Casey Dellacqua has been handed an unwelcome reality check from top seed Yanina Wickmayer in the second round of the Moorilla Hobart International.
On the comeback trail after two injury-ruined seasons, the Australian crashed 6-1 6-1 to the Belgian world No.29 in little over an hour.
Dellacqua had declared herself ready for an assault deep into the Australian Open reminiscent of her fourth round effort of 2008 after some stunning results on the second tier ITF tour and a strong first round victory over Galina Voskoboeva on Monday.
But the 26-year-old couldn’t get going against the powerful former US Open semifinalist, spraying her attacking shots and revealing her frustration in her body language.
Dellacqua has an Australian Open wildcard but will need to improve massively to again reach the heights that took her to a career-high No.39 in 2008.
Wickmayer, who reached No.12 in 2010, will now meet Romanian Simona Halep in a quarter-final on Thursday.
It didn’t look like Dellacqua’s night when Wickmayer breezed through the first set in just 28 minutes, breaking the West Australian twice and finding herself untroubled on the big points.
Unforced errors were giving Dellacqua little chance and when she surrendered the first game of the second set on serve, the writing looked to be on the wall.
She did save four match points in her final service game but was broken on the fifth for Wickmayer’s victory.