Ons Jabeur's Wimbledon dreams are over after the 10th seed was beaten in straight-sets by Elina Svitolina on Saturday, while world No 1 Iga Swiatek is also heading for the All England Club exit.
Jabeur, runner-up the last two years at the London Grand Slam, had not dropped a set in the opening two rounds but was brushed aside in 80 minutes as the Ukrainian 21st seed sealed at 6-1, 7-6 victory on Centre Court.
The popular Tunisian could have been 2-0 up right at the start as she had a break point in Svitolina's opening service game and a game point in the next.
Instead it was Ukrainian 21st seed Svitolina who struck the killer blows early to open up a 2-0 lead and she never moved her eye off the ball as she romped through to bag the first set after Jabeur tamely netted a service return on set point.
The 10th seed managed to put up more of a fight in the second set and even had set point at 6-5 up on Svitolina's serve.
But the nightmare memories Jabeur is starting to collect from Centre Court will have another addition as her forehand down the line fell millilitres wide and Svitolina grabbed that reprieve to get out of trouble.
Jabeur remains on a mission to become the first African and Arab woman to win a major – and Centre Court fans wanted to wrap their arms around her in a giant collective hug when she was left sobbing after her game fell apart in the final against Marketa Vondrousova.
All year long, the popular Jabeur lives and breathes for playing on tennis's most fabled arena. Even when she competing on red clay or blue hard-courts, she has found herself fantasising that she is playing on the green, green grass of Centre Court.
But that stage is now turning into her own personal torture chamber as the gut-wrenching losses are starting to pile up and her lifelong goal to become an All England Club member remains unfulfilled.
“I'm not going to lie to you. I was remembering a bit about last year. Especially not playing so good, not serving the way I wanted in the first set did bring a bit of sad memories,” said Jabeur, who still appears to be haunted by “the most painful loss” of her career.
“But yeah, I would still love the Centre Court. Will still hope to come back and win on it again.”
A backhand error on match point condemned Jabeur to her earliest defeat in the English capital for five years, leaving Svitolina to lap up the applause from the crowd which included her husband Gael Monfils. She will next face China's Wang Xinyu.
“Today was a bit of a different story for our family. Disappointed that Gael lost,” Svitolina said in her on-court interview following her triumph. “With Gael’s support today, it’s amazing to have him support me and be there for me. It’s very special.
“Not easy to play against such a champion like Ons, she's had two great finals here and always very tricky to play her on the grass. I played great tennis. Really happy with the way I handled some tough moments today and with my performance.”
Five-time Grand Slam winner Swiatek admitted she had nothing left in the tank after she suffered more Wimbledon woe by crashing out in Round 3 to Yulia Putintseva.
Swiatek was on a 21-match winning streak and looked on course to cruise into the last-16 when she claimed the opener, but the Kazakhstan player hit back with a brilliant second set where she broke twice.
Four-time French Open champion Swiatek raced off court before the decider and when she eventually returned faced boos from an impatient crowd.
It seemed to knock the top seed off her stride and Putintseva roared to a 3-6, 6-1, 6-2 victory on her third match point.
“My tank of really pushing myself to the limits became suddenly, like, empty. I was kind of surprised, but I know what I did wrong after Roland Garros,” Swiatek said.
“I didn’t really rest properly. I’m not going to make this mistake again. After such a tough clay court season, I really must have my recovery. Maybe next year I’m going to take a vacation [after French Open] and literally just do nothing.”
In the men's draw, 24-time Grand Slam winner Novak Djokovic overcame a brilliant performance from Alexei Popyrin to reach the last-16.
Djokovic stayed on course for an eighth title at SW19 after beating Australia's Alexei Popyrin 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 despite the fact that the Serbian underwent surgery on a torn medial meniscus just a month ago.
