South Africa’s Lloyd Harris lost the Dubai Tennis Championship final 6-3 6-2 to Russia’s Aslan Karatsev on Saturday.
24-year-old Harris was the first qualifier to make the final at the tournament, having got past Canada’s Denis Shapovalov in the Friday’s semi-final.
In a fairytale week, the South African had also enjoyed wins over US Open champion and top seed Dominic Thiem as well as Japan’s Kei Nishikori in previous rounds.
In the final, Karatsev broke Harris’ serve midway through the opening set and twice more in the second.
The Russian saved the only two break points he faced against Harris as he raced to victory in under an hour and 20 minutes.
The result in Doha brought Karatsev his first ATP Tour singles title and continued his remarkable season.
Last month, the 27-year-old became the first man to reach the semi-finals on their Grand Slam debut in the Open era at the Australian Open.
