A clay court warm-up tournament is an unusual way to start the hard court season, but nonetheless, it worked for Rafael Nadal who beat Fernando Verdasco 3-6, 6-1, 6-1 to advance to the second round of the bet-at-home Open in Hamburg on Tuesday.

The former no. 1, who has been battling confidence issues since losing to Dustin Brown in the second round of the Wimbledon Championships, had a tough first set against his compatriot Verdasco who hit ten winners to clinch it in 37 minutes.

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The second set saw Nadal in a tough position holding serve in the first game but the 9-time French Open champion finally found his form and broke his compatriot twice to take it 6-1. The momentum continued on to the third with Nadal taking the match after almost two hours of play.

"It's a very important victory," Nadal said as reported by Yahoo! "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."

Nadal has had a tough season so far losing in the quarterfinals of the Australian Open and failing to defend his French Open crown. He currently holds a 34-12 win-loss record with just two titles coming into the summer season but he hopes to change all that after Hamburg.

In a video interview from the ATP World Tour Website, the 29-year-old admitted that he is not at his best this season but hopes to improve his baseline game and the mental aspect of it as the days progress.

Next up for Nadal is the winner of the Jiri Vesely and Andreas Haider-Maurer match which was suspended with both players tied one set apiece.

Meanwhile, across the Atlantic, retired US Open Champion Andy Roddick is making a brief return to the tour to partner with Mardy Fish in the doubles draw of the BB&T Atlanta Open.

The move, according to ESPN, is Roddick's way of supporting his friend Fish who recently announced his retirement which will begin after the US Open.

"It seems like since he made his announcement and he can kind of see the finish line, it's almost (as if) a weight has been lifted off his shoulders a little bit," Roddick said. "If I can be a small part of kind of helping him this week, I'm happy to do it. We have a very long history. It's something I wanted to do."

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