Andy Murray was beaten in straight sets by Janko Tipsarevic on the opening day of the Mubadala World Tennis Championship in Abu Dhabi.
The Serbian progressed to the semi-finals with a 6-3 6-4 victory, where he will face Spain's world number 11 Nicolas Almagro, who came in as a late replacement following the withdrawal of Rafael Nadal due to a stomach virus.
After the match, world number three Murray told ESPN: "I'm looking forward to training very hard and playing some of my best tennis next year.
"It's nice to play in events like this and it's a great atmosphere to play in."