Doha: Andy Murray, who contested the fourth ATP Tour final of his career here at the age of only 19, looks capable of becoming a new threat at next week's Australian Open.

Last month Born Bjorg, tennis' first superstar, said that the Scot was good enough one day to succeed Roger Federer as world number one, and Saturday Ivan Ljubicic suggested Murray would be joining him in the top ten very soon.

Although the world number five beat the teenager 6-4, 6-4 in the final of the Qatar Open, Murray should achieve his highest ever ranking on Monday, somewhere in the world's top 16.

This would help him gain better draws in major tournaments and keep him in the race with Serbian Novak Djokovic, the winner of the Adelaide International on Sunday, to become the youngest player in the world's top ten.

Although Murray lost to Ljubicic, he beat the Croatian three months ago in Madrid, just eight weeks after an astounding victory over Federer at the Masters Series in Cincinnati.

He also scored a fine win over Nikolay Davydenko, the world number three from Russia, in Friday's semi-finals here, and has clearly made a leap in standard since joining forces with Brad Gibert, former coach to Andre Agassi, shortly after Wimbledon.

"To reach any final as a teenager is great," Murray said.

"To make any final is a fine achievement, and to do it in the first week in the year is great. To beat someone like Davydenko, means I am looking forward to working on my game for next week and working on the things I didn't do so well this week and hopefully I'll be better by the time Australia comes round."

Murray may work on introducing more attacking patterns into a subtle range of tactical options with his superbly controlled baseline game.

"If you know tennis you can see it - it wasn't like I did anything horrendous," said Murray, referring to the eight break points which he was unable to convert in the first set against Ljubicic.

"It was just a question of getting more match tight. When it comes it the big stage it's about not making so many mistakes, maybe not going for so many low percentage shots," he said.

"You just get used to it, and it's experience. When the big points came I was a little unlucky on a few calls and missed a few shots which hopefully by the time Australia comes around I won't be missing," he said.