ROLAND GARROS — Dan Evans did his best to put a brave face on it.

As the penultimate British player to be handed a first-round defeat – only Katie Boulter remained – it fell partly to him to defend his compatriots from criticism.

And he, at least to begin with, insisted it was mere bad luck that all six Brits had crashed out without a single victory.

“It’s just been a bit of a tough tournament,” Evans said. “I think we’re actually in the best spot we’ve been in with the clay for a long time.

“I think [Jack] Draper will win a lot of matches here… everywhere. I just think it’s a bit of a not great tournament. It’s just how it’s panned out.”

But the British failure on this surface, by far the least commonly found in the UK, goes beyond the main draw of Roland Garros. There were six more players who failed to make it through qualifying for the French Open, and across 40 tour-level matches in this clay-court swing, British players have only garnered 12 match victories.

“I think the toughest part is that we don’t grow up on the stuff,” former player Naomi Broady told the BBC on Wednesday.

“The weather doesn’t help. Clay is just not a surface that we have readily available in the UK as a surface we would play on a lot. We lack the experience on it unless you are someone like Andy Murray who moved to Spain to train when he was younger.”

French Open finalist Murray has helped paper over the gaping chasms in British performances in Paris over the last two decades. He has won 39 matches in his career here – the fourth-most among active men’s players – while since 2000, other British players have only managed 46 in 122 attempts. The British 21st century Roland Garros win-rate is 49 per cent; without Murray, it is a measly 38 per cent.

In that context, it is with little shock that we find the Brits wiped out so quickly this time around – and probably why the surface is given such short shrift by the country’s top players.

“You guys counted the posts on Instagram? How many people have posted about the grass from Britain?” Evans added, a sly dig at those who over-romanticise the short grass-court season while normalising, or even ignoring, significant failings over the much longer and more widespread clay swings.

How the Brits were beaten

Jack Draper lost to Jesper de Jong (world No 176) in five sets

Draper’s worst ever grand slam defeat by ranking. Afterwards explained he is making radical changes to his game and is not comfortable on the court at this stage.

Andy Murray lost to Stan Wawrinka (98) in three sets

Murray ruptured two ankle ligaments in March and has only played three matches since. Wawrinka a poor match-up at the best of times at a tournament he has won twice, but still a tame exit.

Harriet Dart lost to Linda Noskova (29) in two sets

The biggest underdog of any Brit, held her own in the middle of the match but was outgunned by a talented youngster and the No 27 seed.

Cam Norrie lost to Pavel Kotov (56) in five sets

A particularly disappointing defeat for the British No 1, after which he said he was “devastated”. Kotov a talented ball-striker but not a player Norrie should be losing to.

Dan Evans lost to Holger Rune (13) in three sets

One of Evans’s better performances in a dire season, but soured by a spat with the umpire after which he did not win another game.

Katie Boulter lost to Paula Badosa (139) in three sets

Not an easy draw against the former world No 2 but not the same player after a stress fracture. Boulter still a novice at this level on this surface.

It is not an individual choice either. The Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) recently took the decision to replace two of its clay courts with Padel courts. i understands a trial of an artificial clay court produced by Red+ is planned – with the idea of rolling out the surface more widely. Real clay is too difficult and expensive to install and maintain to be a viable nationwide option. But it does not change the fact that the National Tennis Centre’s number of clay courts has been reduced by a third to accommodate Padel.

At grassroots level, only five per cent of tennis courts in the UK are clay, and the overwhelming majority of those are artificial. There are just 200 real clay courts in the whole country.

With so few at home, the LTA is increasingly keen to send British players overseas for greater exposure to the red dirt. The national governing body is actively pursuing partnerships with academies in Barcelona and Girona to give promising young players the chance to work with clay-court specialist players and coaches.

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“I coached Andy [Murray] when he was 12 years old and we were already going across Europe, playing a lot of clay court events, doing some training weeks on clay, trying to get exposure on it when we could,” Leon Smith, Davis Cup captain and head of men’s tennis at the LTA, said.

“That’s still going on. The LTA run training camps overseas for under 12s and under 14s.

“They go along in what is called the Tennis Europe circuit which is for getting clay court exposure but of course that’s not for everybody, it’s just for those ones who are selected at that moment in time.

“We try to encourage a lot of the emerging players when they get in the 14-and-under age group to play a lot on clay because yes, it’s two-and-a-half months on this level of the game but it is year-round everywhere else.

“It’s important and good for your game. If you look at the top 100 in the men’s game, the surface they would have been brought up in predominantly would have been clay.”

The “culture” in the UK does not exist in the same way.

Murray had to go out of his way to spend time as a teenager at Sanchez-Casal Academy in Barcelona hitting on clay, although some of that time was badly impacted by injury.

But few others have shown such initiative.

Boulter, the last to go out late on Tuesday night, was playing only her third ever tour-level clay-court match. A late-comer to the top 100, she would not have qualified for many of them – but even in the lower echelons she kept well away from the clay.

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“We’re working so hard behind the scenes,” Boulter insisted. “A lot of you guys don’t see the majority of what I put in and how I’m trying to get better and I feel like it really is starting to show.

“Obviously it’s a little too late [for the clay], but at the same time, it’s great for me: it inspires me into next year’s season knowing that my level is there, my level can compete and I can go out and win a lot of matches on the clay court.”

Are things getting any better?

“We have a bit more of a clay court strategy 1717477570, there are artificial surfaces that can be placed around the country,” Smith added.

“The idea is that more kids will get exposure to clay more often. It’s just not been brought up the same way and you just have to go a long way to get comfortable on it.

“I don’t think it’s going to be totally alien for the Brits as they are getting more exposure as they come through the age groups.”