Battling Andy Murray saw his hopes of winning a maiden ATP title ended by Roger Federer at the Thailand Open. The 18-year-old played some dazzling tennis in a 6-3 7-5 loss, going for his shots and showing no fear.
And the Briton managed to claw his way back into the second set by breaking the world number one.
But errors saw him surrender his opening service games in both sets and his last of the match as Federer pounced to win his 11th title of 2005.
The victory extended Federer's winning run to 31 - the longest such streak since Thomas Muster in 1995.
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And the Swiss has also prevailed in an incredible 24 straight finals, having also won in Bangkok last year, beating Andy Roddick 6-4 6-0. But in many ways the day belonged to Murray, who continued to show rapid improvement and mature shot selection, mixing spin with power.
After only getting a wildcard for the event when Tim Henman withdrew, the Scot made a bad start, surrendering his first service game in a major final.
He showed his Swiss opponent a glimmer of opportunity at 40-15 by double faulting and Federer exploited the lapse with three well-worked points to go 2-0 up.
Murray's next moment of crisis came on serve at 4-1 down.
This time though, he showed bravery and remarkable touch with one angled volley to close out the deuce game.
Murray even started to give Federer trouble on his own serve - only missing out on a break point after an over-rule - before the world's top player took the set 6-3.
But he lapsed again at the start of the second set, producing three unforced errors to hand the opening game to Federer.
That might have proved crucial, but Murray showed all of his fighting qualities to strike back in the sixth game, breaking Federer's mighty serve.
Predictably, Federer had the final say, playing aggressive tennis to break at 5-5 and he held on for a hard-fought win.
Despite the loss, Murray will now be ranked inside the world's top 70. At the same age, Federer reached number 64.