With another early exit from the grass court major only a matter of weeks ago, women's world number 5 Samantha Stosur was hopeful that the return trip to SW19 draped in the flag of Australia would produce some intangible to assist with a result more befitting her ranking.
The first full day of competition at the 2012 Olympics only offered further evidence of the extreme allergy to grass from which Sam has suffered all her career, an affliction for which no medical breakthrough has yet arrived.
Even Spanish clay-courter Carla Suarez Navarro, Stosur's first round Wimbledon victim in June, has been able to add her name to those able to reverse seemingly irreversible trends in matches featuring the enigmatic Queenslander.
Sam has an amazing record in Grand Slam tournaments - where she has won the first set she has never lost a match.
The Olympics first round battle saw her take the opener 6-3 and have a chance to break at 4-3 in the second. However the fight in the Spanish game guaranteed that the Stosur Grand Slam stat would not find its way into her Olympic CV, that fight ultimately rewarded with a 10-8 epic third set decider in Carla's favour.
As defending US Open champion, and with plenty of other points to defend from a productive US summer in 2011, Stosur is in danger of dropping not only from the top 5 but even from the top ten unless she can find some consistency in her game - she cannot keep losing to players ranked way below her, especially after manufacturing winning positions, and expect to retain an elite place in the women's game.
Her coach David Taylor rightly took many accolades for what Sam achieved late last year - he now must work even harder with the Australian number one as she recovers from her grass court trauma and transfers her attention and energy to a more comfortable surface.
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