Tokyo, Oct 9 (IANS): Andy Murray of Britain dethroned defending champion Rafael Nadal of Spain 3-6, 6-2, 6-0 to clinch the men's singles title at the Japan Open tennis championship here Sunday.

World No. 2 Nadal had not lost a set enroute to the final. He was quick to win the first set in the final but failed to keep up the momentum and lost the next two.

"I played some great tennis especially in the third set," the second seeded Xinhua quoted Murray as saying. "There were a lot of close games towards the end of the first set and the beginning of the second, I managed to get a momentum and didn't give him many chances after that."

Before the match, Nadal has beaten Murray five times in a row. With the fresh win, Murray has won 21 of his 22 matches since mid-August, with the lone loss to Nadal in the US Open semifinals.

Murray has set his goal to take Roger Federer's No.3 ranking this autumn. "I am going to keep on trying to win, trying to improve... and trying to get there at the end of the year..."

The two will fly to Shanghai to play the Masters next week.

"I played well the last few months - in Cincinnati and U.S. Open so if I can carry on that to Shanghai...," said Murray.