Speaking after the match Richard said: "It was a close match. I got broken early in the 3rd and he served well to take the match. Well done to him, it was tough for me on the grass."

Sporting life report:

Richard Bloomfield came close to an upset in the first round of the Red Letter Days Open, only to suffer a typically glorious defeat for a Briton.

Bloomfield was handed a wild-card entry for the event at Nottingham, but was beaten by Andy Murray's conqueror in the first round of the Stella Artois Championships last week in Janko Tipsarevic.

British number seven Bloomfield's defeat was not without a brave fight and raised expectations, eventually losing 6-4 3-6 6-3.

The 23-year-old from Norwich, at 260 in the world ranked 152 places below Serbian Tipsarevic, lost his serve in the seventh game of the first set.

But Bloomfield converted his one and only break point of the match in the fourth game of the second set to open up a 3-1 lead.

A resilient seventh game saw Bloomfield save five break points before closing out and prompting hopes on number one court of a shock.

They were wiped out, though, within a few minutes in the final set as Bloomfield was broken to give Tipsarevic a 2-0 lead from which he never looked back.