DOHA: Defending champion Rafa Nadal’s season got off to a miserable start as his comeback from injury and illness stalled in the Qatar Open first round with a 1-6, 6-3, 6-4 defeat by German journeyman Michael Berrer on Tuesday.

The Spaniard, who endured a stop-start season during the latter half of 2014 after suffering from a wrist injury and appendicitis, looked on track for a promising win when he took the first set at the warm-up event for this month’s Australian Open.

However, 127th-ranked Berrer came out firing winners to all corners of the court to pull off his first victory over a top five player.

Earlier Novak Djokovic, who succeeded Nadal as world number one in June, made a satisfactory start with a 6-1, 6-4 win over his Serbian compatriot Dusan Lajovic.

The Serbian top seed, who will bid for a fifth Australian Open title this month, next faces Ukraine’s Sergiy Stakhovsky, while Berrer will face Ivan Dodig, the world number 89 from Croatia.

Stakhovsky gave himself a 29th birthday present in a 6-1, 6-1 first round win over Qatari wildcard entrant Jabor Mohammed Ali Mutawa.

Third-seeded Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic also advanced to the second round with a 6-1, 6-4 win over Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan in 62 minutes.

Fourth-seeded David Ferrer of Spain needed a lot more time in his match against qualifier Thiemo De Bakker of the Netherlands — eventually securing a 6-7 (4-7), 6-4, 6-3 win that took two hours, 18 minutes to complete.

Two seeds went out — Philipp Kohlschreiber, the number five from Germany, beaten in three sets by his 58th-ranked compatriot, Jan-Lennart Struff, and Leonardo Mayer, the number eight from Argentina, who was beaten 5-7, 7-6 (7-4), 7-6 (7-4) by Andreas Seppi, the world number 45 from Italy.

Published in Dawn, January 8th, 2015

On a mobile phone? Get the Dawn Mobile App: Apple Store | Google Play