Djokovic and Verdasco beaten in Spaniard's farewell match

Novak Djokovic and Fernando Verdasco bowed out in the Qatar Open, following their defeat by Harri Heliovaara and Henry Patten in the men's doubles quarter-finals.

The reigning Wimbledon and Australian Open champions brought the curtain down on Verdasco's career of 23 years, after prevailing 7-5 6-4 in just under 90 minutes.

Former world number eight Verdasco said ahead of this week that he would be hanging up his racquet for good, having won seven singles and eight doubles titles during his career.

The Spaniard and Djokovic opened their men's doubles campaign with victory over Alexander Bublik and Karen Khachanov.

However, the second seeds, who won 83% of their points on first serve, were just too strong, as they progressed to the semi-finals.

Djokovic, who exited the singles event after losing to Matteo Berrettini on Tuesday, shared an embrace with Verdasco at the conclusion of the contest, before the latter was given a generous reception from the Doha crowd.

An error occurred while retrieving the Tweet. It might have been deleted.