French wildcard Hugo Gaston in five sets.

Debutant Gaston, who defeated 2015 winner Stan Wawrinka to reach the last 16, found himself two sets down but fought back to level against an increasingly frustrated Thiem.
The 20-year-old world number 239 had the support of a vocal home crowd inside Court Philippe Chatrier, where up to 1,000 fans have been allowed for this tournament.
But it was Thiem who earned the vital break in the deciding set and he was able to close out on his second match point to win 6-4 6-4 5-7 3-6 6-3.
“It was an amazing match by both of us,” said the 27-year-old Austrian, who hit 59 winners but made 63 unforced errors.

“I haven’t seen for a very long time a player with such a big touch in his hands, his drop shots are from another planet.
“If he continues like this, he will be a huge, huge player and make a lot of joy in this stadium in the future.”
Thiem will now play Argentine 12th seed Diego Schwartzman who reached the quarter-finals with a 6-1 6-3 6-4 victory over Italian Lorenzo Sonego. (BBC Sport)