Second seed Jankovic blasts schedulers as she crashes on the 'car park' to Thai veteran Tanasugarn

For the first time in the open era, the women’s first four are all out before the quarter-final stage. But that was not the only thing to trouble the Serb.

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Sad Serb: loser Jankovic takes the long walk off

After going out 6-3, 6-2 to Tamarine Tanasugarn, the world No 2 complained, with justification, about the scheduling that exiled her to Court 18 at a time she had specifically not requested.

Jankovic wanted to play as late as possible to get extra treatment on her troublesome left knee and felt slighted that players ranked well below her somehow got to play on the show courts.

‘I was almost playing in the parking lot, I almost needed a helicopter to get up there,’ she said of her sentence to play on the modest arena at the earliest possible hour of
midday.

Court 18 is not exactly Wimbledon’s theatre of dreams, with a small, steep stand behind one end, nothing at the other and a few rows of seats down the side.

Unaccustomed to its intimacy, the highest surviving seed did not find it the ideal place to face the canny Thai veteran who had reached Wimbledon’s fourth round a remarkable six times but never gone further before this year.

Jankovic is never inclined to understate an injury, yet is generally of a sunny disposition. But she went further than Venus Williams in complaining about where the women’s matches were spread.

Her particular gripe was No 4 seed Svetlana Kuznetsova being on Centre Court and No 8 Anna Chakvetadze being on Court One, where she was upset by the resurgent David Felgate-coached Nicole Vaidisova.

‘The scheduling was not made in a good way, it was not right,’ said Jankovic.

‘The defending champion should always play on the top courts and the No 2 seed should be on the show courts. The rankings show who deserves it. I don’t know what they are doing, to put Venus on Court Two and me on Court 18, especially me having an injury and asking to play a little later in the day.

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Painful exit: Jankovic has treatment on her knee which she had wanted to rest

‘I wanted to have a few more hours to recover and have another therapy in the morning. Hopefully it will not happen again in the future.’

The margin of defeat meant that she did not really get close anyway.

While she did not join the ranks of the injury defaulters in the Championships it was a reminder of the growing toll on the tour, which will be slightly shortened next year.

It is no coincidence that Tanasugarn, who now meets Venus Williams, and Zhang Jie are bringing a distinctively Asian flavour to the last eight.

Both have a low centre of gravity and are happy to get down to the ball to hit their groundstrokes which, in line with the way tennis is coached in that part of the world, are hit with a short backswing. The two of them are also likely to have played on synthetic grasscourts at some time in that part of the world.

Thai can't believe it: Tanasugarn shows her delight at finally passing the fourth round barrier

Tanasugarn’s Grand Slam record is much better at Wimbledon than anywhere else, and she will now head back into the top 50 having contemplated retirement last year when her career appeared to be on the slide as she entered her thirties.

That helped explain why she burst into tears at the end. ‘I’ve had so many years in the fourth round and I’ve been very disappointed before not to make the quarters so it’s a really good feeling,’ said the superstitious Tanasugarn, who has been using the same locker room shower ever since she arrived in SW19.

Jankovic spoke at the weekend of how the grass made it difficult for the best players to recover their rhythm if they lost in a match against a lower-ranked player, and it was doubly difficult this time.

‘I was very late on every shot, one step behind. I have a small tear somewhere and the doctors told me it was questionable to play,’ she said.