ABU DHABI: Andy Murray fell at the final hurdle in his quest to end the year with a tournament victory afer losing the Mubadala World Tennis Championship final in straight sets to Russian Andrey Rublev. The world No. 5 won 6-4 7-6 (7-2) to seal the title at the exhibition event in Abu Dhabi. Murray had battled back in the second set, but was unable to force a third set and lost in the tie-break. He had beaten fellow Briton Dan Evans and 20-time Grand Slam champion Rafael Nadal on his way to reaching the final. Despite the defeat, the former world No. 1 remains optimistic with his progress and his tennis going into 2022. “I have been pretty healthy over the last three months, I"ve got to play a lot of matches,” he said. “I just need to find a way of turning some of these matches against the top players around and hopefully I can have some big runs in the biggest tournaments again, that"s my goal, I"m trying as hard as I can to do that,” he added. Murray is scheduled to play in the Australian Open for the first time since 2018, which starts in Melbourne on Jan.