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London - Serbian fourth seed Jelena Jankovic beat British wild card Laura Robson 6-3, 7-6 (7/5) in the Wimbledon ladies' singles first round Monday.
Backed by the Centre Court crowd, Robson was the 2008 Wimbledon girls' champion and is considered one of Britain's best tennis hopes in years.
Though Robson put up a good fight, world number three Jankovic's experience told. She now faces Canada's Aleksandra Wozniak in the second round.
Australian-born world number 234 Robson, the youngest player in the draw at 16 years old, was making her Centre Court debut, having won her junior title on Number One Court.
Facing her first top 10 opponent, Robson lost her opening service game, double-faulting on break point to give Jankovic an immediate advantage.
But she showed plenty of determination, winning a service game to love, taking it with an ace.
Though she dropped her serve again in the seventh game, she recovered by breaking back immediately to love.
She came from 0-40 down to save three set points before the world number three finally took the first set.
The second set went with serve until Jankovic broke for a 5-3 lead. Robson had a break point in the next game, and won it when Jankovic sent an easy backhand return into the net.
Jankovic held her serve for a 6-5 lead and went 30-0 up on Robson's serve. However, the Briton managed to save two match points and eventually aced Jankovic to win the game and take it to a tie break.
The Serb raced to a 4-1 lead but Robson pulled it back to 6-5 before she was beaten by a Jankovic winner that was too good to return.
