Jankovic ends O'Brien's Australian Open challenge

The Hull-born 23-year-old won through to the second round of a major for just the second time in her career when she defeated Patricia Mayr yesterday, but could not go a step further as she lost 6-2 6-2.

Fellow Briton Elena Baltacha earlier claimed the scalp of a seed when she defeated Kateryna Bondarenko (30) in straight sets. However, the 87th-ranked O'Brien could not replicate that effort with her 42 unforced errors proving costly.

Jankovic broke O'Brien's opening service game as she surged 3-0 ahead in the first set.

The games then went with serve until 5-2 when after seven deuces O'Brien was broken again to concede the set.

O'Brien had fended off four set points in the protracted game before Jankovic pounced on a short ball to fire a backhand cross-court winner.

In the fourth game of the second set a double fault from O'Brien handed Jankovic a break to love, and the Serb did not relinquish the advantage to win in one hour and 14 minutes.

"I gave it my all, I really tried my hardest," said O'Brien.

"My strategy could have been a little bit better, playing such a great player like Jankovic, I maybe thought I had to do more than I did.

"I hit some good winners, but I was a little bit wayward at times, and I think if I'd just managed to be a bit more disciplined with the way I was playing, I could have put her under more stress.

"But I'm not too disappointed, I had a great win yesterday."