By Chris Oddo / Saturday, January 4, 2014

Rafael Nadal got his 2014 off to a splendid start by defeating Gael Monfils in three entertaining sets, 6-1, 6-7(5), 6-2, to claim his first ever Qatar Exxon Mobil title in Doha.

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With the victory Nadal passes Andre Agassi and moves into sole possession of 8th place on the ATP's all-time title list with 61; he also moves into sole possession of 13th on the ATP's all-time win list, moving past Michael Chang with 663.

“I never had the chance to win the title here before,” Nadal said, “so it's something that stayed in my mind.”

After racing out to an early lead Nadal, who lost in three sets in the 2010 Doha final to Nikolay Davydenko, was pushed to three sets by the brilliant serving of Monfils in the second set. The 27-year-old Frenchman cracked nine aces in the set, and though he failed to protect an early break lead, his giant serving enabled him to prevail in the tiebreaker.

“If he keeps playing this way, he's going to have a good chance to be inside the top 10 for the year,” Nadal said.

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In the third set Nadal secured the first break to lead 3-1, then scratched and clawed his way back from a 0-40 hole in the next game, saving four break points in total, and helping burst Monfils' bubble in the process.

Nadal hit 20 winners against 21 unforced errors on the day, and he saved four of the five break points he faced. The Spaniard has now reached the final of 15 of his last 18 tournaments, winning 11 titles.

The victory improves Nadal's career head-to-head with Monfils to 9-2, but he had lost his previous two encounters in Doha to Monfils, in 2009 and 2012.

Nadal had reached the finals on the opening week of the season on two occasions (Chennai, 2008 and Doha, 2010), but Saturday's victory marks the first time that he has ever taken the title on the season's first week.