HAMBURG, Germany — Rafael Nadal beat defending champion Roger Federer 7-5, 6-7 (3), 6-3 today to win the Hamburg Masters and add the only major clay-court title still missing from his impressive collection.

It was the reverse of last year's final, when Federer won his fourth title in Hamburg and snapped Nadal's 81-match winning streak on clay.

Nadal rallied from big deficits in the first two sets, although he lost the tiebreaker in the second. He led 4-1 in the third and held on to raise his record against the top-ranked player to 8-1 on clay and 10-6 overall.

The second-ranked Spaniard has 26 career titles, 21 of them on clay, including the last three French Opens. Nadal also won in Monte Carlo and Barcelona this year.

Federer lost his seventh match of the year and has only one title so far, at a relatively minor clay-court tournament in Estoril, Portugal.

The Hamburg Masters is a major warm-up tournament for the French Open, the only Grand Slam that Federer has not won.