Laura Robson suffered a straight-sets defeat to number one seed Serena Williams, who avenged the defeat of her sister by the Briton in the Internazionali d’Italia.
Robson had put Venus Williams out of the tournament, breaking serve six times to win 6-3 6-2, but lost 6-2 6-2 on Tuesday night despite getting off to a great start.
Robson broke her opponent’s serve to take the first game but Williams broke straight back to level at 1-1, taking full advantage of some poor serving.
Williams won the next despite facing another break point, a good first serve and a thumping forehand winner helping her hold.
A double fault by Robson to open the next saw her go on to lose the game when she failed to hold a second break point and with just 20 minutes gone Williams powered into a 4-1 lead.
Robson served two aces to make it 4-2 but two straight games were enough to give Williams the first set 6-2 in just over half an hour.
Despite being taken to deuce Williams won the first game of the second set, the first four games going with serve before an ace helped Williams save a break point to lead 3-2 before edging out to 4-2.
A netted forehand return by Robson in game seven saw her needing to serve to stay in the match but that was beyond her as Williams broke again to wrap up a 6-2 6-2 win.
