Britain suffers first Wimbledon loss

Britain's Katie O'Brien became the first player to crash out of this year's Wimbledon as she capitulated to a 6-0 7-5 defeat against Japanese veteran Kimiko Date-Krumm.

It took just 17 minutes for Date-Krumm to wrap up the first set after an error-strewn start for Britain's number five.

O'Brien performed with much more promise in the second set but she was ultimately no match for the 40-year-old Date-Krumm, who rounded off victory in a tougher second set.

Home supporters on the new Court Three may have had high hopes for the Briton, but their confidence was soon sapped after the first-set whitewash.

O'Brien got off to the worst possible start, double-faulting to hand Date-Krumm a morale-boosting opening break before her opponent held serve comfortably.

O'Brien again double-faulted on the second of two break points to give Date-Krumm a 3-0 lead before a third double in the fifth gave Date-Krumm three break points. She needed just one, dropping a cheeky slice at the net before the former world number four served out to clinch the first set.

Sensing the Briton was low on confidence, home fans got behind O'Brien and she responded at the beginning of the second set, with more guile in her serve and baseline strokes.

The 25-year-old powered down her first ace and Date-Krumm then went long to give the Briton her first game of the match.

The Yorkshire player's attempt to stay in touch with Date-Krumm stuttered in the third game when she lost her service after she was unable to return a strong cross-court backhand.

O'Brien showed promise as she broke Date-Krumm's serve to level the second set at 2-2, but her own service let her down again as the 40-year-old took the lead once more.

O'Brien pulled it back to 3-3 but she lost her serve again, causing her to let out a despairing cry.

The home player then rallied with a much-improved performance to stay in the game before Date-Krumm won a tight line call to leave O'Brien serving to stay in the match at 5-3 down.

She saved one match point before holding on to leave Date-Krumm with a chance to serve out for the match.

The Japanese faltered, to allow O'Brien to pull back to 5-5, before she came back to win two successive games to clinch the match.