Katie Boulter came out second best in a power battle with 12th seed Zheng Qinwen at the Australian Open.
British number one Boulter has had a great start to the season and she certainly played her part in an entertaining clash against Zheng, who is one of the rising stars of the game.
Ultimately she could not secure a spot in the third round, though, losing out 6-3 6-3 to the 21-year-old Chinese star in windy conditions at Melbourne Park.
Zheng Qinwen clenches her fist (Asanka Brendon Ratnayake/AP)
Given the weather, this was a quality encounter between two of the cleanest ball strikers in the game.
It was a nip-and-tuck contest, with little to choose between them throughout, but ultimately it was Zheng who managed to come out on top in the crucial moments.
Boulter led by a break at 3-2 in the second set but Zheng responded with a run of four games in a row.
The last game was the longest of the match, with Boulter saving five match points but unable to take any of six break points before Zheng finally clinched it with an ace.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here