Katie Boulter joined the exodus of British players at Wimbledon after a comprehensive first-round defeat by teenage qualifier Tyra Caterina Grant.
The 29-year-old from Leicester was Britain’s biggest hope of success this fortnight following Monday’s 10-player wipeout and the withdrawals of Emma Raducanu and Jack Draper.
But British number two Boulter, first up on Court Three, found herself blown away in a hail of blistering winners, a 6-4 6-2 defeat taking just an hour and six minutes.
Grant, 18 and making her grand slam debut, trained with Jannik Sinner as a child and is a potential star in the making, sporting an eye-catching hairstyle of long braids down her back.
An increasingly frustrated Boulter could not read her serves, failing to create a single break point.
At one point she even felt the Hawkeye system was against her, pointedly checking a ball for a white mark after one of six aces flew past her.
Having dropped serve early in the opening set, back-to-back double-faults coughed up a first break in the second and Grant reeled off the final four games for a maiden grand slam win.
