Francesca Schiavone came from a set down to break Laura Robson's heart in a thrilling first-round clash at Wimbledon.
Robson is ranked 71 places below world number 26 Schiavone, but the 18-year-old Londoner made the 2010 French Open champion look ordinary in the first set by putting on a majestic display of powerful baseline tennis.
Despite needing treatment for what looked like a back injury, Schiavone regained her composure and survived break point in the second set before running out a 2-6 6-4 6-4 winner.
Robson earned a huge standing ovation when she left Court Two, and despite showing flashes of brilliance, the ambitious teenager will no doubt see this as a missed opportunity to claim a huge scalp against a woman who was once ranked fourth in the world.
Robson showed no sign of nerves early on as she clinched her first game to love, but 24th seed Schiavone then showed her experience by doing exactly the same.
Robson engineered a break point in the fourth game with a powerful forehand return and grabbed the opportunity, forcing Schiavone to net after a thrilling rally.
Nerves then appeared to get to Robson as the seventh went to 0-30 but she responded in style, firing down a 113mph ace to rescue the game and move 5-2 ahead.
It was Schiavone who was to suffer from nerves next, as she wasted a 40-15 lead when saving to stay in the set. The Italian was forced to deuce and a powerful return and a double fault gave the home favourite the set after 25 minutes.
The match came to a halt when Schiavone went off court for treatment on her injury.
After around 15 minutes, she reappeared. Robson was initially unfazed by the disruption, holding her serve before almost forcing an other break in the second game.
Schiavone needed yet more treatment and afforded Robson three break points in the sixth game. To the frustration of the partisan crowd, she spurned all three chances, her last two shots going wide by millimetres.
Schiavone made Robson pay by breaking in the next game, the teenager sending a cross-court backhand just wide after a tense rally.
The 32-year-old Italian was using every trick in the book to put her opponent out of her stride, grunting, shouting, challenging calls and taking her towel when Robson was ready to serve.
She held easily to take the second set and Robson crumbled in the opening game of the third, weakly netting on Schiavone's second break point.
The dogged determination Robson had displayed in the first set had disappeared and she double-faulted twice in a row to hand Schiavone her second break in the third.
Robson saved two match points and then stunned her opponent by breaking, but Schiavone already had the break she needed and she nervously served out to seal Italy's second sporting triumph over England in three days.
A crestfallen Robson said afterwards: "In general I think she took a lot of time between points, and that gave me more time to think about what I was doing. I think that's really tough."
Schiavone defended her conduct by saying she had every right to bide her time.
"She wanted to be fast, and sometimes you have to stop a little bit more," Schiavone said.
"We have a lot of seconds (between points), and it's important to use them.
"We forget that because we are in a rush, but it's important to play at the best, and not just keep running and running."
Robson took just 25 minutes to wrap up the first set against 24th seed Schiavone, but she lost momentum in the second.
Schiavone had 15 minutes' worth of off-court treatment for a back injury, and also called the physio to the court twice more, but she did need any medical help in the deciding set.
Robson denied the break which followed the first set had anything to do with her defeat.
"I don't think it affected me because I won my first service game in the second set, and then I was holding serve fairly easily until the one service game that I lost," Robson added.
"I just tried to go for a little bit too much on my first serve.
"I should have just stuck with how I was playing before."
"I'm really disappointed today. But she's a grand slam champion and I am definitely closer to winning matches like this than I was a few months ago."
