Rafael Nadal eased into the closing 16 of the Italian Open on Wednesday with a truthful 6-3, 6-1 win over John Isner, while Alexander Zverev beat Sebastian Baez.

Third seed Nadal made brief work of Isner as he bids for the 11th identify in Rome, the King of Clay seeing off his American opponent in a single hour and 17 mins below blazing sunshine on the Foro Italico.

A quarter-final loser to countryman Carlos Alcaraz in Madrid, Nadal can profit from the thrilling teenager’s absence in the Italian capital to win the last big clay event before the French Open later this month.

Isner’s resistance against the 21-time Grand Slam winner lasted until game eight when Nadal broke the veteran world number 27 before serving out to take the first set.

From there Nadal cruised to victory, dropping just 14 points on his way to set up a third-round clash with Denis Shapovalov.

Earlier Zverev got through with a straight-sets 7-6 (8/6), 6-3 win over Baez in just over an hour and a half.

Second seed Zverev, soundly beaten by Alcaraz in the Madrid final at the weekend, will face one of Tommy Paul or Alex de Minaur.

A gruelling first set went with the carrier right till the fourth factor of the tie-damage while German world quantity three Zverev took a 3-1 lead.

Baez fought lower back to six-6 however Zverez broke the Argentine earlier than serving out the set and making sure of his passage into spherical 3 in a much less complicated 2nd set.