However, armed with a formidable serve and unwavering determination, the reigning Wimbledon champion remained unfazed by the partisan crowd, stifling their vocal enthusiasm as she delivered a ruthless and emphatic display.
With a commanding performance, Rybakina mercilessly dismantled Boulter, securing a resounding 6-1, 6-1 victory in the third round, leaving no room for sentiment or ceremony.
The two protagonists had been kept waiting till almost nine pm local time (2000 GMT) before they could enter the floodlit arena and when Boulter dropped only one point in her opening service game, expectations of an upset win were riding high.
After all, this was the same stage where a hollering 15,000 capacity crowd had carried Andy Murray to many a famous late-night victory and the fans on Saturday were ready and waiting to once again play their part.
They only problem was that Rybakina had failed to read the British script.
From 1-1 in the first set, she pelted down aces and service winners and produced an endless barrage of forehand and backhand winners to bag the next seven games.
Such was the Kazakh third seed’s dominance that the stunned crowd appeared to have lost their collective voice while Boulter simply lost her way.
The woman who had famously knocked out former world number one Karolina Pliskova on the same stage 12 months ago had no answer to Rybakina’s firepower.
Rybakina sealed the first set with her sixth ace and although the British number one avoided the humiliation of being wiped out from the second set when she won the third game, there was a sense of inevitability hanging in the air because whatever Rybakina touched turned to gold.
Mercifully for the 89th-ranked Boulter, her ordeal lasted only 57 brutal minutes as Rybakina broke for the fourth time to end the British challenge at this year’s championships with a forehand winner.
(With inputs from Reuters)
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