British number two Cameron Norrie missed out on the San Diego Open title as he was beaten in straight sets by Norwegian second seed Casper Ruud.
Ruud breezed past Norrie 6-0 6-2 for his fifth title of the season – more than any other player on the ATP Tour.
Ruud, who beat former world number one Andy Murray in the second round, lost just one set throughout the tournament.
But there was British victory elsewhere in San Diego as Neal Skupski and Joe Salisbury won the men’s doubles title.
They beat Australia’s John Peers and Slovakia’s Filip Polasek 7-6 (7-2) 3-6 10-5.
“A great week for us,” said Salisbury. “Going into it the goal was to win the tournament, but we didn’t know what to expect. We hadn’t played together for three years.”
Ruud dominates to better Djokovic on titles count
World number 10 Ruud wrapped up the opening set in just 27 minutes against Norrie, who won only three service points in the first set.
Norrie, ranked 26th, made a better start to the second set, cutting down his unforced errors before Ruud broke to take a 4-2 lead, going on to take his first hard-court title.
Victory puts Ruud, 22, one ahead of Novak Djokovic, Daniil Medvedev and Alexander Zverev on the leaderboard for most titles this season.
Norrie, 26, has reached five finals this season but won only one title – his first on the ATP Tour – in Los Cabos in July.
“It’s a fun thing to say it, but obviously Daniil and Novak have bigger titles, so I wouldn’t mind switching up with them if I had an opportunity to switch five 250s to three Slams and a 250 Novak has,” said Ruud.
“It would be fun to end the year with the most titles, I cannot lie about that.”
