Welshman Richard Vaughan tonight admitted defeat in his battle to overhaul England's Andrew Smith in the race for Britain's men's singles spot at the Beijing Olympics.
While Portsmouth's Smith was a second-round loser to Russian Stanislav Pukhov at the European Championships in Herning, Denmark, the man from Caerphilly was a three-game winner over Sweden's Magnus Sahlberg to keep the contest alive.
But in his third-round battle with Polish second seed Prrzemyslaw Wacha he went down 21-14 21-19.
That means world number 31 Smith has too much of a lead in the world rankings which determine qualification for the number 41 to overhaul him before the end of the month when qualifying ends.
"That's it," said Vaughan. "It's over. If I could have beaten Wacha I would probably have got through to the semis at least. But it's finished now. I have met him three times this year and it has been close every time. I've had a lot of matches like that. If some of them had gone my way it might have been different.
"I will probably retire now. I don't have any funding and I am here without a coach or a physio. I have bills to pay so it's time to stop."
Athens silver medallists Nathan Robertson and Gail Emms and Anthony Clark and Donna Kellogg are through to the mixed doubles quarter-finals along with Robert Blair and Scotland's Imogen Bankier.
Blair and Bankier meet Clark and Kellogg while Scotland's Watson Briggs and Jillie Cooper meet Robertson and Emms.
Emms and Kellogg remain on course to retain their women's doubles title and they now face Bankier and Rita Yuan Gao, who reached the last eight because both pairs in the match to decide their opponents pulled out.
Commonwealth champion Tracey Hallam now plays Germany's Juliane Schenk, after the third-round exits of three-times national champion Elizabeth Cann and Essex prospect Sarah Walker.
But the 18-year-old can be proud of her efforts after the way she took Olympic bronze medallist Petya Nedelcheva of Bulgaria all the way in a 21-18 21-14 struggle.
Commonwealth bronze medallist Susan Hughes was beaten by Holland's Chinese-born 2002 European champion and two-time bronze medallist Yao Jie 21-17 21-17.
(reopens) England's day ended on a high when Nottingham's Adcock brothers both reached the men's doubles quarter-finals.
Chris Adcock went through with Dean George when they beat Ukraine's Vitaly Konov and Dmytro Zavadsky 21-13 21-13.
Then older brother Rod and partner Robin Middleton won a three-set battle with Russia's Evgeny Dremin and Andrey Ivanov.
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