The good news for Rafael Nadal is that his clay-court game and his waning spirit have been restored to nearly full working order. The bad news is that Novak Djokovic is still in the French Open and rumbling with equal menace towards the quarter-finals, where they are due to collide for the 44th time – on the Spaniard’s 29th birthday next Wednesday.

While the gap between last year’s finalists might have narrowed from the yawning chasm that had opened up on clay over the past couple of months, the Serb still looks like the best player in the world, on any surface under any conditions on any day of the week.

Even if going 4-1 down in the second set against Jarkko Nieminen on Court Philippe Chatrier on Tuesday afternoon hinted at brief early jitters, the result was never in doubt. The player who has not lost in 22 matches and sits on top of the rankings with an unassailable 4,000-plus points lead, closed it out 6-4, 7-5, 6-2 in a couple of ticks over two hours, and he retains the swagger he needs to win this title for the first time.

Nadal, winless on European clay from four attempts coming to Roland Garros, beat the 296th-ranked Quentin Halys 6-3, 6-3, 6-4, and the hitherto anonymous 18-year-old French wild card might never have tried harder for such inevitable defeat in front of so many of his compatriots.

Seeded seventh here for the first time since his rise to prominence, Nadal was precise, brutal and clearly impatient to rediscover the sort of efficiency that has delivered him nine titles here in 10 years. “I started a little bit slow, then [after three games] I started moving the ball better,” Nadal said. “I am happy. It is the first match. I played well enough. I think my forehand worked well for a lot of moments. I had some ups and downs during the season; it is normal that can happen here. I am trying to avoid that.”

He did not strike a single ace in an hour and 50 minutes but neither did he appear to strain for one. His priority was accuracy, which hit 78% on his first serve in the concluding set, as he powered it down to an average of 153kph. Halys, lightly bearded but heavily callow, took one of two break points that came his way but, ferociously as he struck his ground strokes, he could not take the sting from Nadal’s relentless top-spun replies and hit 52 unforced errors. The champion also hurt the teenager at the net, winning the point on 14 of 16 visits.

At the end the sometimes fickle French crowd gave their Spanish king a standing ovation, unusual for a perfunctory first-round win against one of their own, and perhaps there was a touch of guilt for past indifference to his genius or maybe pity for his recent struggles. The French love ambivalence.

“Quentin is the future, a new-style of game, big serve, trying to hit winners from everywhere,” Nadal said courtside, returning the sentiment of amiability. “I wish him all the best.” That, too, was well received, so there were mind games at play all over the place.

Nadal, incidentally, has reverted to his hi-tech, French-made Babolat racket, pushing buttons on the top of the handle during breaks to register stats to crunch before his second-round match against his compatriot Nicolas Almagro, who took two hours and 26 minutes to beat Alexandr Dolgopolov 6-3, 2-6, 6-4, 7-6.

Djokovic, though, had the stiffer test against a seasoned 33-year-old opponent, holding on to a world ranking of No 87 and determined to give of his best on the centre court of a major; there cannot be many such opportunities left for him.

Nieminen played artfully at times but Djokovic had too much of everything for him, winning 104 of the available 182 available points, with 40 clear winners and half a dozen aces.

He rarely appeared pressured to move into top gear but, during his minor difficulty in the second set, gave the impression he would find a way to stop the contest going to four sets. “I played some good shots, stayed calm and overall it was a good performance,” Djokovic said.

As for the Nadal challenge, he said:“The conditions suit him very much. His record says much about the quality of the tennis he plays here. Best of five is something that plays in his favour because there are not many players who can compete physically against him. He’s one of the best defenders ever to player the game.”

On Court No1 the American Jack Sock had the best win of his career when he comfortably beat an out-of-sorts No10 seed, Grigor Dimitrov, 7-6, 6-2, 6-3, a hard-drilled forehand into the ad corner finishing the Bulgarian off after an hour and 55 minutes.