It's the same old story for women's tennis in New Zealand.
The crowd at the women's ASB Classic draw left bitterly disappointed today, as Kiwi hopeful Lulu Sun crashed out in the first round, despite being a genuine contender for the title.
The world No 40 and fourth seed went down 6-3 3-6 6-3 against Canadian Rebecca Marino in an entertaining match, albeit one punctuated by a lengthy rain delay in Auckland.
Sun was born in Te Anau, raised in Switzerland and attended college in the United States. She switched allegiance from Switzerland to New Zealand earlier this year.
The 23-year-old started the match strongly with two aces, but found trouble from then on finding the mark with her forehand.
Marino broke to lead 3-1 and played the more consistent tennis to take out the first set.
The rain came just after the start of the start of the second. The break seemed to favour Sun, who fought back to take the second set 6-3 and looked to be on course to take the match easily.
But Marino came firing back with a love game to open the third set, then three break points off Sun's serve to take a 2-0 lead.
Sun broke back but a bad double fault set up another break for Marino to make it 3-1, which became 5-1.
Despite some late Sun heroics that kept the big crowd on the edge of their seats when she saved two match points, it was just a matter of time before the Canadian closed out the match.
A sombre Sun later faced media, saying Marino's awkward style was a key factor in the result.
"I mean, she kind of plays that way, you know?
"She doesn't give you a lot of rhythm. She serves good serves. And then she had one or two shots and then she'll miss some shots. So she is definitely a player that doesn't give rhythm."
Sun also admitted a bit of rust didn't help, given that it was her first competitive match since August.
"I haven't had a really official match in six months, so, I think that was probably more of a problem. If I would have played someone with rhythm, maybe I would kind of get the flow. But since her game style is that way where you don't get a lot of rhythm."
Sun was confident of bouncing back for the Australian Open beginning on January 12 in Melbourne.
"I do the same routines usually. So it gives you kind of, zen moment, I guess. And I talked to my coach and kind of devise game plans and all."
Monday's result will be a very hollow feeling for Kiwi tennis fans, who have been waiting a generation for a contender in the women's singles.
Sun will go on to bigger and better things, - unfortunately we'll have to wait another year to see if she can do it on home soil.
Osaka match stalled by protesters
In other matches, vocal Pro-Palestine protesters managed to halt sixth seed Naomi Osaka's eventual win 6-4 6-4 over Israeli Lina Glushko on Monday.
A group of around a dozen protesters caused the players to briefly leave the court, as the noise from a loudhailer and shouting disrupted the usual silence while the ball was in play.
For her part, Osaka seemed non-plussed, saying that she had "just heard a lot of shouting and then people on the sidelines were telling me there was a protest".
There was a further delay shortly after when Glushko had to leave the arena for a medical timeout, causing further confusion.
In a press release, the Palestine Forum of New Zealand stated that they had targeted the match as Glushko is a former Israeli Defence Force member and "symbolizes a regime that implements apartheid policies".
It was always unlikely the 220 ranked Glushko was going to be staying longer than the first round, given that she came through qualifying and Osaka is a four time Grand Slam winner.
The Japanese former world No 1 said that the "first match of the season is always very tough… and I'm just glad to get it done in two (sets)."
"It's definitely a little difficult," Osaka said of the windy Auckland conditions.
"You definitely can't predict where the wind's going, but I figure if I'm struggling with it, my opponent is too. So I can't make any excuses. I think there were some on and off moments with my focus, I was really nervous."
Nerves or not, Osaka did win comfortably so this stands as a pretty good statement to the rest of the field.
In the day's earlier match on centre court, Danish fifth seed Clara Tauson advanced safely with a 6-2 6-3 win over Italian Lucrezia Stefani.
