Wesley Moodie came within a point of winning the doubles title in the year's opening ATP event in Doha, Qatar on Friday.

The South African, who joined the Monte Carlo Tennis Academy last year, held a match point with partner Jeff Coetzee in the Qatar Exxonmobil Open final. They eventually succumbed 6-4, 4-6, 11-9 (match tie-break) to Germany's Phillip Kohlschreiber and David Skoch of the Czech Republic.

It was a disappointing end to an impressive week for Moodie, who defeated the highly-touted pair of Jamie Murray and Max Mirnyi in the quarterfinals, and then dispatched Simon Aspelin and former Australian Open champion Thomas Johansson in the semis.

Moodie will now head to the event in Auckland, New Zealand, and then Melbourne for the year's opening Grand Slam tournament.