There's a silver lining to Alex de Minaur's straight sets loss to Roger Federer in the final in Basel, with the Australian star rising to a career-high ATP ranking of 18th.
De Minaur was no match for Federer, who cruised to a 6-2 6-2 win to claim his 10th Swiss Indoors title and his 103rd career title.
Although de Minaur came up short in his first match against Federer, the 20-year-old enjoyed an otherwise outstanding week in Switzerland and jumped an impressive 10 places in the rankings.
“I was really hoping that Roger was going to get sick of winning here and give someone else a chance,” de Minaur said.
MORE: Federer too good for de Minaur in Basel
“Too good again. That was amazing.”
It marks the first time de Minaur has broken into the top 20 in the world, having hovered in the 20s and 30s for the better part of 12 months.
Federer had nothing but praise for de Minaur and predicted the Sydney-born star will continue to rise up the ranks.
“So many more things to come for you," he said after the match.
"You are going up from here.”
If 2018 was De Minaur's breakout year - he made the semis in Brisbane and finals in Sydney and at the Next Gen ATP Finals - then 2019 was his chance to show belongs at the top level.
His spot in the final two in Basel was de Minaur's fourth final of the year, with titles coming at the Sydney International, Atlanta Open and Zhuhai Championships.
The top-ranked Australian male will line up alongside Nick Kyrgios, John Millman, Jordan Thompson and John Peers.
Australia has been drawn in Group D of the new-look Davis Cup format alongside Belgium and Colombia.
The winners of the six groups plus the two best second-placed teams will qualify for the quarter-finals when the finals get underway on November 18.