Thanasi Kokkinakis has fallen short in a valiant attempt to reach the French Open second round in his long-awaited comeback to grand slam tennis.

Contesting just his third singles match in 18 months since undergoing shoulder surgery, Kokkinakis went down fighting in a 4-6 6-1 6-4 6-4 loss to eighth seed Kei Nishikori.

The 21-year-old used an injury-protected ranking to gain entry to Roland Garros after falling outside the world’s top 1000, but stretched the Japanese superstar for more than three hours in a big morale booster.