Rising Australian tennis star Ashleigh Barty has missed out on a spot in the main draw at Wimbledon after crashing out in the first round of qualifying.
Barty was thumped 6-2 6-0 by Frenchwoman Stephanie Foretz-Gacon on the opening day of women’s qualifying at Roehampton on Tuesday.
The result denied 17-year-old Barty a second successive appearance at the grasscourt grand slam, and a chance to build on her breakthrough first-round win at last month’s French Open.
Hopes had been high Barty could join top-ranked Australian Samantha Stosur in the women’s draw, particularly after the young gun teamed up with Casey Dellacqua to win the doubles title in Birmingham last week.
However she proved no match for Foretz-Gacon, a 32-year-old ranked 10 places higher than her at No.159.
Dellacqua made a winning start to her qualifying campaign, beating Russian Valeria Solovyeva 6-4 6-2 while Sascha Jones also won, defeating Thailand’s Nudnida Luangnam 6-3 6-1.
Anastasia Rodionova and Olivia Rogowska were eliminated.
Rodionova fell to Japan’s Erika Sema 6-4 4-6 7-5 while Rogowska lost to Czech Petra Cetkovska 7-5 6-2.
Australians Matt Reid, James Duckworth, Sam Groth are involved in men’s second round qualifying matches later on Tuesday.