Atie Boulter’s Wimbledon run came to a halt as Harmony Tan drove past the Brit to reach lap four.
After beating SW19 runner-up Karolina Pliskova in the second round a year ago, hopes were high that Boulter could continue her best ever Grand Slam performance with another strong showing.
But she never got going against Tan, who knocked out Serena Williams in her opening match, as the Frenchman produced a 51-minute demolition job to win 6-1 6-1.
There were 20 unforced Boulter racket errors, with just 8 winners, as a truly positive grass court season came to an incredibly disappointing end.
Court 2 was barely half full when the game started just after 11am and as the seats started to fill up it wasn’t good news for fans hoping for another strong British spectacle.
Using a pair of net cords, Tan broke into Boulter’s opening serve play, the two grips comfortably on either side of it and put her 3-0 ahead before the Brit had time to settle the bill.
Boulter had to save a break point before holding herself on the board and getting it, but the double break soon came. The unforced errors of the Briton’s racket, 11 in the opening set, were all too frequent and she gave Tan complete control. A quick game later and Tan had closed the first set 6-1 in 27 minutes, sealed with consecutive aces.
Hopes that Boulter would grow into the match in the second set barely lasted more than a minute as Tan broke to love and then racked up four straight points on the serve to lead 2-0.
The Briton put herself in the set and took Tan to deuce the Frenchwoman’s serve – that was as close as she came to a break the entire match, though. Boulter found herself trailing 0-40 and although she saved two break points, a backhand pass from Tan was good enough to move within two games of the win.
A handhold of love from Tan raised the question of whether Boulter could at least extend the game, but trailing 5-1 the errors continued to come from the Brit and a double foul to gift Tan the win was unfortunately a fitting conclusion.