Elena Baltacha made an early exit from Wimbledon as she suffered a straight-sets defeat by Italy’s Flavia Pennetta.
Baltacha, the former British number one, was first out on Court Three but was unable to find her best form and went down 6-4 6-1.
The Scot had reached the second round at Wimbledon for the last two years and arrived in SW19 in good spirits after winning a title in Nottingham two weeks ago and then pushing top-10 player Maria Kirilenko in the second round at Eastbourne.
Baltacha all-but retired after taking time out following the Olympics last summer to have ankle surgery, but realised she did want another crack after all.
She has climbed back to 167th in the rankings, one place below Pennetta, a former top-10 player who had a similar lay-off to recover from wrist surgery.
The Italian has a decent record at Wimbledon, reaching the fourth round twice, and she had too much consistency and court craft for wild card Baltacha.
The 29-year-old British player made a poor start, dropping her serve in the opening game, and, although she fought back from 5-2 to 5-4, Pennetta then held serve to clinch the set.
Baltacha was missing too often off both wings and there were frequent cries of frustration. The pair met for the first time in Baltacha’s first ever Wimbledon match in the opening round of qualifying back in 2000, Pennetta winning in three sets.
It was not that close, with Pennetta dominating the second set to win in an hour and 14 minutes.