Meanwhile his long-time rival, world number two Novak Djokovic, had an easier outing in Brisbane, strolling past Chile's Cristian Garin 6-3 6-3 to stay undefeated in the new year and to ensure Serbia will travel to Sydney for the knockouts having won all three of their ties.
Nadal had to twice fight back from a break down against the Japanese world number 72 in the opening set before winning the tiebreaker while the Spaniard broke his opponent's serve to go up 5-4 in the second before holding serve for victory.
"It's the first day I was playing under such heavy conditions, two previous days I had played in the night. The feeling on court was completely different," Nadal said in an on-court interview.
"I played against an opponent who started the season on fire, winning two matches against two great players with very comfortable results. Today was a very, very tough one."
It was Nadal's third singles win in the $15 million ATP Cup, which features 24 nations competing in Perth, Brisbane and Sydney over 10 days.
All six group winners and the two best second-placed teams will advance to the final eight stage in Sydney. Besides hosts Australia, Serbia, Britain, Russia and Spain have qualified.
Garin broke Djokovic in the second set to go up 3-1 but it seemed to bruise the seven-times Australian Open winner's ego as he won the next five games to complete victory.
"Sydney's got a big Serbian community, hopefully the support can be as good as it was here, even better," Djokovic said.
Poland's Hubert Hurkacz also picked up his third singles win of the tournament with an upset 3-6 6-4 7-6(5) win over world number four Dominic Thiem of Austria in Sydney.
It was the second loss in the new season for Thiem, who also lost to Croatia's Borna Coric in his opening match.
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