Daria Gavrilova dubbed herself a grand slam choker after adding a despairing first-round Wimbledon defeat to her depressing run at the majors.
Little more than a month after also falling in the opening round at Roland Garros, the new Australian No.1 suffered a gut-wrenching 6-4 2-6 10-8 loss to Croatian qualifier Petra Martic.
Despite her steady rankings rise to 20th in the world, Gavrilova has won just four grand slam matches in her past five majors - and only one outside of Australia.
"I think I can't really cope with the grand slam pressure," said the former junior world No.1.
"Like I seriously feel like I'm more intense on the court and I was getting very hot and I was like 'oh my god, what's happening?'
"I never sweat and I was feeling hot for some reason and I never have to feel like 'oh my god, why is my grip so sticky?' and stuff like that.
'Before the match, I was calm and I had great preparation and in my pre-match warm-up I didn't miss a ball."
The 23-year-old's candid confession came despite the Russian-born, Melbourne-based talent storming to the second week at the past two Australian Opens.
"I was thinking the same after the match but, I don't know why I play well in Australia," Gavrilova said.
"I'm more familiar and I stay at home and then I play night matches. It's almost more pressure there, but I almost don't feel it or I embrace it."
Gavrilova said she may consider turning to a sports psychologist but hoped to conquer her demons without needing to.
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