For one glorious moment Robert Dee stood on the threshold of a defining achievement for British tennis: the longest official losing streak in the history of the sport.

No one who follows Wimbledon or the travails of the Davis Cup side will be surprised by what happened next.

In classic British style Dee blew his chance of immortality by beating Arzhang Derkshani, a 17 year old unranked American, 6-4, 6-3 to record his first victory in 55 attempts in an International Tennis Federation competition or qualifying event. It was a victory that sent titters through the tennis world, where the unintentioned record bid has made Dee, 21, a cult figure.

He compiled the losing streak over three years. Before his unexpected victory, recorded in qualifying for an obscure tournament near Barcelona on Saturday, Dee’s arduous and expensive three-year itinerary had taken in defeats in Sudan, Iran, Colombia, Venezuela, Botswana, Rwanda and Senegal, as well as Europe and the United States.

When he moved level with the Gua-temalan Diego Beltranena on 54 consecutive ITF career defeats last month, contributors to the Kings of Clay internet forum saluted him “for securing his place in tennis folklore”.

When he beat Derkshani his British fans at www.britishtennis.net were ecstatic, hailing him as an example of determination rewarded.

“I can’t quite believe this is true,” wrote “Grundon”.

“Just goes to show that if you keep going long enough there is always someone worse than you are.”

“Imoen” was positively bullish: “so ... what's the record for most consecutive wins? Surely he's going for that one next?”

Alas, it was not to be. In Dee’s next match normal service was resumed when he lost to Artur Romanowski, a 21-year-old Pole.

Dee began playing tennis at 11. Like Andy Murray in his formative years, he is based in Spain, where he trains for five hours a day. Unlike Murray, his Lawn Tennis Association ranking of 4.2 is that of “a decent club player” Neil Harman, The Times’s Tennis Correspondent said.

According to the ITF Dee has won career prize money of £1,154 and reached a career-high world ranking of 1,466 since he made his debut at the lower reaches of the professional world game in 2005.

On that occasion he was routed 1-6, 0-6 by Jaime Arriaga, a Mexican tennis coach, prompting an investigation by The Times into why a number of British players were receiving wild cards for tournaments where they were clearly out of their depth.

Since then Dee has improved dramatically, his father said. “Speak to his coaches. They will say he has made phenomenal progress. He has got much better.”

Alan Dee, the managing director of a logistics company, and his wife Barbara have funded their son’s assault on the foothills of the professional tennis circuit from their home in Bexley, Kent. Mr Dee refutes suggestions that Robert’s career is an expensive fiasco.

“I actually can’t think of a better investment at all than in pursuing something that you still believe you are going to succeed in.

“He is getting a lot better.” Mr Dee said that his son had scored frequent victories in professional tournaments in Spain, which are ranked below Futures tournaments, the ITF’s lowest-grade professional tour events but still of a high standard.

“He’s ranked 600 in Spain, the most difficult tennis country in the world. That’s a very good rating.”