Anne Keothavong crashed out of the Hastings Direct International Women's Championship at Eastbourne then called upon Britain's new tennis boss Roger Draper to "come and listen" to the players' views if he plans to improve the dismal state of the women's game in this country.
Keothavong, 22, Britain's number one despite having to rebuild her fitness after rupturing a cruciate knee ligament less than two years ago, went down 6-1 6-3 in the first round to 19-year-old Vera Duchevina on Devonshire Park's Centre Court - failing to bridge a gap of 105 places between herself and the young Russian who is ranked 40 in the world.
Her exit followed the defeat on Monday of Britain's only other participant in the main draw, Katie O'Brien, who tumbled in two sets to sixth seed Italian Francesca Schiavone, ranked 14 in the world, and the failure of four other home players to get past the first round of the qualifying event.
Draper, who was appointed chief executive of the Lawn Tennis Association in April after a spell in a similar capacity with Sport England, has said he intends to set a new direction for the sport in this country and, in particular, focus on lifting the women's game out of the doldrums.
But Keothavong, based in Hackney, east London, and the eldest daughter of parents who came to Britain from Laos, revealed she had not even met Draper since his appointment - even though she has known him since he was a south-east regional coach when she was 12 years old.
Draper has met with Annabel Croft, former British number one but now TV presenter, and Keothavong added: "If Roger wants to know about British tennis I'm sure myself and the other British girls can give him plenty of ideas but I haven't spoken to him yet.
"I know he has spoken to Annabel Croft but I am sure we know a hell of a lot more about it and if he wants to hear it he knows where we are.
"It is easy for people to get on our case and say we are just not good enough but we work our butts off all the year around.
"We need more matches against the top players because although it is great to get wild cards at tournaments like this and also Wimbledon there is always a great deal of pressure on us to perform."
Draper's stated short-term aim is to see five British players in the top 100 and that is where Keothavong also plans to be but, on the evidence of her clash with Duchevina, last year's surprise runner-up to US Open champion Kim Clijsters at Eastbourne, she has some way to go.
Her game crumbled in the face of the Russian's dour baseline defending and robotic returning and the Briton only once broke her rival's serve in a 75-minutes contest.
She admitted: "I missed my opportunities against an opponent who kept a lot of good balls in play, had numerous break-points and lost my serve twice after I was 40-0 up.
"I tried to be more aggressive and go for my shots but they just kept coming back to me and maybe I wasn't brave enough, but I was still happy enough with some of my game."
With Britain's number two Elena Baltacha out for the rest of the year after a back operation earlier this month, Keothavong is certain to be the main flag carrier in her sixth Wimbledon appearance next week, again facing the prospect of meeting a much-higher ranked player with the aid of a wild-card from the LTA.
I'm amazed that Draper hasn't spoken to any of the players. I think that may have been the problem in the past, lots of the new guys taking over as performance directors have spoken out and criticized the players and changed the wc structure etc but I don't think that there's been much communication at all between the performance director and the players.Surely that's what is needed to establish what needs to be done to take british tennis forward.
I know they are busy and travel tons, but yeah, I am taken back that Draper has not spoken to the players. You'd think that he would talk to all of them in the top 500 and the younger ones too.
