Rafael Nadal survives scare to make winning return against Fernando Verdasco

Rafael Nadal dropped the first set against Fernando Verdasco before recovering strongly to complete a 3-6 6-1 6-1 win over his fellow Spaniard at the Hamburg Open.

 In his first match since he lost to world number 102 Dustin Brown in four sets in the second round of Wimbledon earlier this month, the nine-times French Open champion Nadal boosted his head to head-to-head record against Verdasco to 14-2, but only after overcoming a spot of bother on his favoured clay.

“It’s a very important victory,” said top seed Nadal, who won the Hamburg event in 2008.

“For my mentality, it is important to finish the match better than how I started. To be able to make that change during the match was a very positive thing to me. I’m just happy (with) the way I came back.”

World number 41 Verdasco had broken Nadal, ranked number 10 in the world, for a 4-2 lead before claiming the opening set in 37 minutes with 10 winners.

But Mallorca's Nadal was quick to retrieve the situation after taking 12 minutes to hold serve in the opening game of the second set.

Verdasco managed to stave off a whitewash with an ace to hold at 1-5 before Nadal served out the set to love.

He broke for a 2-1 lead in the decider and staved off four break points on his way to securing a meeting with Jiri Vesely or Andreas Haider-Maurer in the second round.

Results from the German Open Men's Singles Round 1 matches on Tuesday

Simone Bolelli (Italy) beat Lukas Rosol (Czech Republic) 7-6(3) 7-6(6)

8-Fabio Fognini (Italy) beat Jeremy Chardy (France) 6-3 6-7(5) 6-4

2-Tommy Robredo (Spain) beat Alexander Zverev (Germany) 6-7(3) 6-4 6-2

1-Rafa Nadal (Spain) beat Fernando Verdasco (Spain) 3-6 6-1 6-1

Benoit Paire (France) beat Philipp Kohlschreiber (Germany) 6-3 3-6 6-1

6-Juan Monaco (Argentina) beat Ernests Gulbis (Latvia) 6-3 6-7(5) 6-3

Jaume Munar (Spain) beat 7-Guillermo Garcia-Lopez (Spain) 1-2 (Garcia-Lopez retired)

4-Andreas Seppi (Italy) beat Martin Klizan (Slovakia) 6-2 6-4

3-Roberto Bautista (Spain) beat Borna Coric (Croatia) 6-3 6-4

Aljaz Bedene (Britain) beat Daniel Gimeno-Traver (Spain) 6-4 6-1