Alex de Minaur's hopes of joining the illustrious Australian roll of honour at the Queen's Club Championships have been dynamited by inspired American Brandon Nakashima.
Top seed de Minaur cut a frustrated figure again on Friday, having surely seen this as his best ever opportunity to win the tournament that's considered second only to Wimbledon in terms of grass-court prestige.
But the world No.6 caught Nakashima on one of his hot days in the London sunshine as the crisp-hitting Californian prevailed 7-5 6-3 in the quarter-final of the historic championships on Andy Murray Arena.
It meant de Minaur's dream of advancing one place to join the world's top-five players for the first time was also sunk.
If he had prevailed, de Minaur would have leapfrogged American Ben Shelton, who was simultaneously losing his quarter-final at the Halle tournament in Germany to Taylor Fritz, into the fifth spot.
