Kei Nishikori has been bullish about his hopes in this year's French Open, and he began his tournament in fine fashion, seeing off home wildcard Paul-Henri Mathieu in straight sets.

The world number five was bundled out in the first round last year, having suffered a back injury in a losing effort at the Madrid Masters.

But he returned to Roland Garros with a fine clay season behind him, and comfortably saw off Mathieu 6-3 7-5 6-1.

Nishikori was in control throughout, and set the tone in a first set that saw him cough up just six points on serve.

The Japanese's nimble feet helped him zip around the court and maintain constant pressure on Mathieu, who committed 39 unforced errors in just over two hours on court.

Four evenly split breaks in the first six games of the second set threatened to throw Nishikori of course, but a hard-fought hold in game seven, having saved break point, settled nerves.

From there Nishikori cruised to victory, going 5-0 up in the final set before serving out to love, setting up a second-round meeting with either Thomaz Bellucci or Marinko Matosevic.