Dan Evans apologised for wasting the time of Andy Murray and Joe Salisbury after his British team-mates came out to support him in his third-round match at the Australian Open.
Evans, 31, represented Britain's last hope across the men's and women's singles draws, but faced a tall order in the form of ninth seed Felix Auger-Aliassime.
A tight first set swung the way of the Canadian after Evans, who had earlier missed chances at break point, made two unforced errors at 5-4. It was a one-sided affair thereafter though, as Auger-Aliassime dominated the next two sets to take them 6-1 6-1.
The 21-year-old will now face 27th seed Marin Cilic for a spot in the last eight, after the Croat shocked sixth seed Andrey Rublev.
Murray's own hopes were ended on Thursday when he was beaten by Japanese qualifier Taro Daniel in straight sets, while Salisbury and partner Rajeev Ram will play in the third-round of the doubles on Monday.
Both were court-side at the John Cain Arena to support 24th seed Evans, who had previously been gifted a walkover in the second-round after France's Arthur Rinderknech withdrew through injury.
However, his hopes of making the last 16 for the second time in his career, after reaching the same stage in 2017, were duly dashed, and afterwards he made a tongue-in-cheek apology to his compatriots.
"It's a nice gesture that they come out," he told reporters. "They're probably regretting wasting two hours of their time now, and they will probably let me know!"
He was, however, serious when he reflected on the progress made down under, winning all three of his matches at the ATP Cup before reaching the semi-finals of the Sydney International.
A straight-sets win against Belgium's David Goffin at Melbourne Park maintained his run of positive results, but he did not have to walk onto a court to get through the next round after Rinderknech pulled out - and admitted his standards dropped against Auger-Aliassime.
"I wasn't at the races as I have been and losing is difficult to take. But it has been a good swing here in Australia and a lot of positives to take," he said.
"Losing here today is not the be all and end all. Losing is part of the sport."
Evans now joins Murray, Emma Raducanu, Cameron Norrie, Heather Watson, Harriet Dart and Liam Broady as British players to have exited the singles before the second week.
