Vasek Pospisil bows out in the quarter-finals of the Malaysian Open to Feliciano Lopez

With Milos Raonic winning his first ATP Tour title in more than a year last week in St. Petersburg, Russia, was it Davis Cup teammate Vasek Pospisil's turn to win his first career title at a tournament in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia this week?

Not this time around, although the 25-year-old from Vancouver did have a solid week before bowing out to No. 2 seed Feliciano Lopez of Spain, 6-7 (2), 6-3, 6-2 in the quarter-finals on Friday.

Pospisil, the No. 8 seed, cruised over qualifier Yasutaka Uchiyama of Japan 6-3, 6-4 in the first round. He then produced a quality victory over former top-10 player Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus, 7-6, (2), 3-6, 6-3 – a 2 1/2-hour effort in which he won one more point than Baghdatis, 105 to 104.

In the quarters on Friday against Lopez, who is ranked No. 17 in the ATP Tour rankings, Pospisil pulled out a first set in which both were nearly untouchable on serve. Pospisil lost just seven points on his own delivery; neither player could earn a break point.

Lopez started doing a better job of reading Pospisil's serve in the second set, while failing to make any sort of dent in that of Lopez. In the decider, the Canadian served just 44 per cent and was thoroughly outplayed.

The effort won't do much for Pospisil's ranking, which is expected to stay at No. 44. Reaching the semis in Kuala Lumpur would have been worth three spots in a race to perhaps try and get in the top 32 by year's end, and earn a seed at the Australian Open next January.

Pospisil was on the bubble, just outside the cutoff when the deadlines for the tournaments in Beijing, China next week (a 500-level event with twice as many ranking points on offer as Kuala Lumpur) and Shanghai (a Masters 1000 tournament on the level of the Rogers Cup) passed. But with various injury withdrawals, he has been bumped into the main draw in both and will look to capitalize on some of the momentum from this week.

He reached the second round at both events a year ago.

The Canadian will reunite with doubles partner Jack Sock in Beijing; the pair didn't enter the big Shanghai tournament. But if they want to play, they can sign up on site.