Under the roof on Centre Court the seventh seed lost 5-7, 7-6, 6-4 to Austrian Tamira Paszek, ranked 30 places beneath her. Asked if her romance with golfer McIlroy was affecting her tennis, she replied abruptly: “No.”
Then, upset, she half turned away and tried to hide her face before adding: “Now I don’t know if I will go to see him in the Irish Open, I don’t know my plans or what I will do. It’s not a nice feeling to lose again, it’s not fun, tomorrow I won’t remember the match just that I played my best and it wasn’t good enough.
“I had two match points and I couldn’t take them. It’s time to go home now. You cannot turn back time.”
Now the Danish star, who wears Stella McCartney designs on court, is in danger of dropping out of the top 10 for the first time in two years.
This year I hate the grass a bit less. It has been a pretty woeful performance by all of us
Wimbledon was yesterday also declared an Aussie-free area. As Sam Stosur, the wonder from Down Under, lost in the second round of the women’s singles, it meant there was not an Australian man or woman left in this stage of the Championships for the first time since the game went open in 1968.
Stosur, the No5 seed and reigning US Open champion, was beaten 6-2, 0-6, 6-4 by Arantxa Rus of Holland and said: “This year I hate the grass a bit less. It has been a pretty woeful performance by all of us.”
World No1 and top seed Maria Sharapova won the first set 7-6 against Tsvetana Pironkova of Bulgaria before play was halted on No1 Court for bad light with the Russian 3-1 ahead in the second.