Laura Robson's long road to recovery hit another bump as she bowed out of the French Open in the first round to Germany's Andrea Petkovic, losing 6-2 6-2.

The former British number one showed glimpses of her old self but ultimately lost the match due to inconsistency, which has plagued her comeback as of far.

Struggling on serve, the Brit was broke three times in the first set whilst breaking Petkovic just the one time as she dropped the first set 6-2. The second set was much of the same story as Robson struggled to hold serve whilst Petkovic consistently hit the lines again, the the German breaking three times and the Brit just once.

Second round awaits the 28th seed

Petkovic moves on to the second round to face the winner of Yulia Putintseva of Kazakhstan and Canada's Aleksandra Wozniak.

After going out in the third round last year to Sara Errani and reaching the semi-finals in 2014, the German will have her sights set on going far into the fortnight.

After a difficult time over the past year, the former top 10 player improved her record to 11 wins and 12 losses after a difficult clay season so far.

Affectionately dubbed 'Petko', the Germans last title came in 2015 at Antwerp (pic source | SBS)
Affectionately dubbed 'Petko', the German's last title came in 2015 at Antwerp. (Photo: SBS)

Where now for Laura?

As for Robson, this defeat marks her 11th defeat of just 15 matches this year and many questions will continue to be asked as to whether she can get back to the performances which saw her ranked as high as 27 in the world.

However, she will be encouraged by her performance after, despite what the scoreline suggests, she stuck with Petkovic for much of the match. She will no doubt be hoping to be awarded some wildcards as the tour heads to her home country for the grass season.

Running out of protected ranking entries, the 24-year-old will now have to start looking at the ITF tour to build her ranking up.

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