Aljaz Bedene's first grand slam in British colours ended in disappointment as he lost 6-3 6-4 6-7 (6/8) 6-3 to Austria's Dominic Thiem.
Bedene grew up in Slovenia but, after seven years training at Welwyn Garden City, the 25-year-old was granted UK citizenship in March and he hopes to be allowed to represent Great Britain in their Davis Cup quarter-final against France in July.
Ranked 75 in the world, and 38th on rankings points this year, Bedene certainly has potential but he is yet to go past the first round at a major tournament and his wait continues, despite a gutsy effort at Roland Garros.
World number 31 Thiem, who won his maiden ATP title in Nice last week, is currently one of the most exciting young talents on the circuit and while the 21-year-old was volatile enough to give Bedene flitting spells of hope, he did just enough to go through.
Bedene enjoyed most success when he varied his game, realising the strength of Thiem's elegant ground shots, but the tactical change came too late and his serve let him down too often to gain any sustained momentum.
Twice Bedene served a double fault to give away breaks early on and while the Briton capitalised on some loose Thiem hitting to take one back, it was not enough to save the first set.
Thiem then raced into a 4-0 lead in the second but the youngster then eased off and, again, Bedene rallied, claiming one break to make it 4-3 but his opponent regained his composure to serve out.
Trailing by two sets, Bedene adjusted his approach as he tried to shorten and vary the points with more drop shots, slice and rushes to the net.
It worked as he took the first break of the third set but in the following game, a short forehand into the net allowed Thiem to immediately reply.
After eight losses of serve, the third set would be settled by a tie-break and Bedene looked on the brink when he trailed 6-4, but instead he saved both match points and won two more to force Thiem into a fourth.
The set started badly, though, for Bedene, who called a doctor after the third game to attend to what looked like his troublesome right wrist and then he was broken in the fourth after missing a simple volley.
The error proved decisive as Thiem served out to seal victory in three hours and 22 minutes.
Source: PA
