Rafael Nadal of Spain reacts during his match against Czech Republic’s Lukas Rosol at the Swiss Indoors ATP men’s tennis tournament in Basel, Switzerland.

DPA/Basel, Switzerland

Rafael Nadal avoided a first-round upset in a dramatic turnaround at the Swiss Indoors on Monday as the Spaniard managed to pull out a 1-6, 7-5, 7-6 (7-4) win over long-time nemesis Lukas Rosol.
In other opening-day results, French qualifier Adrian Mannarino defeated Serb Viktor Troicki 4-6, 7-5, 7-6 (7-3) while Dominic Thiem of Austria accounted for Dutch qualifier Robin Haase 0-6, 7-6 (7-5), 7-5.
Swiss wild card Henri Laaksonen remains winless after three losses, his latest a 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 defeat by Donald Young.
In the Nadal-Rosol match, the Spaniard’s his first forehand winner only arrived at the start of the second set. He dropped the opening set in 23 minutes, making it seem the end was approaching on a bad day at the office for the 14-time grand slam champion.
But Nadal found a tiny opening as he broke the 69th-ranked Czech with a backhand winner down the line for 5-all. That signalled the start of a fightback and two games later the Spanish third seed levelled the set score with a second break of Rosol.
The Czech national number three got his 15 minutes of fame three years ago in the Wimbledon second round when he upset Nadal. Since that defeat, Nadal has won both of the pair’s succeeding meetings, including a 2014 re-run at Wimbledon.
Nadal went up a break in the third set but lost it and had to construct a his final charge from 4-2 down in the third-set tiebreaker. He levelled at 4-4 and seized victory after two and a quarter hours to stay alive in the hometown event of rival Roger Federer.
“I thought I was out of here,” confessed Nadal. “It was the first match on indoor hardcourt for me in almost a year.
“He’s tough to play, he came to the court with big confidence,” Nadal said. “He was trying to hit the ball hard on every shot.”
Admitting he had a tough time adjusting, Nadal said he just tried to survive the second set and wait for an opportunity, which came at 5-4.
“I was only thinking about trying to find a way to win the next point,” he said, adding that he has come back a lot of times in tough situations, but this year has been different. I’ve lost matches that I was winning. But the last few weeks have helped for building the confidence. And the crowd support was very important for me,” he said.
Nadal lost in the first round of his first Basel appearance in 2003, going out to Feliciano Lopez. Nadal has been boosted in recent weeks by a Beijing final and a semi-final in Shanghai.
He is already a qualifier for the eight-man World Tour Finals in London next month, but must keep his concentration high as he competes on the indoor hardcourt, his least-favourite surface.