Emma Raducanu’s Wimbledon hopes were crushed on Centre Court by France’s Caroline Garcia as the golden girl of British sport suffered a 6-3 6-3 second-round loss, while big-hitting American John Isner sent two-times champion Andy Murray crashing out of the men’s singles second round 6-4 7-6(4) 6-7(3) 6-4 with booming serves and a barrage of aces.
The 19-year-old Raducanu, who rocketed to fame with her spellbinding U. S. Open triumph last year, did not play badly but had no answer to Garcia’s superior firepower.
Garcia, a former top-10 player, dominated the opening set with her aggressive hitting unsettling the 10th-seeded Raducanu. She continued blazing away in the second set as Raducanu, despite overwhelming support, fell away.
Garcia broke serve at 3-3 and held for a 5-3 lead before clinching victory in the next game with a backhand pass, her 25th winner of the match.
Earliest exit for Murray
While 37-year-old Isner strode ever closer to Ivo Karlovic's aces record of 13,728 on the ATP Tour, Murray made his earliest exit despite battling back from the brink by winning a third set tiebreak.
Cheers of 'Let's go Andy, let's go' echoed around Centre Court before the roof came out and the hope faded along with the evening light.
Isner broke Murray in the third game of the first set and then held serve under heavy pressure in the next when the Scot, swooping in with backhand passes, had two chances to break straight back.
The towering American made the most of his crushing serve, firing in five aces on his way to taking the set 6-4, while Murray's delivery was more erratic but also packed a notable punch.
Murray was in a deeper hole after losing the second set with number 20 seed Isner showing no let-up in his implacable first serve and dishing out another nine aces.
The home favourite then found himself serving to stay in the match at 4-5 in the third set, overcoming that hurdle only for Isner to hold serve and pile on the pressure into a second tiebreak which Murray won.
The fourth set went with serve before Isner again broke to go 3-2 up and needing only to then hold and serve out for victory.
He hit his 35th ace of the match for 30-0, followed it up with number 36 for three match points and needed just one, a volley, to seal the deal.
While the story was dominated by Isner's serving prowess, he also produced some killer drop shots and returns to disarm an opponent who had never previously lost to the American in eight encounters although none were on grass.
