Andy Murray's grass-court adventure came to an end for another year on Friday after his run at the Hall of Fame Open in Rhode Island was ended at the quarter-final stage by Alexander Bublik.
Murray was out-smarted by the Kazakh, losing 7-5 6-4 with Bublik crashing down 12 aces on the lawns of the low-key event in Newport.
"The grass-court season as a whole there were some good moments, but also some tough ones," Murray said.
"Today's match and the loss at Wimbledon were disappointing and frustrating for me, but then I also had my best wins in a while in Stuttgart.
"So a bit up and down, but a little bit of progress overall and I'll try and keep that going through the hard-court summer.
"(I want) to continue to improve. If I keep seeing progress, I'll continue to keep playing."
The first set remained on serve until the 11th game when Bublik made the most of the first break point of the last-eight tie to take the initiative.
A lengthy rally was ended by a fine backhand winner from the world No 42 and saw Murray let out his frustration by throwing his racket into the net.
When the third seed served out for the first set in 58 minutes and broke his rival at the start of the second, the momentum had firmly swung.
Murray responded immediately and began his latest comeback quest, but a crucial sixth game of the second set proved decisive.
Sixth seed Murray was unable to break Bublik following a lengthy service game and then let slip on his own serve.
While Murray fought back from 0-30 down to force Bublik to serve out for the match, and saved two match points, the Kazakhstan player made no mistake at the third time of asking to progress into the semi-finals of the Rhode Island tournament.
Three-time Grand Slam winner Murray
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