A rusty Rafael Nadal was pushed to the limit by Mardy Fish in his opening match at the ATP World Tour Finals on Sunday before joining great rival Roger Federer at the top of Group B.
The Spaniard, playing his first competitive match after a month long lay-off, needed nearly three hours and a rush to the toilet because of a “terrible stomach” to subdue the American tournament debutant, winning a late-night thriller 6-2, 3-6, 7-6.
Federer opened the season-ending championships, being held in London’s dazzling O2 Arena for the third of five years, with victory over French powerhouse Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, although he was also given a scare in a 6-2, 2-6, 6-4 victory that raced by in an hour and a half of high-octane hitting.
After ripping through the first set in 21 minutes, world No. 4 Federer, bidding for a record sixth title at the ATP’s blue riband -tournament in his 10th appearance, lost his way and Tsonga threatened a repeat of his victory over the Swiss maestro in this year’s Wimbledon quarter-finals.
On that occasion Tsonga floored 16-time Grand Slam champion Federer from two sets to love down, but this time he could not complete his fightback, cracking in the 10th game of the decider to Federer’s obvious relief.
“It’s not always in your control when you play Jo,” world No. 4 Federer, who had former France soccer international Thierry Henry in his support box, told reporters. “Today I had flashes of that [Wimbledon] match because I didn’t have much chance for a while on his serve.”
“Once he got the upper hand in the second set, he started to swing more freely and got really dangerous. I just tried to stay calm and wait for my chance,” Federer said. “We saw some ups and downs from both players, that’s why I’m pretty happy to come through.”
Fish, the only one of the eight-man field never to have played in the season-ender, made a slow start, dropping his opening service game to hand Nadal the initiative.
Nadal sealed the opening set in 34 minutes in front of a 17,500 capacity crowd watching on in the dimly lit arena, but, just like Federer earlier, he was rocked by an opponent playing some electrifying tennis.
Fish, who cracked the world’s top 10 this year, let rip with some punishing forehands and displayed some exquisite touches at the net as he outplayed the 10-times major winner in the second set.
He squandered four set points at 2-5 on the Nadal serve, but a clinical volley in the next game set up a decider.
Nadal appeared to have regained control when he moved 2-0 ahead in the decider, but suddenly left the arena for a toilet break, leaving Fish standing alone with his thoughts for two minutes despite it not being a changeover.
When the Mallorcan former world No. 1 returned, the match swung toward Fish, who reeled off the next three games.
Nadal broke back to love to make it 3-3, but the heavily perspiring Mallorcan was stretched again in the next game, surviving a break point when the attack-minded Fish wafted a forehand long.
Fish, who racked up 35 winners during the entertaining contest, saved two match points at 4-5 as the match went to the tiebreak. Nadal moved 4-1 ahead and when another three match points arrived, he made no mistake, sealing victory when Fish netted a high backhand volley.
Nadal will now face Federer today in what will be their first clash in round-robin play.
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