Daniil Medvedev produced an impressive 6-4 6-4 victory over Andy Murray to win the Doha title.
Medvedev continued his success from Rotterdam as he beat the two-time former champion.
After a brutal week, Murray lacked the consistency and the energy to challenge the former world number one.
It was Medvedev who started the brightest as he dictated play from the baseline and dissected Murray’s game.
The world number eight converted his fourth break point to break in the opening game before breaking again in the fifth game for a 4-1 lead.
However Murray had been threatening for the break and the Brit earned his reward for being resilient as he converted his third break point of the set to narrow the lead to 4-2.
Despite the late surge from Murray, the third seed held on as he sealed the opening set to love.
The second set started to follow a similar pattern as Medvedev once again broke in the opening game with some smart play.
However this time Murray denied Medvedev the chance to take a double break lead as he broke back for 3-3.
In the end though the time spent on court was too much for Murray as Medvedev grinded out the break in the ninth game and closed out the match on his second match point.
After the match Medvedev talked about momentum being on his side and his overall level, “I managed to find momentum in Rotterdam,” Medvedev told the ATP website.
“The first two matches I played there were tough. I didn’t feel good before that tournament, and then starting in the quarter-finals against Felix [Auger-Aliassime], I started to find my rhythm.
“I started to play really good. Serve better, move better. Today it was tough for Andy to put the balls through me many times, and now the question is [if it] can continue. I’m going to try as long as I can.”
The victory will see Daniil Medvedev overtake Rafael Nadal in the rankings and climb up to world number seven.
As for Murray he will look to use the momentum into Dubai next week when he faces Hubert Hurkacz in his opening round match.
