Sir Andy Murray has lost in straight sets to world number five Andrey Rublev in the final of the Mubadala World Tennis Championship in Abu Dhabi.
Murray had overcome both Dan Evans and Rafael Nadal without dropping a set en route to the final of the exhibition event, but could not continue his fine run as Rublev won 6-4 7-6 to take the title.
Both players started strongly with opening service games to love, and it was not until the fifth game of the set that the first break points arose.
Rublev took advantage of the second one of those to gain the upper-hand in the set, and he held serve for the remainder to take the opener.
The Russian then made a perfect start to the second set by breaking in the very first game, leaving Murray with a mountain to climb given Rublev's form on his own serve.
The former world number one finally created his first break point in the eighth game of the second set and, while he was unable to capitalise on that, he did complete the break later in the same game to draw back level.
The second set subsequently went to a tiebreak, and Rublev quickly raced into a 4-0 lead before taking it 7-2 with his first match point.
Both players will now be looking ahead to the 2022 season and strong showings at the Australian Open in January. body check tags ::
