
Heather Watson could not follow up her first-round win over British No 4 Mel South as she crashed out of the ITF event in Barnstaple in the second round on Thursday.
The 17-year-old Junior US Open champion from Guernsey was impressive in her straight-sets victory against second seed South on Wednesday but, despite a good start, found Kristina Mladenovic too strong.
At 16, Mladenovic - winner of the Junior French Open in June - is a year younger than Watson but she has more experience on the senior tour and it showed as the Frenchwoman triumphed 2-6 6-4 6-2.
"She came up with some big points and I just wasn't able to keep that extra ball in play," Watson said.
"I don't think I was as consistent as yesterday. In the first set I wasn't missing much but then I let her in and you can't do that."
It was a largely disappointing day for the home players at the tournament, with Naomi Cavaday and Jade Curtis also going out, although Lisa Whybourn, who does not even have a singles ranking, is through to the quarter-finals after a 6-2 2-6 7-6 (7-5) win over top-200 player Lenka Wienerova.
Meanwhile, Serena Williams went out of the China Open to Nadia Petrova in round three. The American, who become world No 1 next week, went down 6-4 3-6 7-6 (7-5).
In the men's event, world No 2 Rafael Nadal beat American James Blake. The Spaniard won 7-5 6-7 (4-7) 6-3 at the Olympic tennis centre in Beijing and will face Marat Safin in the last eight.
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