Australia’s world No.33 Jarmila Gajdosova broke into tears after crashing to a 6-0 6-0 loss to France’s Marion Bartoli at the Hopman Cup in Perth on Tuesday.
And to add further insult, Australia were kicked out of the race to reach this year’s Hopman Cup final after Lleyton Hewitt lost his singles match against Richard Gasquet, with France going on to win the tie 3-0.
Gajdosova, who started the tournament well on Sunday with a win over Spain’s Anabel Medina Garrigues, looked disinterested against Bartoli in a contest that lasted just 50 minutes.
The 24-year-old was broken three times in the opening set, and appeared even more despondent in the second, before world No.9 Bartoli ended the rout with her 12th ace of the match.
Gajdosova wiped away tears as she left the court after the match, with the sellout crowd of 6971 stunned into silence.
“Dear fans … I am really sorry for today,” Gajdosova tweeted later in the night.
“I can’t explain … what happened today.
“Hope I didn’t disappoint you too much as your support means a lot.”
It was the first double bagel in a singles match at the Hopman Cup since Liz Smylie was thumped by Switzerland’s Manuela Maleeva-Fragniere in 1991.
Ironically, Smylie was commentating the Gajdosova-Bartoli match.
And in a humorous twist as the match approached its end, co-commentator Fred Stolle pondered out loud: “I can’t remember a (previous) double bagel here.”
Smylie remained conspicuously silent after Stolle’s comment.
Bartoli said she felt bad for beating Gajdosova so comprehensively.
“I’m sorry I beat her that way but I was just focusing on my own game and not looking at the scoreboard,” Bartoli said.
“She’s so talented and she’s a lovely lady and when I saw her in tears it was really heartbreaking.
“But I can’t really miss a shot just for (the sake of) missing the shot.
“I’m sure she has a great future.”
World No.19 Gasquet handed France an unassailable 2-0 lead after defeating Hewitt 6-2 5-7 6-1 in a tick under two hours.
Hewitt, playing just his second singles match since returning from a serious foot injury, moved well and took the second set with some scrambling tennis before being overpowered in the decider.
“With Lleyton you have to be careful. I know that he’s coming back but it’s still Lleyton, he’s still fighting,” Gasquet said.
France ensured it would be a clean sweep with a 6-3 6-4 win in the mixed doubles.
The winner of Thursday’s tie between Spain and France will advance from group B, while the top-seeded Czech Republic are favourites to qualify from group A.
In Tuesday’s other tie, Spain defeated China 2-1 courtesy of a 6-0 6-2 triumph in the deciding mixed doubles.
French Open champion Li Na defeated Medina Garrigues 6-3 6-1 in the women’s singles, before Fernando Verdasco levelled the tie with a 6-3 6-4 win over Wu Di in the men’s rubber.
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