Paris: Rafael Nadal walked out for his first-round match wearing the most expensive piece of kit in the whole tournament: a titanium wristwatch that costs £365,000 and weighs as much as a piece of toast.
If anyone on the tour could use a timepiece, it is Nadal.
His lengthy pre-serve routine in which he plucks his trousers and smooths down his hair, has earned him accusations of gamesmanship from Roger Federer among others.
Still, one suspects that Nadal's latest fashion accessory has more to do with a lucrative endorsement contract than any guilty conscience.
And his faffing was as pronounced as ever on Tuesday. Moments after arriving on court, he was being jeered for messing about with his drinks bottles while his talented French opponent 18 year-old Gianni Mina waited to perform the coin toss.
Nadal has a bit of previous with Roland Garros' beau monde. After last year's semi-final against Robin Soderling, which turned up one of the shocks of the sporting year, he was booed all the way out of the stadium.
The level of hostility surprised many, including his uncle, who declared, "They show the stupidity of people who think themselves superior".
There was potential for further rancour, in view of the fans' raucous support for Mina. But Nadal handled himself with great poise.
While he never struck the ball with his usual bone-crunching authority, he closed out a 6-2, 6-2, 6-2 win, and then tactfully predicted a "great future" for Mina in the on-court interview.
These weren't empty words. Mina played way above his ranking of 655, forcing break points in every one of Nadal's first seven service games.
Born in Guadeloupe, a French-speaking island in the Caribbean, Mina shares a similar ancestry to both Thierry Henry and Gael Monfils, whom he resembles.
