Emma Raducanu gave a damning assessment of her own game after losing to Anastasia Potapova in the second round of the Australian Open.
The 28th seed had been hoping to set up another clash with world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka but she faded from a promising position and fell to a 7-6 (3) 6-2 defeat.
Raducanu has spoken positively about the work she is doing with coach Francisco Roig, who she hired last summer, but the 23-year-old does not feel she has found the right formula on court.
Asked about her plans now, she said: "I think I'm going to take a few days, get back home and try and just re-evaluate my game a bit.
"Watch it back, see where I can improve. What I have been feeling and also what is visually apparent. I definitely want to feel better on certain shots before I start playing again.
"I want to be playing a different way, and I think the misalignment with how I'm playing right now and how I want to be playing is something that I just want to work on.
"At the end of the day, I just want to hit the ball to the corners and hard. I feel like I'm doing all this variety, and it's not doing what I want it to do. I need to just work on playing in a way more similar to how I was playing when I was younger."
Having arrived in Melbourne short of matches and preparation after suffering with a foot injury throughout pre-season, it should not be a surprise that Raducanu was below her best here.
She was not helped by windy conditions that accentuated the mistakes, and she must now look to put in the work on the practice court she has been missing.
The pair had never played a competitive match before but Raducanu grew up all too aware of Potapova's talent, with the 24-year-old the leading junior of her age.
Potapova became the latest player to switch from representing Russia at the end of last season, now playing under the flag of her adopted home country of Austria.
She has slipped from a high of 21 in the rankings outside the top 50, and initially it was Raducanu on top, although errors were far outweighing winners from both players in the difficult conditions.
It took six games for either player to hold serve, and Raducanu seemed in control at 5-3 up but she was unable to clinch the set, with Potapova upping her level and playing a strong tie-break.
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Raducanu appeared to lack belief in her game and the shouts of 'Raddo' from her Australian super fan James Bray, who has earned plenty of media attention after the former US Open champion invited him to all her matches, were becoming fewer and fewer.
Her head hung low as she dropped serve twice to start the second set and, even though she gave herself hope by immediately retrieving one break, she promptly double faulted to slip 4-1 behind.
A final backhand into the net took Raducanu's tally of unforced errors to 28.
Norrie the last man standing
Cameron Norrie shrugged off an ill-timed rain delay to keep British singles hopes alive at the Australian Open.
The 26th seed was already the last British player standing before he went on court to face American Emilio Nava in the second round at Melbourne Park after defeats for Raducanu and qualifier Arthur Fery.
It is the third consecutive grand slam where the 30-year-old has out-lasted his compatriots, and he was made to wait for his moment after play was suspended with Norrie three points away from victory in the fourth-set tie-break.
After a delay of just less than an hour, Norrie held his nerve, winning three of the next five points to clinch a 6-1 7-6 (3) 4-6 7-6 (5) victory.
Like in his first-round match against Benjamin Bonzi, where he won the first set to love before eventually prevailing in five, things became complicated after Norrie got off to a flying start.
The British No. 2, who received vociferous support, dug himself out of a hole to take the second set but was unable to repeat that in the third against 89th-ranked Nava and a tense fourth could have gone either way.
Norrie had just claimed a mini-break to lead 4-3 in the tie-break when the rain came, and he held on to his service points on the resumption, yelling in delight when a final shot from his opponent landed wide.
Qualifying efforts catchup with Ferry
Arthur Fery admitted his breakthrough run in Melbourne caught up with him as he was bounced out in the second round of the Australian Open by Tomas Martin Etcheverry.
The 23-year-old Londoner has enjoyed the best fortnight of his career, coming through three matches in qualifying and defeating 20th seed Flavio Cobolli in the opening round.
But Etcheverry proved too big an obstacle, with the relentless Argentinian prevailing in a mammoth first set and then pulling away to win 7-6 (4) 6-1 6-3.
The opening set alone lasted 79 minutes, with Fery more than holding his own, but he could not force a decisive advantage and his energy waned thereafter.
"The first set was long and it was intense," Fery said. "It definitely would have helped to win that one for the rest of the match.
"I don't know if I would have been able to get through the match if I had won that one but it definitely felt like a turning point. Credit to him after, he played well.
"I'd already played four matches beforehand and I definitely felt that accumulation of matches today. When you lose that first set 7-6, it doesn't help mentally or physically."
While Fery was disappointed not to be able to go further, he was able to reflect with pride on a series of career firsts.
After getting into qualifying on ranking for the first time, he won three matches, all in straight sets, to reach a maiden main draw at a foreign grand slam before claiming the joint best victory of his career.
Fery's ranking, which a year ago stood outside the top 500, will be around 150 at the end of the tournament, putting him on the cusp of playing regularly on the ATP Tour.
Asked what he could take from the experience, he said: "A lot. Obviously tough to see it right now, but I'm proud of what I've accomplished in the past two weeks. It's probably my best result in my career so far and a stepping stone for 2026 and the future.
"When I'm fresh and playing the way I want to, I'm definitely at that level and able to compete with guys who are top 100, top 50.
"And, on the other side of things, when I am tired and physically struggling, obviously weaknesses come out and my opponent today managed to show them.
"But it's also good to feel you have lots of things to improve even when you make a good result like this."