Battling O'Brien fails to stop the rot as British women tumble

The 24-year-old was aiming to become the first home winner of the day after defeats for Elena Baltacha, Laura Robson and Melanie South, but she had a tough task against 28th seed Bondarenko and in the end it proved too much as she went down 6-3 6-7 (10/12) 6-4.

Baltacha had beaten the Ukrainian in the first round last year to become the only British singles winner apart from Andy Murray, and O'Brien went close to matching that after a slow start.

The Yorkshirewoman had her serve broken in the opening game and, although she broke back immediately, Bondarenko continually threatened the O'Brien serve and two more breaks carried her to the opening set.

It was the same story in the fourth game of the second set, with O'Brien troubling her opponent with her groundstrokes but lacking the consistency to translate that into games.

Three break points went begging at 3-1 behind but, buoyed by holding her serve the following game, O'Brien did manage to break back. She then lost a close game serving to level the match, only to break Bondarenko again when she served for victory.

The British No2 is renowned for her fighting spirit and she saved a match point before taking the second set to a tie-break. There she forced five set points and eventually won 12-10.

The third set was a topsy turvy affair with Bondarenko twice moving two games ahead only for O'Brien to peg her back. But when the Ukrainian broke for a third time there was no way back.

Robson provided another glimpse of her rich promise.

The 16-year-old former girls' singles champion lost 3-6 6-7 (5/7) to fourth seed Jelena Jankovic on Centre Court, but could be proud of her display.

The world No 234 needed a wild card this year but hopes to qualify for Wimbledon through her ranking next time.

"I'd like to win one day but it's hard to say when," she said. "Ideally I would have liked to have won it this year but that's obviously not going to happen. Why don't you give me a year?"

Meanwhile, Robson still has the junior crown in her sights.

Baltacha admitted she had cracked under pressure after losing to an opponent making her Wimbledon and grass-court debut.

The British No 1 lost 2-6 7-5 6-3 to the 19-year-old Croatian Petra Martic. Serving for the match at 5-4 up in the second set, Baltacha's temperament failed her and she said: "I'll be honest – I was actually quite tight. I was nervous. I'm human – I'm not a machine. It was a big occasion. I was serving for the match at Wimbledon."

South produced an error-strewn performance to crash out at the first-round stage, losing 6-1 6-2 to world No 69 Regina Kulikova, leaving just four other British players in the tournament at the start of day two.