Nadal survives early test

If Rafael Nadal's form going into this year's French Open augured in the minds of his rivals another imperious march to the title without dropping a single set, as in 2008 and 2010, world number 59 Daniel Brands gave hope to the rest of the field on Monday.

The German right-hander stunned Court Philippe Chatrier by taking the first set of Nadal's campaign for an eighth Roland Garros 6-4, then took the clay court king to a tiebreak in the second and opened up a 3-0 lead. Nadal, who has never lost in the opening round of a Grand Slam, survived a two-set deficit at the same stage last year against John Isner and went on to lift the title.

"He was playing unbelievable. I just tried to find my game and tried to resist his fantastic shots. He played a fantastic match and put me in a very difficult situation. I'm very happy to be through," said Nadal after his 4-6, 7-6, 6-4, 6-3 victory.

Nadal will next play Martin Klizan of Slovakia and may face Lukas Rosol, who knocked him out of last year's Wimbledon, in round three after the Czech beat Pere Riba in straight sets.

The Armada fared well across the board on day two at Roland Garros. Eleventh seed Nicolás Almagro recovered from the loss of the first set to defeat Austria's Andreas Haider-Maurer 4-6, 6-4, 6-3, 6-3 as he seeks to reach the last eight for the fourth time in Paris. Almagro will play Edouard Roger-Vasselin in round two in a tricky quarter of the draw featuring compatriots David Ferrer, Tommy Robredo, Feliciano López, and Canadian 14th seed Milos Raonic.

Unseeded López accounted for 31st seed Marcel Granollers on Monday in a five-set marathon carried over from the previous evening. The world number 43 prevailed 7-5, 2-6, 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 in just over three-and-a-half hours to set up a meeting with Portugal's João Sousa.

Robredo, a quarterfinalist on four occasions in Paris, also progressed at the expense of Jurgen Zopp of Estonia, 6-3, 6-2, 6-1 and next faces Igor Sijsling, a doubles finalist at this year's Australian Open.

In the women’s draw, Anabel Medina was defeated 6-3, 6-4 by sixth seed and 2011 champion Na Li while María-Teresa Torro-Flor beat Julia Glushko of Israel and Carla Suárez knocked out Romania’s Simona Halep. Torro-Flor will play former Wimbledon semifinalist Sabine Lisicki in the second round while Suárez will face American Shelby Rogers.

Lourdes Domínguez was beaten by flamboyant American Bethanie Mattek-Sands, who goes on to play Li.