Denis Shapovalov and Rohan Bopanna' wait for a trophy continues. Image: Vinod Divakaran

Bengaluru/Doha, February 19: Rohan Bopanna and Denis Shapovalov's wait for a till-now elusive doubles title continued, as they lost to 6-7 (4-7), 1-6 to the Dutch-British pair of Wesley Koolhof and Neal Skupski in the Qatar ExxonMobil Open final on Friday (February 18) night.

At the hard-courts of Khalifa International Tennis and Squash Complex, the Indo-Canadian pair were seeking their first trophy together, after also reaching the final in Stuttgart in 2019.

The unseeded duo had also reached the semifinals in St Petersburg in October.

But the third-seeded pair of Koolhof and Skupski had other ideas and they poved too good to cap off another dominant week in style to capture the title in Doha.

The Dutch-British pair dropped just one set en route to the championship match and played with confidence throughout against Bopanna and Shapovalov. They combined strong serving with deep returns to dictate and triumph after 78 minutes.

With their victory, Koolhof and Skupski are now 16-2 on the year, having clinched three ATP tour-level titles since they first teamed at the start of the season. They lifted trophies on Australian soil at the Melbourne Summer Set and the Adelaide International 2 in January.

Individually, Koolhof has now won 10 ATP tour-level crowns, while Skupski has earned eight titles at this level.

It's Bautista Agut vs Basilashvili

Meanwhile, in singles, Roberto Bautista Agut followed two sprints with a gruelling slog as he battled past Karen Khachanov to reach the final.

Spanish second seed Bautista Agut had dashed past Andy Murray and Alejandro Davidovich Fokina for the loss of just three games in Doha, but Khachanov proved far more obdurate.

After a slow start, eventually Bautista Agut picked up the pace and emerged a 2-6, 6-3, 7-5 winner in two hours and 24 minutes of toil, earning a shot at Georgia's Nikoloz Basilashvili in Saturday's (February 19) final.

Bautista Agut praised Russian Khachanov for making him scrap for the win.

"He was playing very fast," said Bautista Agut, was quoted as saying on the ATP website. "He was playing very solidly, he was defending very well and he hit many unbelievable passing shots. I had to play incredibly well tonight. I enjoyed tonight so much."

Third seed Basilashvili, the defending champion, made light work of France's Arthur Rinderknech, notching up a 6-4, 6-2 victory in the other last-four-encounter.

(With ATP/OPTA inputs)