Tim Henman would just love to be able to take a leaf out of Greg Rusedski's book and blame a bad line call.

But the sad truth is the Australian Open ended for the Oxfordshire star in Melbourne because the world No 64 was better than him. And because nerves got the better of him.

After raising so many hopes with his defeat of Rusedski in the third round, Henman's straight sets defeat to Swede Jonas Bjorkman was in its way every bit as disappointing as his Wimbledon semi-final loss last June.

"I can't lay the blame anywhere else, can I?" said the 27-year-old sixth seed after a 6-2, 7-6, 6-4 result which means he has still to reach a Grand Slam quarter-final outside Wimbledon.

"I was the one who didn't execute the shots as I have been or as I should have done. It's pretty frustrating.

"I felt I was close to levelling things up (he served for the second set and then had set-point in the tie-break before losing it 8-6) and if I could have done that, then it might have been a different story.

"But could-haves and should-haves aren't much good. I'd given myself an opportunity, but I've now lost three years in a row in the fourth round here and that doesn't sit very well.

"I suppose in a week or so I'll try and take the positives out of this.

"I think I've shown that my game is certainly improving. But it wasn't good enough today and it just goes to show it's still got to get a lot better, hasn't it?

"I was probably a bit nervous to begin with. I think everybody is entitled to be, but there was definitely a little bit of tension in my serve.

"That's something I've been working on to try and avoid because I think I have learnt to serve much better when I'm looser and that wasn't the case early on."

He could say that again. Henman lost his first three service games and Bjorkman was made a gift of the set.

The 29-year-old, one of the best returners in the game, admitted he was surprised at the British No 1's tactics.

"His strategy was different to what I thought it would be," said Bjorkman. "I felt he was going to go for his serve more than he did against Greg because my return is better.

"He was more tentative than I thought he would be."

There was certainly no question of Henman taking Bjorkman too lightly.

The Swedish player was world No 4 five years ago, had won four of the previous six clashes between the two and had already knocked out Thomas Enqvist and Guillermo Canas to reach the last 16.

So the top six seeds in the men's singles are now all out.

Henman had been the only one to progress past the second round, but the fact that Lleyton Hewitt, Gustavo Kuerten, Andre Agassi, Yefgeny Kafelnikov and Sebastien Grosjean had all departed before him made his failure to capitalise even all the more depressing.