KUALA LUMPUR: Nafiizwan Adnan was denied his 11th career PSA Tour title by Spain's Borja Golan after going down in the Montreal Open final on Saturday.
Top seed Golan rallied from a game down to claim a 9-11, 11-4, 11-9, 11-6 win over the sixth seeded Nafiizwan.
However, World No 42 Nafiizwan's run to the final, his first since winning the HKFC International in May 2016, will come as a welcome confidence boost ahead of the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games next month.
He can also expect a rise in his world ranking which had suffered on the back of missing the Malaysian Open and World Championship last year for various reasons.
Meanwhile, 2014 Asian Games men's singles gold medallist Abdullah Al Muzayen is the biggest attraction at the sixth leg of the Malaysian Tour in Bukit Jalil tomorrow.
The Kuwaiti, a surprise winner in Incheon four years ago, will play Malaysian Ryan Pasqual in the first qualifying round at the National Squash Centre.
Al Muzayen, 30, is ranked a lowly 146th in the world mainly due to his lack of participation on the PSA Tour which has seen play just four events over the past 14 months.
However, he did win his last two tournaments at the KSF Open in Kuwait City in December and at the Qatar Circuit No 6 event in Doha last month where he had been unseeded.
National champion Ivan Yuen heads the cast at the tournament and the top seed opens his campaign on Tuesday against a qualifier, who could well be Al Muzayen, depending on the draw.