Frenchman Arnaud Clement captured his second title of the year by whipping British teenager Andy Murray 7-6, 6-2 to win the Legg Mason Classic on Sunday.
The 28-year-old Clement, seeded 11th and ranked 57th in the world, entered the tournament with a 12-14 record this year but won all five of his matches without losing a set.
"I played a lot of tiebreaks this week (four) and won them all," said the diminutive Frenchman, who beat Leyton Hewitt, Dominik Hrbaty and Marat Safin en route to the title.
"It gave me a lot of confidence. Today, everything was perfect."
Clement chased down a brilliant half volley by Murray and flicked it past the Briton to seal the first set tiebreak 7-3.
Murray, seeded eighth and playing his first tournament under new coach Brad Gilbert, unravelled after losing the tiebreak and was broken in his first two service games in the second set to quickly fall behind 4-0.
"I think I may have taken my foot off the gas at the start of the second set," said Murray, who was hampered with blisters on his hand.
"But I don't think it was a mental issue. I think it was more a problem with me making mistakes and him raising his level."
With a 4-0 lead, 1.72 m tall Clement motored on and served out to win the fourth title of his career.
"He made a lot of mistakes at the beginning of the second set," said Clement. "I tried to get a break early. And I did. And then I got another one. After that, I was okay."
The 19-year-old Murray was in control early in the match, up a service break at 3-2 and serving at 40-15. However, he ended up losing his serve to the 2001 Australian Open finalist, gift-wrapping the game with two costly double faults.
Murray broke Clement the next game to take a 4-3 lead but was broken right back.
"The first set I definitely had my chances," said Murray. "I probably should have won the first set. He raised his game once he got back into the match and my level dropped a bit. He deserved to win."
Murray is ranked 35th in the world and is Britain's number one player.
"I just made a few mistakes that I'll definitely learn from," said Murray. "But it was a good week. Getting to an ATP final at my age is good in anyone's book."
