World No. 1 Rafael Nadal came from one set down to beat American eighth seed Andy Roddick 3-6, 7-6(5), 6-4 in his opening match at the ATP World Tour Finals on Monday.

It's also the Spaniard's first win at the O2 Arena in London, as he lost three matches in the round-robin group here last year, even without taking one set.

Nadal admitted that last year's straight defeats were still in his mind and he felt nervous at the beginning of Monday's match.

“When you start a tournament like this one that you play against the best players of the world, I said before, in the more difficult conditions for me, is the last part of the season that I normally never played my best tennis," said Nadal.

Nadal was shaking while Roddick was rocking.

The American took four points in a row to win the opening game after Nadal grabbed two break points, then claimed victory in the world No.1's first service game mainly due to the two double faults of Nadal.

But Nadal seemed finding his rhythm as the match went on. Although he was broken earlier in the second set, he managed to send one back immediately before played toughly to win the tiebreak.

"It's a very positive victory for me and very, very important," said Nadal who have never won the season finale, even though he had completed his Grand Slam titles and also got an Olympic gold medal.

Earlier, the world No. 3 Novak Djokovic of Serbia defeated the season finale debutant Berdych in style as he only required 88 minutes to wrap it up 6-3, 6-3.

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