By Chris Oddo / Tuesday, December 31, 2013

 

Not surprisingly, Rafael Nadal avenged his 2012 shocker to Lukas Rosol with a 6-2, 7-6(7) victory in Doha on Tuesday.

Photo Source: REUTERS/Ahmed Jadallah

Rafael Nadal played his first match of the 2014 season in 2013, and the result, though wobbly at times, was yet another victory for the 13-time Grand Slam champion. Nadal edged Lukas Rosol, thereby avenging his five-set Wimbledon loss to the Czech in 2012, 6-2, 7-6(7), at the Qatar Exxon Mobil in Doha.

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Nadal, whose loss to Rosol under the roof at Wimbledon in 2012 began a period of seven months in which the Spaniard did not play amidst swirling concern about the health of his ailing knees, had to scratch and claw to finish off the feisty world No. 47 from Brno. After surrendering a break to trail 5-4 in the second set, Nadal rallied to draw even and force a tiebreaker.

From there Nadal would squander a 6-3 lead before finally finishing off Rosol, setting up a second-round encounter with German Tobias Kamke.

Nadal, who spoke to the media earlier in the week about a new type of treatment being administered to his now infamous knees, claims to only have been training for two and a half weeks, with the first week being limited movement. “In the first week I didn't move myself, I was just practicing from the middle," he told reporters.

In five trips to Doha, Nadal has only reached the final once, losing to Nikolay Davydenko when he got there in 2010.

Andy Murray was also in action on Tuesday in Doha. He destroyed wildcard Mousa Shanan Zayed, 6-0, 6-0, in 37 minutes. "It's good to be back," Murray said. "I will probably go and hit a few balls with my coach now as it was quite windy and there were not a lot of rallies in the match."

Other winners on Tuesday were David Ferrer, Richard Gasquet, Ernests Gulbis, Philipp Kohlschreiber, Dustin Brown, Florian Mayer, Daniel Brands and Peter Gojowczyk.