Australian Daria Gavrilova was ultimately outplayed by her Ukranian opponent Lusia Tsurenko in her semi-final at the Mexican Open falling to a 6-2, 6-4 defeat.
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The third seed at the tournament, Gavrilova made a number of errors to hand seventh-seed Tsurenko a relatively routine path to the final.
Though showing some late resolve in the match, as the 23-year-old Aussie survived six match points and won four straight games, she'd eventually fall in her quest to make the decider.
Defending champion @LTsurenko is heading back to the @AbiertoTelcel final!
— WTA (@WTA) March 3, 2018
Defeats Gavrilova 6-2, 6-4 pic.twitter.com/sP6YlmkYEW
Tsurenko, who won the tournament last year, will now face either Stefanie Vögele or Rebecca Peterson in the final as Gavrilova rues a missed opportunity to pick up a title.
Gavrilova had earlier made headlines during the tournament when she threw her racquet in anger with a nearby ballboy only just avoiding being hit.
Nick Kyrgios noted at the time on Twitter that if he had done something similar he would 'be banned for 6 years and been on every paper and news channel for the next month'.
