RAFA NADAL began his quest to fill the one blank on his glittering resume in impressive fashion with a crushing 6-3, 6-4 defeat of debutant Andrey Rublev at the ATP Finals on Sunday.

The 34-year-old Mallorcan has struggled at the ATP’s year-ender with two runner-up finishes in London his best showings.

Nadal looked full of beans in the victory that put him top of the London Group, ahead of Austrian Dominic Thiem who got his campaign off to a fine start with a 7-6(5), 4-6, 6-3 victory over Stefanos Tsitsipas whom he lost to in the 2019 final.

Nadal will face Thiem today.

After winning the French Open last month for a 13th time, Nadal sounded unsure whether he would appear in London.

The fact he is here, with London in COVID-19 lockdown and the O2 Arena without any fans, shows that he regards it as a great opportunity to finally win the title.

Often a slow starter indoors, Nadal was straight into the groove against Rublev, whose five titles this year is more than any other player on the ATP Tour.(SD-Agencies)