The fans of Rafael Nadal would never have expected that the Spaniard would start the 2015 season with a defeat against a player who is at 128^th position in the World rankings.

Michael Berrer, the 34-year old player from Germany, toppled Nadal in the opening round game of the ATP World Series tournament going on in Doha at the moment.

Nadal, whose career in the recent times have continuously got affected by injuries, would have been hoping to have some wins under his belt before he could go into the Australian Open, but, it wasn’t to be.

He started with a bang though against Berrer. The first set went in his favour in very quick time and it seemed it was just a matter of time before he could finish off the match.

But, Berrer, who is perhaps not as potent as Nadal as far as the skills are concerned, was in no mood to throw the towel in.

The veteran German came back fighting after that early set loss and he pushed the match to the decider.

The decider saw Nadal committing some ridiculous mistakes, but, still at the end, the Spaniard had the opportunity to get levelled up with his opponent.

Nadal could have broken Berrer’s serve in the 10^th game in the final set to make it 5-5. He had a couple of break points, but, he was not at his usual best.

With a serve hold in that game there, Berrer marked the end of the match.

Nadal had been able to play very little in the last few months of the previous season because of injuries. So, the rhythm was missing a little bit there in his game and that, perhaps, was the main reason why he put on such a poor show.