Roger Federer became only the second player to claim back-to-back Qatar ExxonMobil Open titles thanks to his 6-3 7-6 (7/5) win over Gael Monfils.

The top seed and defending champion triumphed over the seventh seed in just 78 minutes and now has won his last nine matches in Doha without dropping a set.

The Swiss also became the first player since Sweden's Stefan Edberg in 1994-95 to win back-to-back titles in this event.

The French teenager started the game positively by breaking the thunderous Federer serve in the first game.

He, then, surprised the champion by breaking his serve on two further occasions to lead 3-1 and 15-40 in the fifth game on the Federer serve.

However, the Swiss magician, celebrating his 101st consecutive week as world number one, showed his pugnacious streak as he fought back to win the next 13 points and five straight games.

Federer said: "It's almost like Wimbledon (in the Middle East), I play and I win. It's really nice to win back-to-back titles, it makes you want to come back and win a third time.

"He (Monfils) is young, has a different style from other players and a great opportunity to do very well in the future. I really had to watch out, I was down very quickly as it took me a few games to figure out how to play against him."

He added: "Then he was very close in the second set and I really had to come up with some very good tennis."

Monfils, though, will benefit from the experience of playing against the multi-talented Swiss player and was pleased with his work in Qatar.

He said: "It was a great experience to play against him and I hope I will get another opportunity. I am not sure I played very well today as I had problems with my serve and missed a lot of shots when he was slicing to my backhand.

"But I played better than in the last two finals I lost, I enjoyed myself more. I don't think about reaching the top 10 or in terms of numbers.

"I just want to improve my game and give my best each time I play. I had a good week here but I realised I need to work on a lot of things."