Rafael Nadal shrugged off a bout of jet-lag to beat Nicolas Kiefer 7-6, 6-0, 6-3 and give Spain a 1-0 lead over Germany in their Davis Cup quarter-final on Friday.
Nadal, who flew in from Miami at the start of the week, made a sluggish start on the fast indoor hard court but managed to edge an 88-minute first set 7-5 on the tiebreak, after blowing a chance to serve for it at 5-4.
The world number two found a much better rhythm in the second set, helped by an unrelenting stream of unforced errors from the 30-year-old Kiefer, back in the Davis Cup after an absence of more than two years.
He broke Kiefer's opening service game, after an inexplicable overhead mistake from the German, and after that it was all too easy.
Nadal romped through the second set and broke for 5-4 in the third before taking the first of three match points with a fizzing forehand from the back of the court, giving Spain, champions in 2000 and 2004, a 1-0 lead.
Germany, who won the last of their three Davis Cup titles in 1993, were looking to Philipp Kohlschreiber to get them back level in the tie in the second singles rubber against David Ferrer.
(Editing by Pritha Sarkar)
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