Andy Warhol’s assertion that everyone will be famous for 15 minutes took on new spin for Robert Dee last week. Before his match against University of Nevada student Arzhang Derakhshani last weekend, the unranked 21-year-old was unknown even to the keenest observers of British tennis. Nor, it is fair to say, were too many fans aware of the existence of the $10,000 third-tier International Tennis Federation (ITF) Futures tournament that was being held in Reus on the Catalonian coast.

By beating Derakhshani in straight sets in the qualifying round for the tournament, Dee ended a record-equalling 54-match losing streak (without a set to his name) in ITF competitions. So far, so good. What followed, however, was an unexpected wave of media interest and ridicule for a player who has been universally and unjustly labelled the “Worst in the World”.

Dee’s performances were held up as symptomatic of this country’s woeful underperformance in the game. Soon even the world No 1, Roger Federer, had heard of and shown sympathy for the cruel treatment handed out to the Briton.

Federer first heard about Dee at the conclusion of a press conference after his opening victory in the glittering surroundings of the Monte Carlo Masters Series event. A day later he was still trying to glean more information and offered words of consolation to a contemporary who stands thousands of rungs further down the tennis ladder.

Dee is touched by Federer’s interest, but offers his record on the Spanish professional circuit as evidence of his ability. In the past year he has entered 11 tournaments, registered 19 victories in 30 matches and even reached a final last December in Almeria – hardly an achievement expected of a player who has been widely pilloried for supposed ineptitude.

Unfortunately for Dee, the circuit is independent of ITF jurisdiction and therefore not a contributory factor to the ATP ranking system. Even so, it has been the launching pad for 13 of this week’s world top 100, including Rafael Nadal.

So angry was Dee’s father, Alan, by some of the mocking articles written about his son that he sought the counsel of his solicitors. On Friday they presented their case to the Press Complaints Commission. Understandably, the player admits to being a little psychologically bruised, but even more resolute in his chosen profession.

“I just felt a little bit hard done by because I didn’t know what I had done to deserve this treatment,” said Dee, who has been based in Spain at the family holiday home in La Manga for nearly three years after spending almost two years at the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy in Bradenton, Florida, which has produced such champions as Maria Sharapova, Andre Agassi, Jim Courier and Monica Seles. “I’ve worked hard and kept my head down, just trying to do what I love doing. I was a little bit hurt by the term Worst Player in the World. When you read that about yourself, not just in one newspaper but several, you think it is slightly unfair.”

In the past month alone, Dee has won three of the five matches he has played, and although he accepts that he is never likely to win Grand Slam acclaim, he is a model of commitment. “All I want to do is play tennis,” he continued, bolstered by messages of support last week from Bollettieri, among others. “I’m in a very lucky position to be able to do that, and the only thing I ask is the ability to live my life the way I want to live it.

“I am very determined. I get up in the morning and this is what I do because I love tennis. I don’t claim to be the world’s best yet, but I’ll always try to do my best and constantly strive to improve. I’m going to keep going while I have this opportunity. My ambition is simply to persevere, see how many matches I can win and get belief from doing that.

“My coaches and I have agreed that I should play matches as much as possible because that’s the best way I am going to improve. I play a lot of Spanish national tournaments and some are those are big tournaments with as much as €5,000 to the winner, which is more than you get in some second-tier Challenger events. So you get some very good Spanish players competing.”

Dee is not the archetype spoilt and overprivileged young British player who has been cossetted by the wealth of the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) and ultimately squandered the finance invested in him. He has never received a penny of support from the LTA, and although he comes from a comfortable middle-class background in Bexley, Kent, he leads a frugal life. He travels around Spain to tournaments in a minibus owned by the Costa Este Academy in Murcia, where he works at his game five hours a day under the tutelage of coaches Danny and Miguel Dios.

He does not drink, is not a frequenter of late-night parties, lives in the family property and keeps food bills to a minimum. There is an element of parental financial support, but his father, who runs a logistics company in Kent, could not quantify it, except to say: “It’s not as much as people would imagine.”

In fact everything Dee does is geared to improving his tennis. “I do get very disappointed in defeat,” he admitted. “When I lost my second match this week, I kept thinking I should have done better. That stayed with me for the entire 5½hour drive home. I went to bed, got up the next morning knowing what I had to do, and it wasn’t until I got back on the training court that I really felt I was pushing on again.”

Such an attitude has long been apparent. Rob Andrew is chairman of the Knoll Tennis Club in Orpington, where Dee played as a youngster. “My recollections of him are being very athletic, possessing a fair amount of talent, extremely enthusiastic and highly determined,” he said. “There was obviously a deep love for tennis and the passion for his sport came from within.

“The great thing about him is he has refused to give up. He’s prepared to grit his teeth and keep fighting. It’s abundantly clear that he is very strong on spirit.

“Wouldn’t we, who yearn for more top-flight British players, love to see more players with that attitude. Robert deserves credit for his perseverance. The point about anything in life is striving to achieve your aims within the boundaries you set yourself.”

Fraser Wright was director of tennis at La Manga when Dee first moved to Spain. He agreed: “He was one of the good kids, certainly not one of these spoilt youngsters who have delusions of grandeur. He was always prepared to work at his game and listen to what the coaches were telling him.

“Sure, he is not going to make a fortune out of playing tennis, but what is wrong with the life he is living at the moment? Not everyone in life can be a champion, but nobody should be knocked for trying.”