World number two Rafa Nadal survived a scare in the first round of the Qatar Open on Tuesday, recovering from a break down in the final set to defeat Germany's Philipp Kohlschreiber 6-3 6-7 6-3.
Nadal, who has been troubled by a shoulder injury for several weeks, was in imperious form in the first set and broke his opponent to go 3-1 up with a crosscourt forehand winner. He went on to seal the set by ending a furious exchange at the net with a simple volley winner.
Kohlschreiber appeared to be heading for his eighth successive defeat by Nadal but stunned the 10-times grand slam winner by racing into a 3-0 lead in the second set.
At 4-2 up, Kohlschreiber netted a backhand to give Nadal a break back. The relentless power of Nadal's shots left Kohlschreiber scrambling but he clung on to take the set into a tiebreak.
A brilliant crosscourt winner past a diving Nadal allowed Kohlschreiber to go 2-0 ahead in the tiebreak and he held on to bag it 7-2.
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Kohlschreiber started the deciding set in similar fashion, running to a errant Nadal drop volley to hammer a forehand winner down the line to break serve.
But that only served to stir Nadal from his slumber, who broke back immediately and surged into a 4-1 lead he never looked like relinquishing.
"I didn't have the chance to practise a lot in December. I had problems with my shoulder and my knee," Nadal said in a courtside interview. "It's very important to start 2012 with a victory. The beginning was a little bit risky but I came back very well."
Last week Nadal said he planned to take several weeks off after this month's Australian Open to recover from the shoulder injury.
(Reporting by Matt Smith, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
