Katie Boulter’s bid to reach the Wimbledon last 16 for the first time ended quickly as she was outclassed by defending champion Elena Rybakina.

Kazakhstan’s Rybakina, seeded third, showed why she is heavily tipped to retain her title in a powerful display.

The 24-year-old dominated with her first serve and broke Boulter five times to move into the fourth round.

Rybakina, who had faced question marks about her level after recently being debilitated by a virus, will face Brazilian 13th seed Beatriz Haddad Maia for a place in the quarter-finals.

It was a difficult defeat for 26-year-old Boulter to digest and she looked dejected as she gave a muted thanks to the Centre Court crowd for their support when she departed.

When the dust settles, she will reflect on an encouraging British grass-court season which she hopes will be the springboard to greater consistency across the tour.

“I have to pick myself up and look at the positives,” said Boulter, who was aiming to reach the last 16 of a major for the first time.

“I’m sure it’s going to be a tough night but I’m going to sit here tomorrow morning and tell you that I’m at a career-high ranking, I’ve had some seriously positive weeks.

“I’ve come off the back of five long weeks with no injuries, no issues.

“They’re the things I’m going to be focusing on and really pushing forward on the rest of the year.”

‘Relentless’ Rybakina proves too strong

With her aggressive and flat groundstrokes suiting the grass courts, Boulter has thrived on the surface this year with a first WTA title at the Nottingham Open last month that lifted her to a career-high ranking of 77th in the world.

The Briton was able to replicate that level in her first two matches at the All England Club, hitting winners and serving strongly to beat Australia’s Daria Saville and Bulgaria’s Viktoriya Tomova.

Stepping up in class against an opponent of Rybakina’s calibre was always likely to be difficult.

Rybakina quickly found her rhythm and that spelt trouble for Boulter, who was unable to make a dent on her opponent’s serve before being broken herself in the fourth game.

Boulter’s style suits playing on the slicker grass courts. But Rybakina was able to soak up the pressure and quickly impose herself.

That sapped Boulter’s confidence and quietened the home crowd, who were primed to create a boisterous atmosphere under the Centre Court lights.

The players only walked on to court at 20:48 BST after slow progress on Saturday, leading to thoughts they might not beat the 23:00 curfew set to stop the day’s play at the All England Club.

When Rybakina sealed the opening set after 26 minutes with a second-serve ace, there seemed little threat of that being an issue.

The British fans tried their best to raise Boulter’s spirits at the start of the second set, but it quickly followed the same pattern as the first.

Rybakina’s pace of ball continued to take time away from the world number 89, who was unable to stem the flow of errors as she valiantly tried to stop the rot.

There was no mercy from Rybakina. She won the final four games to earn a 13th successive win at Wimbledon and underline why she is one of the women to beat.

“She’s clearly the defending champion for a reason,” Boulter added.

“Her ball is a lot quicker and the majority of girls don’t hit the ball like that, it’s quite flat. You don’t really see where she’s going. She disguises it very well.

“I struggled with it a lot. She was relentless, at the end of the day. She was the much better player.”