Henrik Stenson expressed his delight at ridding himself of a 10-month hoodoo by claiming the Commercialbank Qatar Masters in Doha.

In last year's event the 29-year-old held a two-shot lead over the field going into his final round but ended up losing to Ernie Els, who came from five shots back.

Stenson had finished four of his last six tournaments in the top three and also had to contend with the knowledge he had led going to the final round at the Abu Dhabi Golf Championship last week, only to finish as runner-up again.

This time, however, he demonstrated he could take the pressure exerted by a dogged display from Paul Broadhurst to win by three strokes and a take a third European Tour title back to his Sharjah home.

"After being second last year, this feels great," he beamed.

"It's not that I have been disappointed in my own performances in a lot of these second places, but there is a big difference between winning a finishing second.

"I felt the pressure for sure, especially with a bad finish on Saturday - it didn't feel too good walking off the course with a dropped shot on the last.

"But it was a new day and the goal I set was to shoot a 68, and I thought if I did that I would win.

"To get to the turn at two under was pretty good and I thought if I could just hang in there on the downhill holes at the end, I might get a couple of birdies which would do the job, and they did."

Stenson's win brought him £188,000 and a step closer to realising his key ambition of the season and make his first Ryder Cup, an aim he is rapidly closing in on.

"My main goal this year is to make the Ryder Cup, which means playing more European events," he said.

"There's a long way to go but I am definitely closing in on the team now, and another good couple of weeks and we should have that sorted.

"Starting the season with a second last week and a win here is better than I could have imagined. I am really happy."

A beaten Broadhurst, who was looking for his second title in a year having gone a barren decade prior to winning the 2005 Portuguese Open, felt he could have done better.

He shot a two-under-par 70 but he had to contend with Stenson's 68, the joint-best score of the day.

The 40-year-old said: "I didn't play that well, really, I just got it round. The best player on the day won. I was just trying to hang in there as long as I possibly could.

"I got off to a flyer, which was great, and then I hit a poor tee shot on four, caught it off the bottom of my club and it didn't go very far.

"After that it was a struggle all day. I just rallied a bit at the end, just put a bit of pressure on, but his 30ft putt at the 17th killed it off really.

"I wouldn't say I had a chance of winning. He had two shots at the last and when he hit a perfect drive, I was playing for second."

The Atherstone man was impressed by what he saw playing alongside Stenson.

"He's the next special one from Europe," he said. "He's got a great chance of winning majors. I think he's next in line.

"He will walk into the Ryder Cup team. I played with him last week and he played lovely.

"I didn't feel inferior to him very often but I did off the tee. It's quite unfair out there sometimes when you're giving up 60 yards off the tee.

"I said to my caddie going up the ninth that we've just got to play our own game and forget what he's doing."