After early eliminations for Dutch top seed Tallon Griekspoor and veteran Arantxa Rus in the men's and women's tournaments, all hope lay on the shoulders of Botic van de Zandschulp, Jesper de Jong and Suzan Lamens before their second-round matches on Thursday.
Van de Zandschulp's matchup against Alejandro Davidovich Fokina started on Wednesday but was abandoned after the second set due to darkness. After the match restarted Thursday afternoon, Davidovich Fokina wasted little time going up 2-1 in sets with a 37-minute effort that included consecutive breaks in the finale.
With his tournament on the line, Van de Zandschulp fiercely fought to stay in it, but couldn't get past the Spaniard after failing to pounce on a break lead late in the set. The two exchanged four mini-breaks in the ensuing tie break, which Davidovich Fokina won after forcing a late mini-break to set up match point and dump Van de Zandschulp out of Wimbledon with a 6-1, 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (5) victory.
Earlier in the afternoon, Jesper de Jong couldn't give his thrilling win over Christopher Eubanks a good sequel after losing 6-1, 3-6, 2-6, 4-6 to Miomir Kecmanovic. The young Dutchman impressed with a 6-1 set win in the opening set, but gave up the following three in 41 minutes or less despite hitting 16 aces and 48 winners.
In the women's draw, the highest-ranked Dutchwoman, Suzan Lamens, met her Waterloo against Ekaterina Alexandrova in just 55 minutes, losing 6-4, 6-0. Lamens made quick work of 17-year-old Iva Jovic in the first round, but was unable to combat Alexandrova's six aces and overall strong service game, which earned the Russian 31 of 43 points.
All Dutch hope was officially lost after Arantxa Rus and Isabelle Haverlag lost in the first round of the women's doubles tournament to Anastasia Detiuc and Iryna Shymanovich: 6-2, 6-2.
