James Blake after his win over Rafael Nadal on Monday

Shanghai: James Blake showed he was not in Shanghai just to make up the numbers when he produced a quality performance to upset world No. 2 Rafael Nadal 6-4, 7-6 (7-0) in his opening match at the Masters Cup on Monday.

The 26-year-old American, playing his first Masters Cup match, came back from a break down in the first set and recovered from a 4-0 deficit in the second to triumph 7-0 in a one-sided tiebreak.

Nadal, also making his debut in the event after missing last year’s season-ender through injury, started both sets well but seemed rattled when Blake would not just lie down after being broken.

World No. 8 Blake matched the muscular Spaniard’s forehand power and showed evidence of the work he has been doing on his backhand as they indulged the crowd with some thunderous rallies in the opening match of the Gold Group.

In a later match, No. 3 Nikolay Davydenko beat No. 6 Tommy Robredo 7-6 (10-8), 3-6, 6-1. Davydenko got the decisive break in the fourth game of the third set when his Spanish rival had a double-fault at breakpoint.

In doubles play Monday, second-seeded Jonas Bjorkman of Sweden and Max Mirnyi of Belarus beat No. 8 Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski of Poland 6-3, 6-4.

Third-seeds Mark Knowles of the Bahamas and Daniel Nestor of Canada beat fifth seeds Fabrice Santoro of France and Nenad Zimonjic of Serbia 6-3, 6-2.

Before Monday’s matches, Federer was presented with the Champions Race trophy for finishing the year at No. 1 for a third straight season.

“Another fantastic year is almost over — I have one more week to go,” said Federer, who lost the final here last year after returning from an extended injury lay-off.