Kyle Edmund's first clay court appearance for nearly three years ended in a three-set defeat to Switzerland's Marc-Andrea Huesler in the first round of the BMW Open.
The former Australian Open semi-finalist lost 6-7[3] 6-4 3-6 over two days, having ceded the first set on Monday before the match was suspended as night fell.
Edmund, whose most recent clay-court appearance was at the Italian Open in September 2020, enjoyed a strong start to the match with a break in the sixth game of the first set.
However, Huesler broke back immediately to force a tie-breaker, where the world number 63 won five points on the bounce to recover from a slow start and take control.
The duo returned to the court on Tuesday afternoon after darkness ended Monday's round of action, and the period of rest worked in Edmund's favour, as he broke in the first game of the second set before Huesler broke back in the fourth.
The former British number one was not to be denied, though, and he broke again in the 11th game before a hold to 15 forced a third set, where he would fail to recover from an error-strewn fourth game.
Huesler brought up three break points on an Edmund double fault - the Brit saved two of them before Huesler converted his third - and the world number 509 could not pull off a late fightback.
Ben Knapton
