Rafael Nadal edges past Mardy Fish in ATP World Tour Finals

Evening matches invariably draw an audience intoxicated by more than the tennis. And so it was for a packed O 2 Arena when Rafael Nadal eked out a 6-2, 3-6, 7-6 win over the final qualifier, Mardy Fish, against a backdrop of good-hearted bonhomie in the second session of the Barclay's ATP World Tour Finals on Sunday night. The evening match finished half an hour before midnight and eight minutes after the last city-bound tube, leaving thousands of fans to scramble for a boat out of Greenwich or go bumper to bumper in the car park, and the loser time enough to search for his missing game. Earlier the defending champion, Roger Federer, opened the tournament by dispatching Jo-Wilfried Tsonga with more discretion and less fanfare in three sets. Of the two winners — who meet on Tuesday afternoon in the round-robin stage — the world No4 looks in marginally better shape than the Spaniard. Nadal got two break points on Fish's first serve and it was always going to be a battle from there on. The world No2 wasted one of them with an extravagant run-around forehand that he pushed wide but Fish was more profligate with a backhand at the net that went below the tape and went 0-1 down. The muscularity of Nadal's first service game set the tone, as they traded top-spin belters from behind the baseline. Frailties in tennis arrive in many guises and a tired double-fault by Nadal in the fourth game might have disguised deeper concerns had Fish not so meekly wasted his rare chance to break back. But, with pop-gun second serves going in at 90 miles an hour, Fish looked out of his depth. Nothing went right for this nicest of men. A game down at 4-2, he suffered the indignity of being out-hit cross-court after Nadal had shanked an easy return. The first challenge of the tournament arrived at 4-2 and it belonged to Fish – as ill-advised as was the loose, angled backhand that inspired it. The exchanges were more exhilarating than Federer-Tsonga but Nadal kept enough shape in his game to ease ahead, 5-2, then served out for the set in just over half an hour, registering his first ace along the way. Then the match was dramatically turned on its head; Fish steeled himself to the struggle and was 3-0 up in the second set before Nadal had time to adjust his shorts, momentarily rendered impotent in the face of the American's flat, hard ground strokes. The composure and self-confidence drained from the Spaniard's racket. Fish wasted another break opportunity in the sixth game but regrouped to take the set 6-3 with a backhand, his 11th point won in 15 visits to the net, and level the match. The deciding set returned to script. Nadal found a rhythm, albeit stutteringly, and wrapped up a tense encounter in the tie-break. For Federer the tournament was a sunnier occasion. In his pomp the Swiss was a ruthless front-runner. At 30, and without a win in a major for nearly two years, he nonetheless arrived buoyed by some sublime tennis in winning back-to-back tournaments in Basel and Paris and is a tight favourite to win his sixth trophy in this end-of-season cashfest, ahead of Andy Murray. But the aura has dimmed. Federer's struggle with his forehand – the barometer of his game – will have encouraged Nadal, who shares his group with Tsonga and the wounded Fish. Federer was commanding at the start, breaking Tsonga to love in the fourth game and relieved, no doubt, to see the Frenchman double-fault to hand him the set after 21 minutes. Levels on both sides of the net lifted appreciably in the second set, in keeping with Tsonga's spirits when Federer pushed a forehand horribly wide to drop serve at 2-1. Tsonga won nine points in a row before Federer rallied but, after being dragged into a deuce fight in the seventh game, the king of the quick kill double-faulted, then pushed a stretched forehand long and the set was gone. Federer rediscovered his serve in the third and, at 4-4, sensed Tsonga's concentration waning. He needed only one of three match points to finish it with a glorious backhand, Tsonga stranded in desperation at the net. So, in prospect later in the week is a meeting beyond the opening sparring sessions between Federer and Murray, who is keen to redress a perceived slight by the great man. Federer's unsolicited observation that the player who recently took his No3 ranking had brought back three soft titles from Asia riled Murray; he nonetheless has kept his cool and wants to settle the argument where he feels strongest, on court. "No3 doesn't mean a lot to me, I never said it did," Murray declared. "It was one of my goals for the end of the season; I did that in Asia. It has been my best year." "I'd rather stay here," he said of occupying space in such illustrious but tough times. "It's the most competitive era in tennis. I've had the chance to compete against the two best rivals, without question." • This article was amended on 22 November 2011. The original said Federer is a tight favourite to win his fifth trophy in the ATP World Tour Finals. This has been corrected.