HAMBURG: Top seed Rafael Nadal bidding to rediscover some semblance of his former all-conquering form recovered from losing the first set to beat fellow Spaniard Fernando Verdasco 3-6, 6-1, 6-1 and reach the second round of Hamburg’s ATP tournament on Tuesday.

The 29-year-old former world number one, who has slipped to 10 in the rankings after a run of poor results, struggled in the first set but recovered to take the second before earning a critical break in the decider for a 2-1 lead.

He saved all four break points he faced in the final set to eventually clinch victory and set up a second-round clash with the winner of the Jiri Vesely and Andreas Haider-Maurer match.

Nadal, who has had a tortuous year in which he lost his French Open title and went out in the second round of Wimbledon, is making his first appearance in Hamburg since winning the tournament in 2008 when he beat long-time rival Roger Federer.

Bellucci advances at Swiss Open

In Gstaad, Switzerland, two-time Swiss Open champion Thomaz Bellucci of Brazil eased to a 6-2, 6-3 first-round victory over Kimmer Coppejans on Tuesday.

The left-handed Bellucci, who won the Gstaad clay-court title in 2009 and 2012, dominated on serve against the 21-year-old from Belgium.

Two former champions lost first-round matches: 2013 champion Mikhail Youzhny of Russia exited 6-1, 6-2 against seventh-seeded Pablo Carreno of Spain, and 2011 winner Marcel Granollers of Spain lost 1-6, 7-6 (1), 6-4 to Robin Haase of the Netherlands.

Eighth-seeded Santiago Giraldo of Colombia beat Italian Paolo Lorenzi 6-3, 6-2.

There were straight-sets wins for Stephane Robert of France against Brazilian Joao Souza, and Turkey’s Marsel Ilhan against Russian Andrey Kuznetsov.

Julian Reister, a German qualifier, advanced after losing the first set when Serbian opponent Blaz Kavcic retired injury.

Roddick takes break from retirement to play doubles

Even retirement couldn’t stop Andy Roddick from one last chance to play doubles with his friend Mardy Fish in this week’s Atlanta Open.

Roddick is returning to help escort Fish into his retirement.

Roddick, 32, says Atlanta served as the “bookends” of his career. It’s where he won his first tour title in 2001 and his last in 2012. He retired in 2012 and being back, if only for a week, left him feeling “awkward.”

“I feel like the kid who’s too old to go back to the high school dance,” Roddick said Monday before beating Frances Tiafoe, 17, a top young American player, 6-3, 6-4 in a singles exhibition.

Roddick and Fish are a wild-card entry in the doubles draw and play later in the week.

Fish, who won the Atlanta tournament in 2010-11, recently announced he will retire after the US Open. He plans to play in Washington and Cincinnati before the US Open.

Fish also is in the singles draw in Atlanta.

Fish has battled health problems since March 2012 when his heart started racing uncontrollably the night after he lost a match at Key Biscayne, Florida.

Roddick said he can see a change in Fish since he announced his retirement plans.

“It seems like since he made his announcement and he can kind of see the finish line, it’s almost 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.”

Roddick said it was “so hard” to watch Fish try to play through health issues others didn’t understand.

“You wanted to shout from the rooftops the fact he was going through something very serious,” Roddick said. “That’s not the way he wanted to go about the process. It wasn’t my decision to decide how it got out there.”

Fish and Roddick have a 19-6 career record and last played together in 2012.

Bob and Mike Bryan, playing in Atlanta for the first time since 2001, are the top doubles seed. John Isner, the two-time defending champion, is the No. 1 singles seed for the fourth straight year.