Great Britain's Jack Draper will hit a new career-high ranking next week, despite going down in three sets to Andrey Rublev in Saturday's Qatar Open final.
The 23-year-old was seeking a third career title and second ATP 500 crown in Doha and took Rublev the distance, but his powers waned in the third set as the Russian prevailed 7-5 5-7 6-1 in just over two hours.
After battling his way back into the championship match in the second set, the British number one was running on empty in the decider, where Rublev put one hand on the crown as he raced into a 5-0 lead.
Draper at least forced the world number 10 to serve out the final, which Rublev did with his 10th ace of the day as he became a Qatar Open champion for the second time, having also taken home the crown in 2020.
Nevertheless, Draper will now reach a personal-best standing of 12th in the world when the new ATP Tour rankings are published on Monday, while Rublev has risen one place to world number nine.
Elsewhere on Sunday, Rublev's compatriot Mirra Andreeva wrote her name into the history books with a 7-6[1] 6-1 triumph over Denmark's Clara Tauson in the final of the Dubai Tennis Championships.
The teenager has now become the youngest-ever WTA 1000 champion at just 17 years and 298 days old, capping off an outstanding week where she also eliminated three Grand Slam champions in Iga Swiatek, Marketa Vondrousova and Elena Rybakina en route to the title.
Ben Knapton
