Rafael Nadal struggled past 148th-ranked qualifier Paolo Lorenzi 6-7 (5), 6-4, 6-0 in his opening match at the Italian Open yesterday, looking far from the form that has helped him dominate on clay for six years.

It marked the third consecutive match in which Nadal dropped the first set, having also rallied to beat Roger Federer in the Madrid Open semi-finals and then losing in straight sets to Novak Djokovic in Sunday’s final. Nadal has never lost consecutive matches on his favourite surface.

Djokovic stretched his unbeaten start this year to 33 matches with a 6-0, 6-3 win over Polish qualifier Lukasz Kubot earlier. The Serb has a chance to take the top ranking from Nadal if he wins this tournament and Nadal fails to reach the semi-finals.

The event at the Foro Italico is a key warm up for the French Open, which starts in 11 days.

Nadal struggled with his forehand against Lorenzi, consistently sending routine shots from the centre of the court into the net during the opening two sets.

In all, Nadal committed 35 unforced errors to Lorenzi’s 34.

Nadal’s match came in sharp contrast to the dominating performance of Djokovic, whose unbeaten streak trails only John McEnroe’s 42-0 start in 1984 in the Open era.

Many spectators were still getting to their seats by the time Djokovic wrapped up the first set in 23 minutes, and the 141st-ranked Kubot was so overwhelmed that he fell to the clay on his backside after chasing down one too many shots during the opening point of the second set.

The Pole finally won a game at 6-0, 3-0 when he landed a drop volley winner, drawing an ironic applause from the crowd. But Djokovic wrapped it up in 67 minutes.

Also advancing were ninth-seeded Nicolas Almagro and Juan Ignacio Chela of Argentina.