Chris O'Connell and Jordan Thompson have bowed out of the Chengdu Open in China but their quarter-final appearances may have helped push them back in the frame for a singles spot in the Davis Cup finals.
O'Connell was outplayed by a rejuvenated Grigor Dimitrov in his last-eight contest on Sunday, going down 6-4 6-1 in just an hour and 25 minutes.
There was disappointment too when O'Connell's Sydneysider pal Jordan Thompson also had to retire with injury against Wimbledon quarter-finalist Roman Safiullin in another quarter-final tie.
Thompson had narrowly lost the first-set to the Russian before succumbing 7-1 in the tiebreak and, increasingly struggling, he offered his hand to his opponent at the start of the second set.
They were disappointing endings to what had been a successful week in China for the Australian pair who are both seeking a strong finish to the season with Davis Cup captain Lleyton Hewitt ready to look at all singles alternatives for the finals in Malaga in November.
The back-up singles player to No.1 Alex de Minaur is a hotly-contested position now. Thompson was in the team that qualified in Manchester, but he couldn't land the No.2 singles spot ahead of either Thanasi Kokkinakis or Max Purcell.
But Thompson beat Purcell in straight sets in Chengdu and will next week be No.62 in the world rankings, while Kokkinakis will be No.71.
O'Connell will be at No.59, just ahead of Thompson, but still only fifth in the domestic rankings behind Aleksandar Vukic (50), Alexei Popyrin (44), Purcell (42) and de Minaur (12) with plenty of competition still between them all for a Davis Cup berth.
Italian Lorenzo Musetti, who had ended Australian youngster Philip Sekulic's breakthrough run in the last-16, advanced to the semi-finals in Chengdu, beating Arthur Rinderknech 6-3 6-3 in the quarters and will face Safiullin.
Qualifying for his third semi-final of the season, Musetti cracked 32 winners and explained: "Yesterday's match (against Sekulic) gave me a lot of confidence."
Olympic champion Alexander Zverev rallied to beat Miomir Kecmanovic 5-7 7-5 6-2 and will face Dimitrov in the other last-four match.
In the other ATP event going on in China, Russian Aslan Karatsev secured a place in the semi-finals with a tight victory over British No.1 Cameron Norrie 7-6 (7-5) 7-6 (7-5), his second UK victim after beating Andy Murray earlier in the week.
He will next face Japan's Yoshihito Nishioka while Russia's top seed Karen Khachanov, who beat sixth seed Mackenzie McDonald 4-6 6-4 6-4, will meet another American Sebastian Korda in the other semi-final.
