Rafael Nadal gained revenge against David Ferrer in double-quick time to open his ATP World Tour Finals campaign with an emphatic victory yesterday.

In the semi-finals of the Paris Masters on Saturday, Ferrer ended a nine-match losing streak against his fellow Spaniard before his title defence came to an end with a final defeat by Novak Djokovic.

But it was a very different story from the start as Nadal played his first match at London’s O2 Arena in two years, the 27-year-old needing just an hour and 14 minutes to win 6-3 6-2.

The victory means one more win for Nadal would guarantee he finishes the year as world number one ahead of Djokovic.

The lack of time between Paris and the World Tour Finals has been a headache for both players and organisers, and both men appeared to be feeling the pace in a first set low on quality.

Ferrer made 19 unforced errors and Nadal 10, while they managed only seven winners between them.

Nadal’s record at the O2 is patchy, with five wins and six losses, while on Monday he voiced his opinion that the World Tour Finals should be played on different surfaces, not just indoor hard, where he has always struggled to play his best tennis.

But the higher bounce in London compared to Paris was to his liking while Ferrer could not find the same consistency he had shown in France.

It looked like the third seed would suffer the ignominy of a love set when Nadal won the first five games of the second but Ferrer staged a mini-comeback to at least make the scoreboard relatively respectable.

The straight-sets win puts Nadal at the top of the Group A table ahead of his second match against Stanislas Wawrinka, who beat Tomas Berdych in three sets on Monday.