And it was all going so well, seven Australians having won singles matches at the All England Club for the first time since 1999. But Wednesday was a wipeout, just as it was a dark day for Spanish seventh seed David Ferrer, French Open semi-finalist Ernests Gulbis, and women’s No.8 Victoria Azarenka.

Novak Djokovic lost a set, but not a testing encounter with Czech veteran Radek Stepanek.

For Australia, Tomic provided hope of something brighter, after claiming the first set 6-4 in impressive fashion against sixth seed and 2010 finalist Tomas Berdych. But the 21-year-old was unable to win either of the two tiebreaks that followed, and could not convert two set points in the third, before a 6-1 spanking in the fourth.

“I felt like I missed my opportunity in the second set, and, he got the better of me in that tiebreak,’’  said Tomic, after losing the rematch of last year’s fourth round 4-6, 7-6 (7-5), 7-6 (7-3), 6-1.

“In the third set, I had two set points again, but,he played the right shots, played the right points to beat me.  It's a bugger how he came back…. I think once you've got in that fourth set, he's a very good frontrunner.  He was just on top of me. I tried, but I just couldn't hang with him on the fourth.

Indeed, Tomic had served superbly for much of the match, looking like a far different player than the one who can seem so uninterested at other tournaments, and on other surfaces - most recently on Roland Garros clay. But the Queenslander has a positive record against seeded opponents at Wimbledon, and the world No.86 played like someone ranked considerably higher.

He will dip lower still after failing to defend all of his points from last year, but can still be encouraged by his grasscourt form of recent weeks. Tomic called for a trainer to assess the right hip tweaked when he slipped while making a sudden change of direction during the third set, but does not expect any lingering effects related to the two bouts of surgery after retiring from his match against Rafael Nadal at the Australian Open in January.

“I sort of felt something in that right hip and I was scared. I felt it all the way in that end of that third set,’’ Tomic said. “In the fourth set I was feeling it, but I was really scared. Immediately after when I was done I sort-of asked what it could be, and they said it's fine. It's probably just a bit of a niggle and stuff. ... Luckily it's not going to be too much, so I'm happy."

Marinko Matosevic came by far the closest of the five Australian losers, failing to convert a fifth set service break into an epic win over Frenchman Jeremy Chardy before being eliminated 7-5 in the fifth set after battling for more than four hours.

“It’s definitely a missed opportunity,’’ said Matosevic, who had upset 18th seed Fernando Verdasco in the first round after winning his maiden main draw grand slam match at Roland Garros. “I’ll go on holidays, try to get the body right again and try to get going again.’’

While wildcard Jarmila Gajdosova failed to salvage the day with a late 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 defeat by Portugal’s Michelle Larcher de Brito, Casey Dellacqua and qualifier Luke Saville both lost their debut centre court singles matches - Dellacqua to fourth seed and former finalist Agnieszka Radwanska 6-4, 6-0, and Saville  6-3, 6-2, 6-4 against another former junior champion, now title contender, Grigor Dimitrov.

The experience, though, was one to savour, even if Saville said his serving standard was not. “I thought I held my own fairly well out there,’’ said the 20-year-old. “Didn’t play my best; it was pretty tough circumstances; I haven’t played on that court before, felt the ball was flying on me a little bit, but he served really well, and although I didn’t serve my best out there it’s been a really good week-and-a-half.

“I’m not really disappointed. I knew I was going to be up against it. Outside of the top four guys he’s probably the fifth-best grass-courter out there. But (I) really loved it out there; really good experience, didn't get the result I was looking for, but it's been a really good week-and-a-half and I can really build on this, probably my biggest result in my career.''

Dellacqua, too, is heading upwards, and within reach of a seeding by US Open time. She believes Wednesday’s match was closer than the score. “My level was good at times,’’ said the world No.37. “Yeah, there was a point here or there that I would say was a bit sloppy. But in general, my level was good. And she was good. I thought she had to play good tennis at times to beat me. Obviously she's a quality opponent.’’

Ferrer’s five-set loss to 118th-ranked Andrey Golubev ended a run of 10 consecutive grand slam quarter-finals for the Spaniard, while Azarenka’s elimination by Serbian Bojana Jovanovski came in just the dual Australian Open champion’s third match since January. Azarenka, who has been sidelined with a foot injury, branded as “ridiculous’’ her inability to convert more than three of 16 break point chances.