Novak Djkovic suffered a surprise defeat in Doha as he was beaten by world No. 24 Roberto Bautista Agut in the semi-final of the Qatar Open on Friday.
Djokovic lost to Agut 6-3 6-7 (6/8) 4-6 to crash out of the tournament.
This was the first defeat of the season for the Serbian. The match lasted over two-and-a-half hours and saw a good comeback from the Spaniard to take down the current world number one.
"What happened? I lost the match. That's it," said a frustrated Djokovic in his post-match press conference.
Agut broke Djokovic's serve in the second game of the final set for the decisive break and secured a win on his first match point.
Agut will next play Czech Republic's Tomas Berdych in Saturday's final.
"I can't be more happy than I am now. I will remember this match for [the rest] of my life," said the 30-year-old Spaniard."
This is the second time Agut has defeated Djokovic in his career and incidentally, both the wins came in a semi-final. The first of the two wins came in October 2016 in Shanghai.
However, according to Bautista Agut, Friday's victory was the better of the two.
"I think today the match was better, the level of the tennis today was very high. We both played very good tennis and it was also more tight on the score and more emotions and today was a really good match," he said.
Djokovic's frustrations got to him and he smashed his racquet after dropping his serve in the eighth game of the second set.
"I thought I was pretty much in control of the match, set and a break, serving 4-3. He played a good game. I missed some easy balls and that's what you get as a result of losing the focus in the most important moments and it happens, it happens," Djokovic said.
Fatigue could have played a part in the Serb's elimination one could say as he played two matches each day for the three days in singles and doubles competition before Friday's loss.
Including the semi-final with Bautista Agut, Djokovic spent almost 10 hours on court in three days.
When asked if he had done too much through the week, he replied: "I wasn't the freshest, you know. This is what I was looking forward to, to get from this tournament, as many matches as possible, to get ready for the Australian Open, so
I'm very pleased."
"Obviously, I'm not pleased that I lost the match today, but I lost to a better player in the end," he added.
The second semi-final however, wasn't as competitive.
World No. 73 Berdych eased through to his second Doha final in straight sets as he defeated Italy's Marco Cecchinato 7-6 (8/6) 6-3.
His previous Qatar Open final, in 2015, was also against a Spaniard, David Ferrer and it ended in a straight sets defeat.
