Spain's Rafael Nadal [ Images ] charged back from a set down to beat Frenchman Richard Gasquet 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 in the opening match of the Tennis Masters Cup on Sunday.

The French Open [ Images ] champion recovered from a sluggish start, winning his round-robin opener in a shade over two hours at the prestigious season-ending tournament in Shanghai.

David Ferrer made it a perfect day for Spain with an impressive 6-4, 6-4 victory over Serbia's Novak Djokovic [ Images ] in the second Gold Group match.

Gasquet, who had lost all three of his previous matches against Nadal, took the first set after securing a break at 4-3 with a forehand rocket down the line.

Nadal came to life in the second, the world number two breaking Gasquet to love for a 4-2 lead and levelling the match with a fierce serve to his opponent's body.

Gasquet battled gamely to stem the tide but a pumped-up Nadal broke through at the same point in the decider and clinched victory with a textbook backhand volley.

"I finished much better than I started," Nadal told reporters. "I finished the match playing more aggressive, going to the net more, serve-and-volley sometimes."

GETTING CLOSER

The world's best clay court player pushed Federer to the limit in this year's Wimbledon [ Images ] final but believes he is still some way from catching the Swiss at the top of the rankings.

"This year I was closer to him," said the 21-year-old left-hander. "But 'close' is 995 points. The Wimbledon final was a very important match but that's a lot of points."

Ferrer produced the first surprise of the eight-man tournament, avenging his defeat by Djokovic in the U.S. Open semi-finals in September with a clinical display.

World number three Djokovic was strangely out of sorts, committing 41 unforced errors, a brief flurry of winners in the final game proving too little, too late.

"I think maybe he was a bit nervous," said Ferrer. "I'm playing with confidence. Mentally I am very confident and I'm in great shape physically at the end of the season."

Federer, drawn in the Red Group, begins his bid for a fourth Masters Cup title in five years on Monday.