Alexei Popyrin's slide in a disappointing 2022 campaign for one of Australia's brightest young tennis hopes has continued with another defeat in the Dubai Tennis Championships.
The 22-year-old Sydneysider, who had endured a wretched start to the year, looked to have turned a corner after picking up a lucky loser's berth and beating world No.19 tournament Nikoloz Basilashvili in the opening round.
Yet hoping to reach his first quarter-final of the year, even 13 more aces from the big-serving Popyrin's racquet were not enough to prevent him going down 6-4 7-6 (9-7) to Lithuanian stalwart Ricardas Berankis on Wednesday.
Popyrin's defeat ended the Australian interest in the tournament after the exits of Alex de Minaur and Chris O'Connell earlier in the week.
Currently ranked No.3 among Australia's men, Popyrin's exit also means he faces a significant drop to No.5 when the next ATP list comes out next week.
The world No.66 went into his first-ever duel with Berankis with new-found confidence after his excellent win over Basiliashvili ended a six-match losing streak in the early rounds of 2022 tournaments.
He had picked up one victory in Dubai qualifying and despite losing in the final round of qualies to Jiri Vesely had taken full advantage of his reprieve when he was given a lucky loser's spot in the main draw.
Yet after the win over Basilashvili, he was always on the back foot against the 31-year-old qualifier Berankis, who's ranked 33 places below him on the ATP computer.
One error-strewn game at 3-3 saw Popyrin broken to 15 and that proved enough for the Lithuanian to sail on fairly untroubled in the opening set as he dominated behind his first serve, winning 85% of those points.
Popyrin couldn't make inroads into the solid delivery of Berankis until earning a break point at 2-1 in the second set - but it was swiftly snuffed out and proved his only opportunity of the match.
After a serve-dominated affair, Berankis largely controlled the tiebreak, Popyrin having to stave off two match points before a netted forehand gifted the Lithuanian the decisive point after one hour and 31 minutes.
